There are many ways to garner a high readership for a blog – some are easier than others. One of the easiest tools available to help popularize a blog and gain readership is Twitter. Twitter is perhaps the single most popular micro-blogging site in the world of social media.
For beginners, micro-blogging is just what is implied by its name. Twitter allows users to send messages back and forth to ‘followers’ about various activities and thoughts. There is a 140 character limit to any message sent on Twitter. This limit is what gives Twitter the ‘micro-blog’ designation.
Once you have a Twitter account, the next step is to gain followers. Without followers, no matter what or how often you tweet, it will be as if you don’t exist (i.e. think about the age old cliché, ‘if a tree falls in a forest and no one is there to hear it…’). Ask people who already regularly read your blog to follow you on Twitter as well as other friends and family members.
Once a small base of followers is established, the next step is to use a plug-in that will automatically tweet an announcement on your Twitter account every time you add a post to your blog. The announcement is very short and usually just consists of a version of the title of the post and a URL link to it. Wordpress has a plug-in that works quite well for this purpose. Others that do essentially the same thing are available as well for Wordpress and other blog sites.
Another utility or plug-in that is useful is called Tweetbacks. This imports all tweets about the posts referenced on Twitter back to the blog as comments. Doing this will give the blog more depth and will serve to interest new readers who may happen upon it as they read the animated conversations that often occur on Twitter as comments to your posts.
It would also be a good idea to add a “Follow Me on Twitter” link to the signature area of your emails and also on the blog itself. Very soon, more people will become followers on Twitter and become exposed to your blog. Beware of following everyone who follows you on Twitter. Follow only those who either you have invited personally, or who you know will tweet meaningful content to add depth to your tweet stream. Following everyone who follows you will cause the tweet stream to become cluttered and alerts to new blog posts will quickly become lost and go unnoticed.
Finally, don’t just rely on the automatic plug-in alert from your blog to interest tweeters about new posts. Successful bloggers and Twitter users rely heavily on a personal touch. When time allows, wait an hour or so after the new post is up, and has been auto-announced by the plug-in, and then write a personal ‘teaser’ tweet about the post to peak interest. This will also notify other Tweeters who may have missed the first alert.
Start with the above simple tips, keep up close and personal with your accounts, and your blog will rise to fame in no time.
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