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How to Use Twitter to Generate Traffic

How to Use Twitter to Drive Traffic to Your Hubs or Blogs. Use my Marketing Secret.
A fellow Hubber whom I admire greatly for both her writing as well as empathic skills posed this question: “ What is the best way on Twitter to promote your hubs and other sites? I don’t use twitter but what benefits will it give me? I believe it is like other social networking sites.”
I don’t want to embarrass this person with fervent adulation so I’ll just give you a clue to her avatar: a Transylvanian castle with an eagle, or maybe a very large vulture, behind and above the building, And a Hub name that starts with Rebecca and ends with E.
Twitter has remarkable tools – I already said that in my previous hub about Twitter – see link below. To answer the last statement of the above question first: Twitter is like any other social networking site and it is also unlike any other social networking site. Reasons: 1) It will take you only minutes to post your message. 2) Why? Because it is only 140 characters long (including spaces). 3) It is widely circulated with 75 million users as of January 2010.
Reason #3 also addresses the question of benefits. Where else can you find that large an audience that you can reach in literally minutes? Dell Computer, the well-known manufacturer of PCs with annual sales of $65 billion in 2010, agrees with me, too. They boast they have made more than $6.5 million from Twitter. The company has used tweets to announce discount codes that are only available on Twitter. People follow Dell’s twitter feed and find great deals as they become available. Other companies do this too. One of them is the computer parts store, Newegg.com.
Twitter Power and Twitter Tips
If you are already a tweeter, skip this Twitter explanation and scroll down to the three asterisks (***). But if you are a Twitter Beginner, let me give you a little basic information. To get started on Twitter, you first need to create a Twitter account. Go to twitter.com and click on the “Create Account” button. Choose a Twitter account name that will be easy for people to remember. Many folks use their own name or a business name. You can use your Hubpages name if you will be promoting your Hubs.
When you have created your account, you can log in and begin using Twitter. But first It is important to understand some common Twitter terminology so you don’t get confused:
Tweet – a message you post on Twitter. Each message must not exceed 140 characters including letters and spaces.
Re-Tweet – when you copy a tweet you have read that someone else posted. Here’s an example: Justaintso tweets: “Read my new book to learn how to make money online …” You want to send that tweet to someone else so you quote it as your own tweet like this: RT @justaintso. Read my new book to learn how to make money online … Re-Tweets begin with RT followed by an @.and the original tweeter’s name.
Follow – when someone you are following tweets a message it will show up on your Twitter home page (called a timeline). You can also follow back people who follow you. It’s the polite thing to do.
@(Twitter name) – to send a message to another person, begin your twitter message with @ followed by that person’s twitter account name. Twitter links their name in your message to their account so other readers can follow it.
Hashtag – if you place a “#” known as a hash sign followed by a word, you can organize and file tweets across Twitter. An example of a popular hashtag is “#FollowFriday.
Timeline – your Twitter home page where you can see your tweets and those of everyone else that you follow
URL shorteners – to shorten long URLs or links. Some popular sites I use are bit.ly.com and tinyurl.com and is.gd.com. Go to those sites to get a shortened version that you can use to take up less space on your tweets.
Search – Use the Twitter search function to find subjects and users to follow.
Writing Well
Tweeting to Drive Traffic
*** Now to the business of using Twitter to drive traffic to your hubs. I began using Twitter in 2008 to promote my book, “Much of What You Know about Job Search Just Ain’t So.” Then I began using tweets to promote several blogs. I have to admit that since I became a Hubber, my blogs have suffered from inattention. Hubbing is much more fun and much more rewarding.
But the tweets I used and still do brought me new visitors and even more when I started tinkering with the 140 words – and spaces – to create the most compelling reasons for the reader to do what I asked. Buy the book, visit the blogs, or read the Hubs.
When you visit Twitter.com and sign in to open your account with a Gmail address, you can then search for any name or group you desire. One of the first things you’ll notice is that some people tweet inane comments like: “Visited Starbucks at 8. Latte was lame.” Note: Starbucks doesn’t mind negative comments because they think like Milton Hershey (of the Hershey Chocolate company) who once said something like, “I don’t care what people say about Hershey chocolate as long as they keep mentioning Hershey.”
These trite comments are like text messages that will disappear into the ether. Nowadays you will find many more tweets that are marketing messages from an individual or firm. Here are examples of my actual tweets – the early tweets before I learned to “massage” them for more traffic; tweets with more of a marketing approach; and the most recent with what I call my marketing secret included.
Really Awful Early Tweets
1) Executive code: “When in charge, ponder. When in trouble, delegate, When in doubt, mumble.” – James Boren. How about “When indicted, run!” No URL. Clever, right? But what am I promoting"?
2) The secret of a good sermon is to have a good beginning an d a good ending and to have the two as close together as possible. –George Burns. No URL. Funny, funny line. But show me the money.
3) By all means, marry. If you get a good wife, you'll become happy. if you get a bad one, you'll become a philosopher. – Socrates. No URL. So? Socrates had a bad wife! But what am I selling?
Still Awful but Using Better Tweets
Note: I could not include the URL for each tweet example below because Hubpages views more than two links on a hub as "affiliate links," and that is not permissible. So I just included the URL shortener or noted, "Hub," if a Hub URL was used.
4) I've never been ruined but twice-once when I lost a lawsuit & once when I won one.–Voltaire Beware of illegal interview ?s. (is.gd)
5) By the time a man is wise enough to watch his step, he's too old to go anywhere. –Billy Crystal. Be wise about job search: (is.gd)
6) Every child in the U.S. should grow up knowing a second language - preferably English. And also how to ace an interview. (is.gd)
7) Be careful about reading health books. You may die of a misprint. – Mark Twain. And don't believe the job search myths. (is.gd)
8) I think you'll like this one. The Tale of Two Cocks: (Hub)
9) We don't always get what we deserve in life -- for which we should be eternally grateful. – Herm Albright. Wanna laugh? (bit.ly) Finally getting closer to the Marketing Secret.
Tweets with My Marketing Secret Included
10) Q. How do you make a hot dog stand? A. Take away his chair. Are you groaning yet? Groan some more at (bit.ly)
11) How to Do a FREE Reverse Cell Phone Lookup. Yes, absolutely free. (Hub)
12) Want to read my new fascinating article about the Wooper Rooper (Japanese name for axolotl)? Go to: (Hub)
13) Have you ever seen a monkey with a 7-inch long nose? See the hub: Weird Animals - the Proboscis Monkey- (Hub)
14) Do you love quick one-line jokes? Read Tribute to Rodney Dangerfield - Prince of the One-Liners. (Hub)
15) Do you know which sports car is the world's most expensive? "World's Most Outrageously Expensive Car. (Hub)
16) Are you aware of the dangers of MSG? Read MSG and Fat Rats and Us, (Hub)
My “marketing secret” for promoting your hubs and driving more traffic on Twitter is now pretty obvious, isn’t it? Create an interesting title and ask a question of your reader. Ask a question using the title when you can, or lead into your hub or blog with a question. Remember, the reader wants to know right away - instantly with a tweet - WII-FM: What’s In It For Me?
You can always use an interesting fact at the beginning of your tweet but I find that translating the fact into a question will drive even more traffic.
Note: as Hubpages has become more well-known, I now use the shortened version of my Hub URL rather than an URL-shortener. Here is your new maxim for driving more traffic to your hubs: Don't fret, don't fritter. Just tweet on TWITTER!
Oops! Almost forgot to include my Twitter name. You can find my tweets @Justaintso_drbj.
© Copyright BJ Rakow, Ph.D. 2011, 2013 Rev. All rights reserved.
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Comments for How to Use Twitter to Generate Traffic
Okay, I think I get it now. Thanks a lot for your help. It's very much appreciated.
It's nice to meet you too drbj and thanks for the welcome. Also, thanks for the clarification about Twitter. I understand things much better now. Are the only things that you tweet related to your published hubs or do you tweet about other things as well? If so, what else can we tweet about? I think I read somewhere that we shouldn't just tweet links to our hubs all the time. What can you say about that?
Great hub on Twitter that's very useful and informative. I guess Twitter can be a good way to drive traffic. By the way, how would you get followers from Twitter? If you don't have any followers and you tweet your hubs, how will that get you traffic? Isn't it bad to always tweet about your hubs? But what else can you tweet about? And do you really need short URL's for tweeting? Isn't it possible to put a link to the words themselves? Like, for example the word Twitter and then that's clickable and will bring you to the site. Sorry for the questions. I'm new to HubPages so I'm still trying to understand all these things. Thanks for your help.
Very useful information for hub writers, thank you for sharing.
great tips. i'm somewhat new to twitter and i will be trying some of this out. good work
I have my twitter account but I guess it serves more of my followers than it does me. I only visit when I have to notify them I got a new hub or blog and I don't write often. I'll try to do justice to my account now that I learned lots of benefits from this hub. Thank you.
drbj .....I just love your tips for driving traffic from twitter :)) I am going to 'borrow' one if I may to test hahaha ??
Good thoughts. Like you I have done the bit with quotes and cutsie sayings. But like you, I also felt what a waste.
I never felt that I had anything to sell, so looking at it from the point of view of getting traffic, and your approach should work.
I'll have to work on that and see if I can come up with something that will make people WANT to read them.
Thanks.
Great Hub - thanks for the insight - humor - and examples :)
Thanks again! Your info really is working fast! After last night I got a few new "followers" I hate that word - makes me feel like David Koresh or something:) it's all so much fun but it's a whole new language to me. I'm sharing this one too!
Thank you so much Drbj! I am so excited! I did open a Twitter account - I am a Total Twitter Beginner:) I loved this and rated up and everything. I looked for some of this info on twitter and couldnt find all of it yet (like hash) so this is fantastic - I am finding it exhausting brain work! lol - off to read the links! Thanks a ton!
Thanks for the twitter info drbj - I use Twitter but don't think that I have cracked it yet, so am grateful for any tips
drbj, I will do that! We can always learn something new from each other and I gratefully accept all your good advice! I am off to read it! Bye for now!
Thank you, for this excellent hub! I have a twitter account but I don´t really know what to do whith it:)) I will follow your advice, It will defenitely make it better, (can´t be much worse) Voted up and Thanks!
Will do, I always make time for humor. ;-P
I wonder about Twitter. Have you ever had a negative experience when someone you don't know or a business starts following you or is it all right?
Have a lovely day. (Though it's evening now, ha ha.)
Very useful hub, drbj! Thanks! For a while I was pretty confused by Twitter's use (like a lot of people, it seems.)
I voted up and will now follow your hubs. I'm a Floridian too! :D
Nick, Tampa Bay Area
I really appreciate your idea. Social websites is the best way to generate traffic and fortunately we have a plenty of options these days. The best part is these social websites are decreasing the distances between the people's of different countries and along with that these websites are also lending a helping hand in people's business stability.
Hi, great hub! I really see the value in addressing your twitter audience with a question in what you're promoting. In order to provide a solution to someone, you must first address the situation with a relevant question. Thanks for the great tip!
What great information regarding twitter to drive traffic. Each and everytime I tweet something I get a few new followers, so this is proof that people take note of your links. Great read! :)
I am someone who uses a lot of quotes myself on forum signatures and the like, but I never considered using them on twitter.
My main issue is with getting followers who are not just spamming their own affiliate links...lol
I get a lot of knowledge about tweeter from you. God work my friend. I'll bookmark this one.
Thanks for the tips. I am on Twitter but have only used it to notify my friends when I publish a new Hub.
I don't know out of this 75 million users as of January 2010, how many will look at my tweet. I have around 600 followers. They may get the message. But when I look at the data I have only 107 visits to my hubs from twitter since I joined twitter 7 months back. Dell and other high profile companies have thousands of followers and people are looking for incentive so for such companies Twitter is a very good media for advertising. Individuals messages will not reach beyond a few hundreds, but most of them usually ignore the message.
However something is better than nothing.
Nice info on Twitter. I've had an account for awhile, but I haven't used it nearly enough--and when I do, frequently my comments have been in the inane category (I'm working on it, though....).
I've bookmarked your page because I forget some of the things you can do on Twitter. Thanks.
Mike
Thanks for the great marketing tip. I will start using that one. I followed you on Twitter with the same nick I have here on HP.
I'm going to create a bit.ly link and tweet this hub using your suggested tactic to see how many respond of my 478 followers. I expect quite a few will since this hub is about Twitter.
Is this good? "Do you know the best way to Use Twitter to Drive Traffic to Your Hubs or Blogs? Learn How Here: bit.ly"
I think 6-9 am on a Sat. isn't the best time to test this out.
Thanks drbj, You're absolutely right about twitter in driving traffic to your content. I joined twitter for a while now and it's doing fine for me.
Thanks a ton for the information.
One question though. Not sure about how Twitter works. I tweet with a question, but what if I do not have much followers. Does anybody recieve my tweet? Another thing is where do I get the shortened version of my hub URL?
This is great help. Let me check this out.
Cheers for the tip, I am on twitter and will deff use this, have a great weekend !
very good hub, I just joined it this week, thank you drbj, Maita
drbj, thanks for the great tip on using Twitter. I will start putting it into practice straight away!
drbj, thanks for reminding people of Direct Response Methods (Go there, read this, open the link, etc). A great tool. Now go, Ellen, and join drbj on Twitter. See you there.
Good hub with great tips for Twitter. I tweet my hubs, however, I will have to try some of your marketing techniques. Thanks for sharing :)
Thanks for a well-written and very useful hub!
Hello there, drbj! You can be sure that I read (and enjoyed) every word, sentence, and paragraph of this Hub.
You can be equally sure that I will do absolutely nothing to follow your wonderfully clever pointers and advice. I am a busy man. I am busy building my business with methods of my own design: lollygagging, daydreaming, and contemplating the wonders of the universe. The results of my efforts are clearly reflected in my HubPages earnings.
BTW, I am still working on my "Tribute to drbj" Hub. I would like to assure you that it will be, as you would expect from me, ill planned, poorly researched, and rife with lies and misleading claims about the nature of our relationship. I'm sure you'll be impressed.
Seriously, I found this piece to be of superior quality: entertaining, informative, and very well researched. Well done.
Cheers!
Very useful hub! I have a twitter account, but I only have 20 friends, so no huge amounts of traffic come in from that! I will try and create a larger following :)
I was wondering, after you publish a hub, hubpages lets you go straight to twitter to post it. But they give you a shorter url. Is there any way to insert a tracker into the short url? Or should I just replace it with my longer url, where I add my tracker manually?
Been on twitter for a while, but really did not have any idea how to use it for my hubs. This has been of great help, thanks. :)
drbj-- I have to thank you for this, couldn't have said it better myslef, it fact I couldn't 'cause i am not a guru in all things =) ha ha...
Now off to rate this and oh get a twitter account.
I have a question. When you tweet, who sees it? I thought only your followers would see it. In that case, you need to spend time and effort developing relationships and followers. Have I got it wrong?
Awesome job on this hub. I have to laugh, I was just on my way to Twitter when I stopped by to read your latest hub. And lo and behold, you have offered some great advice. Thanks so much, I really appreciate it and I am off to market my new hub.
Great Job,
Sage
I think it helps alot . .plus I have made a few nice tweeter friends in the last few months. It is a place you can find just about anything you want to know or talk about. I especially love watching a game on there. That way when I dont understand what happened there is always someone that does! How come we arent twitter friends yet??? come say hi 07shari22 !
Interesting hub. I post my hub to Twitter, but other than that I don't have a clue about it. Now maybe I will!
thanks for sharing. I've just started tweeting again and decided to give it a try to promote hubs. this helps a lot and I will be reading your other twitter hubs. I guess I'm a tweet newbie. :] is that a chirp?
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