Jan 22, 2013 / Beginner

To Tweet or Not to Tweet?

In this week’s Community Pool, we noticed lots of you asking about how to grow traffic to your blogs. Participating in the Community Pool is a great first step, along with commenting on others’ blogs. Another way is letting your social networks know what you’re writing about, which WordPress.com lets you do easily with Publicize.

Elizabeth is going to be taking a wide-angle look at promoting your blog on social networks tomorrow, so today we thought we’d focus on one platform that seems to confound many people: Twitter. To tweet or not to tweet?

I often talk to bloggers who are reluctant to join the Twitterverse:

“I don’t have time to keep up with another thing.”

“I don’t care what people are having for lunch.”

“It seems like a giant waste of time.”

On one hand, these are legitimate complaints. It is yet another password to remember, there are lots of people talking about their lunches, and you can get sucked in and end up wondering where those three hours of your life went.

(Hint: you were probably following the #famousmoviesrenamedforcandy hashtag.)

(Like “Zero Dark Chocolate Thirty.”)

On the other, it can be a really effective and efficient way to make connections that you wouldn’t otherwise make. You can follow — and converse — with bigwigs in your field, along with lots of other folks dedicated to the same things you are. You’ll read posts and find links to information that will inform and inspire, and can stay on the pulse of your issues.

Here are some considerations for helping you decide whether to join the fray:

Twitter Bird

  • It’s a medium for conversation, not just broadcasting. Yes, you can and should let people know about new posts on your blog via Twitter. But if that’s all you’re doing, you’re not going to get very far. Twitter is a place to extend the conversation, not just ply people with “Hey, Read Me!” links. If you’re not tweeting original content and engaging with others (through dialogue or by re-tweeting them), don’t bother.
  • It takes time. It can be a worthwhile investment, and it doesn’t have to take a lot of time, but it does require some. You’ll need to figure out who to follow, and then make sure to interact. This doesn’t mean you need to keep your Twitter feed open on your computer all day long, but it does mean you’ll want to check in periodically to see what’s going on. No one bothers following a person who posts once every two months.
  • It’s not the same as Facebook. Or Tumblr, or LinkedIn. Elizabeth will fill you in tomorrow on how these sites differ and how they’re most useful; suffice it to say that your Twitter content should be unique. If all you’re doing is auto-tweeting your Facebook status updates, you’re not really being an engaged twitizen.

The bottom line is that Twitter can be (1) a lot of fun, (2) a great place to connect with people in your areas of interest, and (3) a way to sow your blogular seeds among a larger audience. But if you’re not prepared to invest a little time, you might be better off letting it go.

Are you on Twitter? Has it been useful for growing your blog, in your career, or in another way entirely?

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  1. As part of an attempt to start getting more people reading my work I just started tweeting in earnest a few days ago. (I’ve had an account for nearly a year, but had been too intimidated, weirded out, and confused to use it consistently.) It has brought a few people to my site; yesterday, five folks happened upon me from some mysterious Twitterland place of origin. It’s a tiny number, yes, but I also have a tiny presence on Twitter that I’m looking to make larger in the coming days, weeks, and months. Who knows how many people will become exposed to my writing thanks to Twitter? I have a lot of hope for it.

    A word on learning how to use it. I’ve really gone in for baptism by fire. Because of Facebook I was familiar with the concept of hashtags and have started using them with glee. Tweeting is a language all it’s own, but if you take Rick Steeves’s general advice on language-learning and jump into it head first, you may find, as I have, tweeting is a very interesting, amusing, and innovative way to communicate and promote yourself. And as far as gathering followers is concerned, I just started by typing in random people places and things I admire (as well as plenty of non-random, writing/writer-centric stuff), and my network quickly began growing from there.

    Have fun!

    http://www.spokesandpetals.wordpress.com

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  4. I post everything to twitter, but i also use twitter for that random thought that i dont need a whole page to say. It has been useful. More ppl have started following my twitter acount in the two weeks that Ive moved to word press. I went up 15 followers which i dont think is to bad.

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  5. Twitter is pretty intuitive once you realize what it’s for — “flash” posting. You don’t have to follow what you don’t want to read about, or you may choose to skip such posts (they’re only 360 characters each, anyway).

    For bloggers, think of Twitter as a catalogue, flashcards, or a quick advert for your posts. People can catch a glimpse of what you’re writing about and decide for themselves if they wanna click the link and read more. They may send you quick messages and replies, and the attitude of the world to twitter seems to be that it’s a casual place, which is great for building communication and relationships. It’s not as cliquish as Facebook, or as formal as WordPress. It’s a good place to throw out posts to the open web (that has millions of users already, as well) and advertise your blog without being too annoying and overt about it (though only in comparison, because everyone is doing the same anyway)

    I started blogging 3 days ago and put up Twitter for it from the get-go. I want to see how this pans out!

    In keeping up with twitter’s theme of shameless plugging, i’ll take this chance to advertise my account. Care to follow? @fargazing

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  8. I did use twitter for an organization and twitter out new blog posts. Not for my personal blog. I like to be careful with my use of time on the ‘Net.

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  9. I am trying out Twitter – wish this post had come a little earlier, for me! I’ve written about Twitter/working from home a couple of times on my blog.
    There’s an e-guide I found helpful, by author Nicola Morgan, who uses social media a lot. It’s called ‘Tweet Right’.

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