15 Ways to use Twitter to Increase Blog Traffic

I recently held a #socialbloggers chat all around about how to use Twitter to increase blog traffic. I mentioned how I use various techniques and tools to drive traffic to my site and increase my subscribers. Most of you were interested in learning more about different ways you can use Twitter and I promised you a post. Now, two weeks later, here is my post! This is long but contains 15 ways you can easily and instantly start using Twitter with your blog to gain more traffic. 

If you don’t have a Twitter account for your blog and are wondering where to start, I would recommend you create a Twitter account, add your blog URL in your bio and then follow the bloggers with who you already connect with. This will give you some Twitter friends that you can start connecting with before growing your Twitter account. Then follow the next steps. 

How to use Twitter to increase blog traffic

1. Pick the right Twitter handle. 

It’s best practice to keep your usernames all the same across all social media platforms. So try to keep your Twitter name the same as your blog, or very similar if your name is already taken. This makes you easier to find on Twitter and also you’re easily identifiable.

2. PUT YOUR LINK IN YOUR BIO.

This might seem like a given, but sometimes I do come across Twitter profiles that claim to be bloggers, yet don’t have any URLs in their profile. If I chat with you, or you chat to me, I’ll probably want to check your blog out. Please make it easy for me! 

3. UPLOAD A PROFILE PICTURE. 

Upload either a picture that relates to your blog, if you have an image of you on your blog, it’s a good idea to use that across all social media as it makes you easily and instantly recognisable. It’s much better to have a picture of yourself, as you’ll seem more personable. Nobody likes an egg. Even if it does have a purple background. 

4. USE HASHTAGS.

Use hashtags that are popular within your niche. I like to use #bbloggers, #lbloggers, #bbloggers, #fblbloggers, #socialbloggers #bloggertips and #OOTD. I may use other ones depending on the Tweet or thing I am promoting. If I’m posting a random Tweet, I may make a hashtag up. You know, for the lols. #doitfortheLOLZ 

5. JOIN TWITTER CHATS.

Twitter chats are a great way to get to know other bloggers and get involved in the community. I’ve found many bloggers this way, as soon as you start talking to somebody, you’ll follow them on Twitter, read their blog and may communicate with them again. It’s a great way to network! Most bloggers will ask for people to send their links at the end of the chat to discover new blogs. I think every single blogger I’ve met in real life, I’ve spoken to first on Twitter and met via Twitter chats.

6. SCHEDULE TWEETS. 

There are many websites and tools you can use to schedule your tweets.I’m a massive fan of Buffer for a quick way of getting tweets out there, I pair this with Hiplay to make sure my Twitter queue is never empty, this is a great way of getting traffic to my blog from Twitter!  I love using Buffer and have done for years. This is a great tool because not only can you schedule tweets, but you can also view the ‘analytics’ of those tweets, so you will see how many clicks, comments, retweets, favourites a tweet has got. It’s great for telling you what people are clicking on! You can also create set posting times and then use the Chrome toolbar to instantly share any photo or page without even going to Buffer or Twitter – you can just either add it to your queue to auto post at the next slot, allocate a separate time for it or post it right away. There are limitations in regards to how many tweets you can schedule in buffer, these can be unlocked by upgrading to the ‘awesome’ version. 

7. REPLY TO TWEETS. 

With the number of hashtags that are around nowadays, there really is no excuse for not finding bloggers to interact with! As soon as you jump into a conversation with somebody, chances are they’ll want to get to know you a bit more. They are likely to follow your Twitter account and take a look at your blog. If they like what you say, you may have just bagged yourself a new follower, as well as a new blog to read yourself! 

8. @ MENTION BRANDS AND BLOGGERS YOU MENTION.

It’s not uncommon for a brand to have a Twitter account, no matter how big or small they are. Actually, it’s probably more uncommon for a brand not to have a Twitter account. People are more likely to reshare content that relates to them or that they are a part of in some way. If you have bought a new dress from a small brand, tweet them your post about it and they’ll likely retweet. The same goes for if you mention a blogger in a post. People love to retweet links this way as it shows their authority.

9. PROMOTE YOUR POSTS.

The number of times you may want to tweet your posts can be a difficult number to agree on. Whilst tempting to post often to get the most exposure, you don’t want to become spammy. Then again – you don’t want to get lost amongst all the noise. It’s hard because everybody follows a different number of followers. If you post a few times a day, a person following 1000 people may not see it, yet for somebody who only follows 100 accounts, they may see everyone, then go buy you a spam sandwich and violently shove it down your throat. Do what you feel comfortable with. Maybe a morning, afternoon and evening tweet and see how it feels and what response you get. I sometimes like to schedule one or two for the middle of the night to keep my non-British followers in the loop! Do not tweet hundreds of people with your link, it will seem like spam and it’s also a bit rude! 

10. KEEP OLD CONTENT ALIVE.

Don’t be afraid to tweet out links to your old content! I have a few posts that do really well when I link them on Twitter. Just make sure they are not outdated and still hold relevance! Evergreen content is a great way to use Twitter to increase blog traffic. 

11. ASK FOR RETWEETS.

Studies show that if you write please ReTweet at the end of a tweet, it’s four times more likely to get retweeted. Try it for your self and let me know how it goes! 

12. RETWEET MENTIONS.

If somebody tweets a link to your blog, retweet it to share it with more people. It also shows your followers that people like your content enough to share it and could be that bit if encouragement they need to click the link. 

13. USE IMAGES.

Humans are visual creatures. We all know how important images and photos are in your blog posts – well, you can add them in your tweets too to make the tweet stand out and to encourage interaction. This is another reason I like using the Buffer app, as you can use Buffer to tweet out any picture, so if I’m promoting the same post a couple of times a day, I like to use a few different images. It’s so easy and effective. If you are creating images especially for Twitter, you will need to make it 440 x 220 pixel to show correctly within the Twitter stream. Otherwise, it will not show the full image. 

14. ASK QUESTIONS.

Similar to the reply to tweets point – asking questions is a great conversation starter. Sometimes people are wankers, but most of us actually enjoy helping others are sharing our knowledge. Don’t be afraid to ask questions to get some interaction, start a conversation and gain some new tweet friends that are likely to click through to your blog. 

15. FIND AND SHARE CONTENT.

If you see an interesting blog post, website, picture of the tweet, then share it with others. Sharing other peoples content is not only a good way of getting the attention of the creator of said content but also keeps your Twitter account varied and interesting. Read this post for an updated post: How to 5 things you should be doing on Twitter in 2019.

How do you use Twitter to promote your blog content?