Fibromyalgia - Working From Home

Twittering and Tweeting

Twitter is a social networking service that enables users to communicate by sharing links to articles, videos, blogs, music and anything else you might want to share with others. When you make a comment, ask a question or share a link, you are “tweeting.” The general use of Twitter is “twittering.” On Twitter, you can follow other people’s tweets and they can follow yours. Now that you know what it is, how can you use it to increase traffic to your blogs, articles, websites, etc?

First you need to establish a Twitter account by going to Twitter.com and following the directions to set up your free account. You’ll need to choose a username. My Twitter username is paperbackchic because I use this name for almost everything I write. For example, it is my username here on Today.com and also on eHow. Keep things consistent. Usernames, profiles, and profile pictures or avatars should be the same on each site you write or post on because it helps your readers recognize you from one site to another.

After  establishing your Twitter account, you’ll need to do a little tweaking. Add your blog URL to your profile (free advertisement), add your bio and background, and you’re ready to start tweeting! Spend some time getting a feel for Twitter and what you can do with it.

 Getting Followers

Now that you’ve got a better grasp of Twitter, it’s time to use it to your advantage. To do this, you need to have “followers.” Your followers will be able to see anything you tweet. Getting followers is the easy part; keeping followers is the hard part. Find people who share your interest in the topics you will be tweeting about. Do a Twitter search for your main topic and follow some of the people who are tweeting about it. Some will follow you, some will not. That’s okay. I use this strategy once a week or so to find more people with my interests and build up my own following.

Don’t follow everyone. And just because someone follows you doesn’t mean you have to reciprocate. If you don’t think you can benefit from eachother, it’s pointless to follow them. I only follow people (for the most part) who tweet about fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome, and writing on eHow. These are my main topics so I focus on the people who share these commonalities.

Keeping Followers by Keeping It Relevant

This is very important, so pay close attention. Nobody likes spam, so don’t do it. Tweeting only your blog posts, articles, etc. will quickly annoy your followers and result in them UNfollowing you. 80/20 is the general rule for tweeting - 80% miscellaneous tweets, 20% personal tweets. I don’t follow that rule because I’ve made up my own rule and it has worked quite well for me: Don’t tweet about yourself (blogs, articles, websites) unless it relates to something being discussed among your followers. For example, if my followers are tweeting about fibromyalgia, I don’t throw in a “Hey, read my article about 10 ways to cook chicken”. That is spam.

Tweet about things relevant to your blog posts and articles. For instance, if your blog is about weight loss,  tweet a link to a good low-fat recipe or a fun exercise video you saw on YouTube. Again, keep things consistent accross the board so your followers know that they can expect relevant information from you on the subject of weight loss (or whatever you write about).

Show Some Twitter Love

Tweet links to the blogs or articles of some of your followers IF they are relevant and provide unique, well-written content. Doing this not only shows your followers that you’re paying attention to them, it also opens the door for them to do the same for you.

Retweet things your followers tweet. Not everything, just a few here and there. And at the risk of sounding redundant, make sure the things you retweet will be RELEVANT to a good share of your followers.

Share some Twitter love with #FollowFriday. This is where (on Friday, obviously) you thank your followers and the ones you follow for having an impact on your Twitter experience. I don’t #followfriday everyone - only those who retweet my tweets, reply and/or direct message me, and those who have provided me with links to more articles and blogs related to my topics. By my own admission, I’m a little lax on this part. Sometimes fibro fog and just feeling plain awful makes it difficult to keep up with so many great people. But it really is important to participate.

There are additional resources that can help drive traffic to your blogs and articles, but for me, Twitter has worked very well. And a much overlooked benefit of using Twitter is the professional and personal relationships that can be formed. Most days I just spend time looking for relevant (there’s that word again) things to share with my followers. Not with the intentions of increasing my blog and article traffic - just to give back to all the ones who have given to me.

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