Welcome back!

Twitter now holds third place behind Facebook and MySpace among the top 25 Social Networking sites, with 54,218, 731 monthly visits, (completely overtaking Myspace in the progress), according to Compete.com ComsScore’s own study showed Twitter traffic increased up to 700% in the twelve month’s preceding its study. Functioning Form quoted 44.5 million unique visitors worldwide in June, 2009. Since Twitter use is multiplying daily, it’s only common sense to consider Twitter as a crucial part of your marketing strategy.

But using Twitter as marketing tool doesn’t just mean slapping up links to your product and tweeting them (in fact if that’s your only Twitter marketing strategy, it’s virtually guaranteed you’ll fail miserably!)

Instead, take advantage of the way Twitter allows you to diversify your marketing in a number of methods; some of them overt, some “behind the scenes”. It’s also important to understand why – and how- Twitter works…..and what is making it so successful; the hidden qualities that fooled so many “experts” busy nay – saying it last year

1. It operates immediately, in “real-time”. Even people on dialup can post a tweet pretty quickly (compared to the interminable steps to get to the point of posting on Facebook).

2. Participants actually drive the ship. It’s personal choice-based, rather than solicitation based.

3. It’s 140 character limit and micro-blogging format make it sync perfectly with the modern “no time to breathe” mindsets and lifestyles

4. It’s all about communication and connection.

All these factors can be used to your advantage when you plan your Twitter Marketing Strategy. But above all, never lose sight of #4: Get that right and you’ve got a Twitter presence that people will (pardon the pun) flock to! There are two key elements to Twitter Marketing: the way you approach it,  and the tools you use.

Let’s start with how to approach making your Twitter presence a powerful marketing aid…..

P.S.  Stay tuned for Part Two

Leverage Twitter To Drive Traffic To Your Site

In a recent post, we briefly explored using the social networking landscape as a free internet marketing strategy. That post was a good primer to trigger your imagination. But, it is impossible to provide a comprehensive course on social media marketing within one post or article. Today, we’re going to focus exclusively on Twitter. The service is getting increased exposure in the broad media, which means it is quickly becoming a traffic juggernaut. Use the right approach on Twitter and you can bring that traffic to your site.

Here’s how…

Brainstorm A Controversial Article Idea

When Twitter first launched, it attracted a heavy tech-oriented population similar to Digg. These folks are usually the first adopters in any new technology, so it’s hardly surprising they gravitated toward Twitter. If you wanted to get their attention, you needed to create content that was both controversial and technical.

Times change quickly. Twitter has hit the mainstream with coverage on CNN, Time, and other popular media properties. That means anything you write that is controversial can potentially hit a sweet spot and attract traffic. Think about content that will polarize your market.

Install The Tweet This Wordpress Plugin

First, I recommend that you use a Wordpress blog to post your controversial articles. Not only does the architecture perfectly complement effective search engine optimization strategies, but some of the plugins will make your Twitter marketing much easier.

Download and install the “Tweet This” Wordpress plugin on your blog. It automatically loads a link at the end of each of your posts that allows your readers “re-tweet” them with a single click. If you’re using Twitter to drive traffic, I cannot overstate the importance of this plugin for your blog.

Let’s take a look at how your controversial article and the “Tweet This” plugin come together to attract attention, increase your traffic, and build momentum in your readership.

I highly recommend you read my Free Mini Guide on “How To Use Twitter Effectively” Here!

Triggering The Twitter Viral Effect

Suppose you’ve written a controversial article that is relevant to your market. For example, if you’re marketing to the baby parenting space, you might write a post about breastfeeding in public. If you maintain a political blog, you might write about immigration policy. Any position that polarizes the community within your market should work.

Once you create the content, post it on your blog. Then, “tweet” about it within your Twitter account. The more Twitter followers you have, the quicker bump in traffic you’ll enjoy (I’ll explain how to build your following in a future post). Similarly, the larger your blog readership, the faster your article will spread virally.

Encourage your blog readers to jump-start your post by clicking the “Tweet This” link at the end of it. Assuming many of them have a Twitter account, their re-tweets will get the ball rolling and increase your exposure. Some of their Twitter followers will visit your blog post and re-tweet it as well, creating a snowball effect. A few of them will also subscribe to your RSS feed, which paves the way for re-tweets on your future posts.

At this point, you’re already enjoying a traffic jump. However, imagine for a moment that one of the people in that chain owns a popular site that is read by tens of thousands of people. They enjoy – or hate – your controversial blog post enough to re-tweet on their Twitter account. I’ll leave the potential traffic numbers to your imagination (but, get a dedicated server to handle it).

We’re Only Scraping The Surface

Unless Twitter mysteriously implodes under its own momentum, the service is going to be around for a long time. We’ve barely scraped the surface on how to harness its power to bring traffic to your site. There’s plenty more to reveal, such as branding your Twitter account, adding gear, optimizing for Twitter search, and more. We’ll get to those items in upcoming posts. In the meantime, start brainstorming article ideas that can ignite a little controversy in your market.

P.S.  Don’t forget to Read My Free Mini Guide on “How to Twitter Effectively ” By Clicking Here