Guest Post: To Tweet or Not to Tweet

Today’s post is from Cyndi from My Convertible Life. She’s a local blogger, a friend and a proud fellow member of the grammar police. Be sure to leave her some comment love and visit her blog!

I resisted Twitter as long as possible. Facebook already gave me a way to connect with people online -– and goodness knows that was enough of a time suck. Why did I need another social network that essentially sounded like Facebook without pictures of my friends’ adorable children?

Then I went to a professional meeting last spring that came with its own hashtag. The only way to see all the cool information-sharing going on behind the scenes was to join the Twitterverse.

And the down the rabbit hole I tumbled.

Once I figured out how things worked and once Melissa told me to stop using Twitter in (gasp!) twitter.com, Twitter quickly became my favorite social media tool.

So if you’re a blogger who has been hesitant to jump into Twitter, here are three reasons to consider taking the plunge:

Promotion Opportunities

Twitter is an easy space to use to promote your blog posts -– let people know when you have new content and what you’re writing about.

• Tweet the post title with a link (using your preferred url shortener, of course), then tweet other teasers about the content at different points in the day – consider once in the morning, once in the afternoon and once for the night-time crowd.
• Use hashtags to draw people to specific content. Writing a post about a great customer service experience? Mark your tweet with a #custserv. Have a great post on rainy day activities for toddlers? Tag it with a #preschool. That way people who don’t know you can still find your tweets about topics they’re following.
• Connect with other Twitter users who might be interested in your post. A post on my blog about the new 2011 Ford Explorer has earned twice as many views as anything else I’ve written. When I tweeted about it, I used the @Ford handle -– and Ford Motor Company retweeted my one little post to their 44,000 followers.

Community Network

As great a tool as Twitter can be for promoting your writing, you need to use it for more than simply announcing your latest post. If that’s all you have to talk about, your tweets will get lost in the crowd (at best) and people will start to tune you out (at worst). For many of us, blogging has created a virtual community of blogger friends and readers –- Twitter offers a great way to build that network.

• Use your tweets to connect with your readers and share things about yourself that might not warrant a full blog post, but would give your followers another tidbit about who you are. It might be serious, funny or mundane, but it’s another window into you.
• Tweet replies to people you follow to let them know you like what they’re writing about, or understand what they’re going through, or just think they’re frickin hilarious. The more you interact with other Twitter users, the more likely they are to connect with you (and your blog).
• Follow hashtags for topics that could connect you to other people you want to follow. Check out #ppdchat if you’ve wrestled with post-partum depression or watch for #madmen when the new season starts. It won’t take long to see you’re not alone.

Information Resource

With millions of users, Twitter is also a great source of information (although the journalist in me will caution you to verify, verify, verify).

• Follow your favorite news organizations—both local and national—to stay current on headlines and breaking news.
• Need some ideas for a blog post or searching for a product recommendation? Pose your questions on Twitter for quick feedback.
• Use those trusty hashtags again to see what other people are saying about a particular topic.

And if all of these reasons aren’t enough, you should check out Twitter just so you can enjoy the randomness. Because you really never know what you might find out there.

When she’s not wasting the day away on Twitter (@convertiblelife), Cyndi blogs about a little bit of everything at My Convertible Life. She finds continuous writing fodder in her family (including Junius, age 5, and Pippi, almost 3), her work as a former English teacher turned PR/marketing consultant for public education organizations, and all the craziness in between.

This article was originally posted on my other site, Adventuroo, where it racked up over 15 comments. To see the great conversations within those comments, visit this post on Adventuroo.