Is Twitter for Twits?

I just to think nothing could possibly be more stupid than Twitter. (I also used to think that about Facebook). It seemed like it was just another way for technology to annoy us with shallow drivel about nothing important.

I was wrong — sort of.

Twitter actually is all of that, but for marketers, it is another way to easily build traffic. You build traffic buy dropping backlinks to your site. A quality backlink consists of a link that has anchor text which matches your focus keywords.  For example, a really poor backlink would be http://c4d3dmodels.com. A much better backlink would be Cinema 4D Models and Plugins.  This strategy also applies to Facebook and forums, so it's always good to have your backlinks  ready to cut and paste when and where it is appropriate.

To get going with Twitter, you need to build a list. This is done manually and can be a pain, but if you want to find people with an interest, this is a great way to find them. You just type in your keyword, and everyone with a particular interest will show up. Build your list by manually by adding each person with your target interest into your list.

Next, you need to get those people to follow you. The only way I know of doing this is to follow other people first.  When someone from your target audience tweets something, their tweet will show up on your Twitter page.  You don't have to worry about getting inundated with mail unless you switch that feature on in your notification settings.

You can also manually open up each of those member names and send a direct message to them. If you try to build up your list overnight you'll have your account suspended. I found this out first-hand. So, you'll need to do this slowly. Send people something nice, and they'll probably be grateful and follow you. Once they take the candy and start following you, you can then send them your marketing stuff.

Keep in mind that spamming is really annoying for everyone, so build content your followers will like. For my particular site, I was able to find a couple hundred additional people to tweet and send relevant messages with links to.

I'll keep you posted with the results.

Cheers

Jamie