50 Ways to Mix Your Blog and Twitter

March 23rd, 2009 by Easton Ellsworth

Here are 50 simple ways to take your blog and your Twitter account, mix them together and make something even tastier than its ingredients. I’ve used these tips in work for Blog Action Day (@blogactionday), Heifer International (@heifer) and others. Share and enjoy.

Use Your Twitter Account to Increase Your Blog Traffic

1. Using Sn.im, BudURL or a similar URL shortener that tracks clicks, share links to blog posts and static pages on your blog on a regular basis.
2. Use Twellow and Twollow to find and follow Twitter users in your blog’s niche. Say hi to them on Twitter and introduce your blog.
3. Include a link to a specific landing page on your blog in your Twitter profile (example: @miscellanearts –> this page). Use it to welcome Twitter users and invite them to subscribe to and revisit your blog.
4. Direct message some of your Twitter followers and ask them individually to please visit your blog and perform a specific action, like leaving a comment on a post or sharing a link to one of your blog posts on Twitter. Most people respond readily to private, sincere invitations. Er, but don’t overdo it.
5. Before you tweet, ask yourself: “What could I say that Twitter users would find satisfying to such an extent that they would stampede to my blog via my Twitter account to get the long-form version of my short Twitter bursts?”

Use Your Blog to Increase Your Twitter Traffic

1. Include a Twitter widget above the fold at your blog, perhaps in a sidebar. Make sure there’s a really easy-to-see “Follow Me on Twitter” button or link of some sort that blog visitors can use.
2. Link to your Twitter account/profile (e.g. @easton) regularly in the body of your blog posts.
3. Link to your Twitter page from static pages on your blog such as your About page, Contact page, Subscribe page, press page, etc.
4. Devote an occasional blog post to Twitter – discuss what you’ve been posting about lately on Twitter, talk about some interesting folks you’ve met on Twitter, share a bunch of ideas on how to use Twitter (ahem), etc.
5. Add a “Follow Me on Twitter”-ish link to your blog post footers so it shows up not only on your blog, but also in your RSS feed and for email subscribers.

Use Your Twitter Account to Improve Your Blog Content

1. Ask other Twitter users regularly for personal feedback on how to improve your blog content. What would they like you to post about? What’s their favorite post on your blog? What tips do they have for your content? Etc. Use direct messages (DMs) regularly for this purpose.
2. Analyze the traffic coming to your blog from Twitter. How long do people stay at your blog after coming over from Twitter? What posts do they read? What actions do they take on your blog and when leaving your blog? What do they seem most interested in?
3. Take quick polls on Twitter by asking simple, direct questions. Compile the best answers and sprinkle them throughout your blog posts.
4. Use Twitter Search before hitting publish on your blog posts. See what others may have said about your chosen topic (example). Link to and discuss the best resources.
5. Read what some of your Twitter friends have said recently. Pick something to expand on and talk about it at your blog.

Use Your Blog to Improve Your Twitter Content

1. Publish regularly to your blog and tweet regularly about what you’ve just published. A Twitter stream is always more interesting when the Twitterer’s blog is full of fresh content that she mentions on Twitter. Don’t just regurgitate headlines and links to your posts, though – try to add a bonus thought or behind-the-scenes tidbit for blog visitors to enjoy in your Twitter feed.
2. When people leave comments at your blog posts, look them up in Twitter and say hi with a public @ reply. Thank them for their comment and respond in Twitter as well as at your blog.
3. When other websites link to your blog content, find out if their bloggers or webmasters use Twitter. As with the previous tip, seek to get a conversation going with them in Twitter that benefits your Twitter followers while giving the linkers special attention.
4. Talk occasionally on Twitter about your blogging experiences – what’s frustrating you, what’s been exciting in your blog’s development, etc.
5. Based on the kind of response and feedback you get regarding your blog’s content, tailor your Twitter content to encourage better responses and more useful feedback. In other words, use popular blog material as a springboard for engaging Twitter material.

Use Your Twitter Account to Improve Your Blog Community

1. When people follow you on Twitter, try to get to know them personally and invite them to be active participants in your blog’s discussions. This requires time and sincerity but pays off in mutually beneficial relationships in the long run.
2. When someone @ replies to you or DMs you on Twitter, ask yourself if there’s anything at your blog that they might find personally useful. Mention it to them if you have it. Otherwise, create it and then mention it.
3. Add a link to your Twitter account wherever a link to your blog appears on the Web. Your LinkedIn profile, your MySpace page, your YouTube profile, etc. should all tell people not onyl about your blog, but about your Twitter account.
4. Ask your Twitter followers point-blank what you can do to make them feel more connected to your blog content and closer as a community. Just ask – you’d be amazed what thoughts and insights are lurking in their incredible minds.
5. In offline conversation, talk about your Twitter account and your blog in the same breath whenever possible. Multiple touch points lead to more intimate relationships.

Use Your Blog to Improve Your Twitter Community

1. Besides simply asking people via your blog to follow you on Twitter, why not invite them to follow some of your favorite Twitterers as well? You could do this in your blog’s sidebar or using a special static page or blog post that introduces them to your Twitter gang.
2. Include, unless your blog readership doesn’t like it, a “Twitter ID” field in your blog comment forms (example: TwiTip.) This will lead to more of your blog readers discovering each other on Twitter.
3. When someone subscribes to your blog by email, send them a personal email inviting them to follow you on Twitter.
4. On your blog, create content meant especially for Twitter users. Some of your blog posts and one or more static pages should cater to the Twitter crowd, giving them ways to meet each other and feel a part of a collective.
5. If possible, organize a “tweetup” (offline social gathering for Twitter users) for Twitterers who read or identify with your blog. If offline is extremely difficult, then try to make an online tweetup at a certain day and time where you get together your Twitter followers who enjoy your blog in the comment box at one of your blog posts, in a chat inside Twitter, or on some other platform.

Use Your Twitter Account to Improve Your Blog Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

1. Instead of just saying, “Follow me on Twitter” at your blog, consider using more search-friendly keywords. e.g. “Get quick dog training tips and chat with dog trainer Jack Smith daily on Twitter.”
2. When you link to your blog on Twitter, use a variety of relevant keywords before or after the actual link.
3. Don’t just link to your blog’s homepage from Twitter. Link to a variety of posts and pages on your blog as well as its homepage.
4. Encourage others to retweet Twitter messages by you that include links to your blog or your blog posts/pages.
5. Ask your Twitter friends or followers every now and then how they think you could make your blog more search engine-friendly.

Use Your Blog to Improve Your Twitter SEO

1. When you talk about your Twitter account at your blog, link to it using a variety of keywords as your anchor text. e.g. chihuahua training tips, chihuahua jokes, etc.
2. On your blog’s landing page for Twitter users, describe your Twitter account in detail, using keywords that describe it well for search engine users to discover later.
3. Publish links and content at your blog that is meant to rank well in search engines for the phrases “keyword twitter” and “twitter keyword.” (example: chocolate twitter) For instance, you could create a static page devoted to describing your Twitter account about chocolate and link to to your Twitter account from that page using both variants at different points (chocolate Twitter and Twitter chocolate).
4. If your blog and Twitter accounts are meant to show up well in search results for your name or your company’s name or your organization’s name, etc., then you should create separate posts or pages dedicated to ranking well for each relevant “twitter keyword“  phrase. So maybe you’re Mary Jones, the chocolate maven, and you own a chocolate shop called the Choc Bloc. Create separate content chunks at your blog that will help your Twitter account show up favorably in Google for Mary Jones, chocolate store, Choc Bloc, etc. As a bonus, your blog content will show up well too, so people will either directly discover your Twitter account this way or discover it via your blog.
5. Encourage people via your blog to link to your Twitter account whenever possible. The more links to your Twitter page, the better. Especially if those links are varied in their verbiage and appear frequently in the main content section of people’s blogs and websites, as opposed to links that all look the same appearing in a bunch of sites’ sidebars or footers.

Use Your Twitter Account to Improve Your Blog Value/Return on Investment (ROI)

1. Keep track of the time you spend on Twitter. Ballpark it if you don’t have an easy-to-use time tracker. An egg timer might do the trick.
2. Regularly evaluate whether the time you spent on Twitter generated more value for your blog than it cost in terms of time, sweat and/or money. Would you have been better off ignoring Twitter completely and devoting your time and effort only to your blog? How could you make Twitter more useful to your blog?
3. Consider your blog’s traffic, content, community, and SEO – the areas of focus above. Set daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals regarding how you will use Twitter to improve each of those four aspects of your blog, in order to improve the overall value and “worth-it-ness” of your blog.
4. Keep a record of successes and failures in your attempts to add value to your blog using Twitter. Like that time you posted about XYZ and mentioned your blog post on Twitter and 13 people tweeted about it and you ended up getting 167 visits and 213 page views to your blog, which resulted in $392.80 in sales. Or that time you spent 90 minutes on Twitter meeting and talking to people about the local weather, hoping that they would then subscribe to your blog about raising left-handed guinea pigs in Bermuda. Didn’t work so well, did it? Use these experiences to motivate and inspire you.
5. For each action on Twitter, consider the underlying goal and whether you could accomplish it better via your blog. Twitter makes chatting with strangers easy, for example – much easier than blogs usually do – but what does that chatting do that ultimately can add to your business or get people to join your organization’s cause or keep the electricity switched on at your house so you can keep using Twitter?

Use Your Blog to Improve Your Twitter Value/ROI

1. Keep track of all Twitter-related efforts that go on at your blog. How much time are you spending to try to drive blog visitors to your Twitter account? How many people are arriving at your Twitter page via your blog each week and how many are starting to follow you each week? How much screen real estate is devoted to Twitter at your blog? Would it be more useful if something else appeared there?
2. Regularly evaluate whether the time you spent on on your blog generated more value for your Twitter account than it cost – as mentioned above, in time, sweat and/or money. How much time spent on your blog could have more effectively used on Twitter?
3. Ponder your Twitter account’s traffic, content, community, and SEO – the areas of focus above. Set daily, weekly, monthly and yearly goals regarding how you will use your blog to improve each of those four aspects of your Twitter account, in order to improve the overall value and “worth-it-ness” of your Twitter account.
4. Keep a record of successes and failures in your attempts to add value to your Twitter profile using your blog. Be as detailed as possible regarding the expenditures in time and effort and the returns in readers, subscribers, buyers, contacts, leads, etc.
5. For each action on your blog, consider the basic goal and whether you could accomplish it better via your Twitter account. Is there social networking, time-sensitive investigation/reporting, or other activity that Twitter would get done better for you than a blog post or tweaks to your blog?

photo by Vermin Inc

Comments and suggestions welcome! Contact me privately, ping me on Twitter (@easton) or leave a comment below.

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