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How to Use Twitter to Drive Traffic to Your Website

Posted on 04. Oct, 2009 by Trond in Twitter

Like many other Social Media websites, there are effective ways to drive use Twitter and there are ineffective ways to use Twitter.  Twitter is not a magic tool that will automatically create traffic and make your website a huge overnight success story.  But it is a tool that, if used properly, can drive consistent traffic to your website, add to your online reputation, and even help you make sales and promote your business.

If you run an Internet business, blog, or e-commerce store, then you know that one of the main ingredients to success in the online environment is traffic.  The more people who visit your site, the more sales, leads, or ad impressions you are likely to receive.

Many people talk about social bookmarking and web 2.0 sites as the tools that will get them tons of traffic and make their online efforts a success, but it is not always so simple.  One of the social media sites that every online personality and Internet marketer loves to talk about is Twitter.  Twitter, like many other sites that allow you to reach hundreds or even thousands of people with your message, is just a tool.  Like any tool, it is only effective if you know how to use it.  And if you learn how to use it properly, it can help propel your business into the upper echelons of Internet traffic.

First and foremost, you want to attract some followers.

The real key to getting followers on Twitter is by being interesting, helpful, entertaining, or useful.  If you are any of these things, then what you are bringing to the “conversation” is valuable and you will be rewarded with followers.

The way to get followers is not by constantly “Tweeting” links to your site, blog posts, or sales pages.  In fact, this is the way to lose followers.  Other people on Twitter want to follow people who have personalities, not people who are just trying to sell them something.  It is definitely a smart thing to link your sales pages, announcements, or whatever else it is you build online—just don’t do it every time.

In between inserting your links you may want to write about things in your industry or niche.  Link to other articles of interest to people who may be involved in the same work you are doing.  You can even link to shows you are watching on Hulu or to your favorite band’s MySpace page just to show that you are a human being with interests beyond your industry.  The key is really to find a balance between pulling traffic and earning “followers.

Use websites like HootSuite.com or TweetDeck.com, both free, to automatically update your Twitter status.

Hootsuite.com is a particularly helpful website, from which you can manage your Twitter account.  If you follow a blog and you want to add that blog’s RSS feed to update on your Twitter account so your followers can see the latest posts, you can do that.  Of course, you can also do this for your own blog posts if you have a blog.

One of the reasons it may be in your interest to add the RSS feed to another site is that you will automatically send “tweets” out without doing anything, and if these tweets are related to you and your business, you may gain more followers.  Look at is as gaining exposure for free.  For example, if you run a website that sells products to luxury automobile enthusiasts, you can set it up so your account sends out a Twitter message any time, say, your favorite Porsche blog is updated.

In a way, this is free content for you.  The Tweet will show up in your “Twitter stream,” which other Twitter users may stumble across.  They may even follow you or at the very least click some of your other links.  They may even land on a sales page of your site or fill in their email for your email list once they reach your site.

Include your site URL on your Twitter profile page.

Some companies do not do this and it is a huge mistake.  Having your website link on your page will send direct traffic to your site and may even give you more legitimacy in the eyes of potential followers.

Use Twitter Search

The search bar can be found in the right column of Twitter and you should use it to find people who are talking about things related to your product or niche.  If you are a wine retailer, you could look up terms like “Chardonnay” or “vineyards” and see who is talking about these things.  You may run across wine bloggers, wine critics, and just wine fans.  The amazing part of this is you can add these Twitter users to your list and “mention” them in order to get their attention.  Mentioning is when you use the “@+nickname” of the person in your tweets in order to direct a comment at them.  Once you follow someone and they follow you back, you can then “direct message” (DM) them, which means that you can send them a personal private message.

Twitter Search allows you to find potential buyers in real time.  It is an excellent way to find people to communicate with on Twitter.  Maybe you want to find every Harley Davidson enthusiast or every fly fisherman on Twitter—you can do this all with the search function.  It does take time and effort, however.  But the more you put in, the more you will get out.

Encourage visitors to your website to follow you on Twitter.

You can easily integrate Twitter on the sidebar of websites built on WordPress or Blogger platforms through the “settings” section in your Twitter account.  You can also easily copy the code and add it to an html site.

One of the nice things about Twitter is it can be a great point of contact for anyone interested in your business or blog.  Once someone follows you, this person will be able to stay updated on what you talk about, when you have a product launch, or whatever else you want to share with others.  Twitter is a good place to aggregate all of your online points of contact.  You can update it when you add something new to your Facebook page, your LinkedIn page, and your website.  It becomes a good place for people to easily get to your various points of contact without having to save a link or copy a bookmark.

Use Twitter as a “reputation management” tool

You can search your company name to see what people are saying about it—and you can even jump in and try to help an upset customer.   Being proactive like this may earn you a customer or keep you from losing one.  Think how you would feel if a representative from a company heard you complaining about their service and contacted you to try to rectify the situation.

Once you start to accrue followers on Twitter, you will notice that when you post a link to your site, you will start to get consistent traffic.  The sheer amount of information and users on Twitter can be daunting, but the more time you spend there (maybe 10-20 minutes a day) the more you will see how it can be used to drive traffic to your site and help position your business in the crowded online marketplace.

Good luck and have fun!

Related posts:

1. How to Gain Real Followers on Twitter
2. Social Media 101: How to Drive Traffic Using Twitter
3. Guide to Using Twitter for Marketing
4. Advertise on Twitter for Fun and Profit
5. Twitter: Friendsourcing

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