Can Twitter Help You Increase Your Web Traffic?

It seems that there is always a new social media community to join. Twitter is no exception. Twitter is a social media Web site built around the idea of updating your life. You post what you are doing now, and share your thoughts. You have to do it concisely, though, since there are only 140 characters allowed per update.

Twitter is very hot right now, and it can serve as a way to send a little more traffic to your Web site. But be warned: As with all social media, there are some "rules" that you need to observe in order to be successful.

Be involved

The first rule of social media is to be involved in your community. You need to make solid contributions. If all you do is shamelessly self-promote, eventually you will be shunned by the social media community to which you belong. This includes Twitter. You need to look for people to Follow, and in return, many of them will Follow you. This is important. Because the more people that follow you, the more people will come to your Web site.

Another thing to think about in terms of being involved is the fact that you can reply to others. When you get involved in conversations, others will reply to you. Twitter has a feature that when others reply to you, people who Follow them will be able to connect to your profile. This is a good thing, since it widens the audience you are exposed to. Make sure that you get involved and make good contributions to the conversation.

Avoid Twitter spam

There is a great site called Twitterfeed. This allows you to send your RSS feed to Twitter automatically. This way, when you update your RSS distribution (by posting something new), it automatically posts on your Twitter timeline. This is a nice way to make sure that updates are posted. But you have to be careful. Twitter users hate spam. If all you do are updates, it looks spammy. Likewise, if you set up a profile as your business name, and head out to try and collect as many people as possible, that is being looked down upon right now. So make sure that you balance Twitterfeed updates and promotion with plenty of good, thoughtful involvement.

Add Twitter to your Web site

Twitter offers badges and widgets that you can post on your site. This allows your Twitter updates to appear on your Web site. Visitors can click on the Twitter badge to go to your profile and decide to Follow you. This can be a good way for your social media and your Web site to complement each other.