7 Ways to Use Microblogging Services for Traffic and Brand Exposure

Micro-blogging platforms like Twitter and Pownce allow you to write short text messages to be shared with friends or everyone.

These messages are usually less than 200 characters and can be transmitted via instant messagers, text messaging, email or through a web browser.

These microblogging services are fairly popular because they enable you to share information or personal updates with everyone, especially when you don’t have time to update your blog or personal site.

This allows you to keep in touch with a circle of friends who might be interested in what you are doing from time to time.

As with all other social networks or websites, I tend to see these micro-blogging services as a means to generate exposure for websites and businesses, particularly because they can send traffic through the insertion of relevant links.

Seven Microblogging Tips to Get Traffic for Your Websites

I’ve been experimenting with these microblogging tools for some time and made a short list of my observations on how you can use them to get traffic and exposure for your website.

Unlike popular social news websites like Digg, StumbleUpon or Reddit, micro-blog platforms will not send as much traffic even if you have many users tracking your updates. They can however, get interested users to visit your website and may increase your audience size over time.

Here are seven micro-blogging tips I’ve developed from personal experience, after using these platforms for a few months.

1. Build a Strong Network of Friends

People will only receive your updates when they add you as a friend. Your main goal is to get as many people to befriend you as possible. The more friends you have, the bigger your network and the increased potential for secondary links or traffic.

One common way to get more friends is to go around adding everyone you come across. This brute force method is practiced by some and it will work because some users will befriend you, even if they don’t know who you are.

Bear in mind that this practice can be fairly irritating to most regular users of the micro-blogging service.

2. Synchronize Updates with your Website

Most microblogging services allow you to put badges or widgets on your site to show your latest updates and they might be useful for getting more followers. They can be particularly useful for first time visitors who reach your site through a search engine.

You can also set up your blog to send new blog posts as updates into your microblog. I personally don’t think syncing is really necessary in order to build up your microblogging network but it does have some benefit.

3. Develop a Natural User Profile

Some of the people I follow have links pointing to their website in every update and I do think that can be a turn-off for some users. My own Twitter account is a bad example because I’ve only used it to insert links to blog posts on Dosh Dosh.

Try to update with interesting stuff and make your account look like its actually written by a human instead of a auto-linking bot.

4. One Account Vs. Multiple Accounts

I would recommend focusing on building one strong account because it requires too much work to establish several accounts. You can however, create an individual automated account/micro-blog for each website you own.

Sync your website with each specific micro-blog so that your new articles will show up as updates. This allows you to get traffic from a handful of users over time.

Maintain one strong profile for your personal brand or flagship site and use it occasionally to direct traffic to your other websites.

5. Cross Post Your Updates

If you have accounts in different micro-blogging platforms, you can choose to post to most of them simultaneously in order to save time. This can be done via a simple hack as outlined in this article.

6. Network with Other Users

Services like Twitter and Pownce allow you to send private messages to friends. Sending them a simple message about their updates only takes less than a minute and it’s a fast way to say hi and start a relationship.

There are a fair number of authority bloggers on these services and this is a great way to communicate with them directly.

7. Ask Questions for Information

If you already have a substantial number of friends following your updates, you can start posting questions to acquire information and recommendations on specific topics of interest.

Questions can also be asked to acquire feedback on your websites or a possible course of action.They are also a great way to generate interaction and responses from your network of friends and fans.

List of Micro Blogging Networks

Here is a collection of micro blogging networks you can use for your website. All of them generally have the same features and I’ve also included several non-English micro blogging networks as well.

There are other micro blogging services but I’ve not listed them because they don’t have a large enough user base. Pownce is currently invite only so drop a comment if you need an invite (I have 9 invites left).

If you are already registered with some networks and would like to track my updates, here is my Twitter profile and Pownce page. ^_^

1. Twitter

2. Jaiku

3. Pownce

4. Dukudu (German)

5. Frazr (French or German)

6. Zuosa (Chinese)

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