3 Effective Methods For Using Twitter To Increase Traffic

Ever since Twitter graduated from a small community of coders and social media fans to the advertising giant it is today there have been theories abound regarding how to utilize the platform to increase traffic to your sites. With the iconic 140 character limit it’s easy enough to try several different methods and discard what doesn’t work. The important element in this equation is to keep track of your efforts, making sure to record inbound traffic and its source using an analytics tool.

Here are five methods which you can experiment with to increase the number of twitter users who click through to the websites you are promoting:

1. Include a compelling image with each post

Twitter has a character limit, but conveniently it allows you to upload images up to 3 MB in size. This allows for inclusion of high resolution graphical components to your posting. Studies show that postings with images get as much as twice the engagement rate as posting which only contain text.

Without spending too much time selecting images, try to provide a picture or graphic that is attention grabbing and relates to your posting topic. Observing the major players such as MSNBC and Fox News you can see that images play a big part in their content strategy on twitter.

An additional approach to using images in your postings is to use an image editor to add text to the image before you post. This can be a single word which relates to the posting topic, or even a sentence or quick catch phrase that will provide visitors with useful information about what kind of resource they are being linked to.

2. Repeat your posting two or three times throughout the day

The rapid flow of information on this social network means that it can be difficult to catch the eye of your intended audience when they are online and looking for information. In order to increase your chances of engagement make a second posting with the same link, but use different text.

You can consider making the primary post the most formal, and post again later in the day with slightly more playful wording. You may also want to focus your twitter text on a different but also relevant part of the material you are highlighting. A third and final post could include a brief section of the article, a quote from an personages involved, or just a thought provoking question or commentary.

3. Use hash tags to focus on key terms and improve search targeting

According to research tweets with hash tags receive twice as much engagement as those which do not take advantage of this tagging feature. This means each post you make can benefit from adding at least one tag. Make sure the tags you use are connected to the content you are promoting and if possible, use hash tags which are popular or trending.

When users search twitter for postings they can use hash tags to quickly locate threads related to a specified topic. Use this to your advantage and place hash tags in your posting which will quickly connect users to your twitter feed. You may even find hash tags which can be used in other advertising such as banner ads or fliers, encouraging your users to add those same tags to their own posts.

Understanding how Twitter will work for your business is a process which takes time, and you should aim to adjust to your target users where possible. Ask for feedback on your website and social media. Be direct and ask your followers and visitors what they like about your Twitter feed, and what they don’t like.

Be sure to provide links in your posting which you can track with your analytics software, this way you can quickly identify the most popular postings and perform your analysis on posts which generate the best engagement with your audience. Provide your users with insight into your business and resources they can easily use and share. By experimenting with these three methods you should be able to increase traffic from your Twitter feed to your website in no time!