The Secret to Success on Twitter is the Same as Blogging

Mar 26, 2008
23 Comments

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I’m going to tell you the secret to success on Twitter: it’s the same secret to success in blogging, which I find interesting, because successful bloggers almost to the person are also successful on Twitter (they have many followers and get a lot of value from it).

The problem people are having is that they sign up and then it’s like they’re just sitting in an empty room alone. They then feel that Twitter isn’t as great as people said it was. Now, I bet that sounds familiar to some of you! How many of you felt that when you first started your blogs that you were blogging for no one?

How did you grow your audience for your blog?

By actively engaging with people! You didn’t just sit there, you went out and got yourself an audience by commenting on other blogs and participating in social media. If you had any anxiety about such things, you had to get over yourself pretty quickly, or you would still be blogging for practically no one to this day. Choosing a few blogs in your niche and putting in the effort to get to know those bloggers paid off for you: you now have friends that you can link to and comment on, and they do the same for you.

If you’ve already reached that point with your blog, you just follow those same friends on Twitter.

However…

What if you’re new to blogging and to Twitter? Here’s what you do: you follow people on Twitter like MAD. Just keep adding and adding people. Follow, follow, follow! Why?

Reciprocity. If you follow someone on Twitter, they get an email letting them know. There’s a very good chance that they will click on the link to your Twitter page and check you out. If they like what they see, then there’s a very good chance they will follow you, also.

Now… does that sound familiar? Hmmmm? If you replace Twitter with Blog and follow with subscribe… then you will see how the secret to Twitter is the same secret as blogging. Except that it’s no secret at all, of course. Put as much of your personality into it as you can and provide value. Even though for articles like this, the headline is framed in terms of benefit to you, success is really about what you do for others, not what they can do for you. If you want followers on Twitter, then you must follow others. Just like if you want people to comment on your blog, you comment on other blogs. If you want people to be your friend, then you be a friend. It is as simple and as complex as that.

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  • I agree completely. You can't expect to just create a twitter profile and then magically double your website traffic! You have to engage with other users just like on any other platform (blogs, forums, social media, offline)

    Great post!
  • Thanks for the video. It made the light turn on for me (sic). Sometimes the hardest things are so simple.
  • @ Sonia - I'm starting to notice a pattern on Twitter: "people" who following thousands and thousands of people, but who only have a handful of followers and very few tweets. Do not follow them. They are probably bots or spammers.

    I also unfollow people who only tweet their blog posts and contribute nothing else. If people treat Twitter like a marketing channel, they will lose. If they treat it like a place to hang out with friends, they'll get the best real marketing they could hope for. Ironic, don't you think? :)
  • I like this post a lot. It definitely took me some time to get to critical mass on Twitter, for weeks it seemed sort of pointless. But now I've got my little pack of Twitter buddies and the folks I follow for pure entertainment and the folks I follow to get the "backstage" view of what they're up to.

    I do find it utterly painful to see folks post a string of 5 or 6 Tweets to their Squidoo lenses or blog posts or wherever they're trying to drive traffic. The basic idea of only contributing what is useful & relevant (on whatever vehicle) has yet to take off the way I would hope. More cluetrain stuff, I guess.
  • I'm still not really getting the twitter craze for some reason. I would rather spend more time on content generation.
  • @ Cath - Thank you! Public speaking is what I do all day at work as a computer instructor. I've had plenty of practice!
  • Hi Michael - this has convinced me. I signed up to Twitter, but i never got round to using it.

    By the way - you are great at doing videos. You come across as honest and genuine and easy to listen to. I bet you would be great at public speaking.
  • Totally on target Michael... especially re "The problem people are having is that they sign up and then it’s like they’re just sitting in an empty room alone"...

    I didn't get the Twitter thing when I first signed up, it just looked like another way to waste time on the net.

    Then I started answering questions, sharing interesting site/blog links and in the past couple of weeks I've learned as much if not more from tweets than from actual blogs.

    I'm also starting to notice people visiting my site via my Twitter profile. Again, in the end it comes down to being a good social citizen.

    If you sit in the corner by yourself at a party, no one will notice you. You have interact, notice others, pay attention to what they're doing and point out their good stuff when it's relevant to the conversation.

    As always, awesome post Mr.Martine!
  • Lee
    I agree with you. Twitter has become a valuable resource in my personal learning network and I even blogged about that. I turn to my TweetPeeps all the time for assistance with professional matters and responses are fast and robust. I strongly encourage new users of Twitter to sign up, find a person of interest to follow and then follow most if not all of those same people he/she follows to get a feel for a conversation that is already taking place.

    twitter= @teachakidd
  • Michael, just to add one point to your response to Eric.

    Regardless of what social network site any of us belong to, if we don't actively participate in them, there will be no benefits received.

    Michael is right with his party scenario. Some people just stand by the wall at parties and later complain how bored they were, and that no one spoke to them the entire time. Perhaps it's because they were standing by the wall, not actively participating in the event, interacting and engaging.

    I've often said "you have to give to get", and that is true with any social networking site out there. I personally spend much more time promoting/linking to other blogger's posts on Twitter than I do in promoting my own stuff. Messaging people with a quick comment that I enjoyed their post etc has caused many of them to be curious about what my blog offers, and they've gone and checked it out and several have since subscribed.

    There are many benefits to using Twitter, but people have to spend the time using it and interacting with others on a personal basis. Just me .02
  • @ Eric - All I can say is I'm having a very different experience. You get out of it what you put into it. If you network with others and create opportunities for others, you will gain friends and opportunities yourself. Twitter's like a party. Some people go to parties and make a bunch of new friends and strike deals, and others go to parties and only hang with the people they came with or are shy. Nothing wrong with that, but like I said, you get out of it what you put into it. :) Twitter certainly isn't right for everybody. No single social network is.
  • @ Calaelen - Sorry about that! I'll try to get the angles right for next time so that doesn't happen. :)
  • I get why and how blogging communities get started. However I have yet to see ANY value to Twitter.
  • Michael, I must agree with you that Twitter is very beneficial for bloggers. I've been happily surprised since I started with Twitter the increased traffic numbers to my blog, and especially the increase in subscribers to my blog. Cool!

    There have even been a number of Twitter users who have "twitted" a link to one or more of my posts to all their own followers. Now that's really cool! :)
  • It's very hard to watch your video with your monitors being reflected in your glases. Feels wierd because I allways try to look into your eyes :-(
  • @ Eugene - See this video for a great overview of Twitter.
  • This is my personal experience perhaps off-topic. I love Twitter. I'm a picky, i only follow my favorite A class bloggers in Twitter (that includes you). In many times i become to consume more 'breaking news' instead improving my internet productivity. Maybe it's also because i don't blog internet news buzz.

    Somehow, in such hectic tweet times (that's morning in your time and evening in my time - the most productive time), many times it's a good multitasking practice :-D.

    If it becomes too much, i shut my Twhirl down.
  • Hi Michael

    Wanted to ask you waht is Twitter and how can that help with my blog? Thanks

    Eugene
  • Great stuff! Thanks for the insight, if you call it that. As you say, pretty simple but not often done. As someone fairly new to using Twitter, it comes as great advice and something I'll certainly follow.
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