How To Use Twitter For Website Operators

Personal quote from me: “#1 rule of success in the adult web biz: Pay attention to the ones that pay attention to you!”

What’s Twitter Anyway?

Twitter is an information and social network made up of 140-character messages called Tweets. It’s a new and easy way to discover the latest news (“what’s happening”) related to subjects you care about.

How is Twitter Useful?

• Branding: You can use to twitter to help build you as “A Brand” i.e. marketing your website!
• Feedback: Twitter is a great way for your fans to provide your feedback and interact with them.
• Dispense Information: Twitter is a GREAT way to provide your fans and friends information on what you doing.
• Gain More Friends: With twitter you can drastically expand your network of friends and hence potential members to your site.
• Gain Traffic: Since Twitter allows you to post a URL on your profile you can post a link to your site.
• Google / Bing Juice: One of the reasons it’s good to have an active twitter account is because both Google and Bing give Social networks a high priority in their searches.

Twitter Hints & Tips

• If you have twitter on your site USE IT! Nothing is more of a turn off than going to a girls Twitter page and finding that she’s not posted in 3 months or only posts once or twice a month. If you do not using it take it off your site!
• Learn To Use Twitter Lists: You can categorize your followers into lists and it’s a GREAT way to keep up with people. For example, I have lists like “Dreamnet” with only Dreamnet people on it, “Tech Fun” which all the technology people I follow and so on. Make’s it easy to filter out what do and don’t want to see.
• FOLLOW people that follow you! Your fans (i.e. followers) are taking time out of their lives to pay attention to you. So you should follow them back and show interest in them. If someone is allowing you to post to their twitter stream you should give the courtesy back and allow them to post to yours.
• Pay ATTENTION to your @ tweets. If someone @ tweets you. This means they are talking DIRECTLY to you! Have the courtesy to reply to them. If you don’t you look stuck up like you don’t care.
• What Are Hashtags (“#” Symbols)?  The # symbol, called a hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. It was created organically by Twitter users as a way to categorize messages.
• Hashtags: helping you find interesting Tweets: (1) People use the hashtag symbol # before relevant keywords in their Tweet to categorize those Tweets to show more easily in Twitter Search. (2) Clicking on a hashtagged word in any message shows you all other Tweets in that category. (3) Hashtags can occur anywhere in the Tweet. (4) Hashtagged words that become very popular are often Trending Topics. Example tweet with hastag: Today I posted an new picture set with #bigtits stop by and see it!
• RT i.e. retweeting: Like a Tweet? Retweet! Sometimes you come across a Tweet that you just have to share. Twitter’s Retweet (otherwise known as “RT”) feature helps you and others quickly share that Tweet with all of your followers.  Retweeting is IMPORTANT as it helps you expand your network!
• DO NOT follow spammers. Some will follow you only to “spam”. When someone follows you look at their twitter stream before you follow them back, if it’s just a bunch of spamming and links don’t follow them.
• Ensure your Twitter Stream is “unprotected”! By default when you setup Twitter your stream is protected so no one can see it. You want it unprotected so it’s open for all the search engines.
• Twitter is not chat! There is nothing more annoying that following somebody who “chats” on twitter. If you want to have a full conversation with someone do not use your public twitter. If you do want to chat via Twitter do it via direct messaging or better yet use a proper chat medium like instant messaging or email.
• Do not spam your followers. Yes we all are promoting something everyone knows that. But if all you are doing is tweeting out “come see me on cam” or “come see my new update” it’s a major turn off.  It’s fine to promote but if that is all you do then Twitter is worthless.
• Share your real life. The interesting thing about twitter is that it gives you a little insight into peoples real lives. So tweet out every day stuff about what you are doing. Don’t over do it, but just make it interesting.
• Share your real thoughts. Tweet out your opinions don’t be bashful, once again that provides insight to your personality!
• Don’t tweet excessively. Nothing is more annoying that someone that tweets ever two minutes.
• Learn to use twitter on your mobile devices. If you have a normal phone you can tweet via text messaging. Go into your mobile settings on Twitter and set up! If you have a smart phone, almost of them have Twitter client software in which you can tweet from your phone.
• Post pictures on Twitter. Learn to post pictures for your followers. I personally love the pictures! Not just pictures from your web site, the best Twitter pictures are the candid ones. You at the Gym, you in the changing room, stuff when you are out and about running errands, pictures when your traveling etc.!
• Use a URL Shortener: Since twitter is only 140 characters a URL shortener is needed when you tweet out links. I prefer Bit.ly because it gives me tons of great stats on who is clicking on what!
• To Get the Most out of Twitter use one of the twitter clients that run on your desktop or smart phone: Smart Phone Apps from Twitter, Best Windows Apps for Twitter, Best Mac Apps for Twitter.