Twitter

How You Can Get 10,000 Monthly Blog Visitors From Twitter

August 19, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

Get More Blog Traffic From Twitter — It’s time to turbocharge your Twitter!

If you are not utilizing Twitter for your blog’s growth, you are making a mistake. A BIG ONE.

Twitter is the main reason this blog became popular and I established myself as an influencer in my niche. Sure, I got opportunities that further established my credibility, but let’s go back to how I got those opportunities. I won’t deny that having over 100,000 Twitter followers does open up some doors that were previously closed.

Perhaps the most visible way to see Twitter in my business growth is my blog traffic. I routinely get tens of thousands of monthly visitors from Twitter alone. Some of these visitors have become subscribers and purchased my training courses.

Twitter isn’t responsible for many of my direct sales, but it plays a big role in indirect sales. Take, for instance, someone reads dozens of my tweets and then subscribes to my blog. After reading dozens of posts, that person is more likely to buy one of my products than the average visitor. In other words, Twitter allows me to build long-lasting relationships that I wouldn’t have had otherwise.

So how would you get 10,000 monthly blog visitors from Twitter (over 300 every day)? Having a large audience does help, but your large audience is only part of the story. Here is how you can get 10,000 monthly visitors from Twitter:

Increase Your Tweeting Frequency

I have written multiple case studies about tweeting frequency, and another one is coming soon (spoiler alert!). Tweeting frequency is a common topic of discussion, and you will hear varying answers from different experts.

Tweet four times every day. Tweet 12 times every day. Tweet 20 times every day. You’ll get different answers on what the “magic number” is. The truth is that there is no standard magic number. The magic number is the number that works for you.

100+ works for me.

Every day, I send over 100 tweets on my main account @MarcGuberti alone. The two accounts I am currently working on as part of a secret case study each send out a tweet once per hour. Since I send over 100 tweets per day, each link needs four clicks, and then I’m set. I am getting 10,000 blog visitors from Twitter every month.

What I will discuss more in the case study is that it is okay to send 100 tweets, but if you send too many (yes, 100 isn’t too many), you risk losing traffic. Believe it or not, there was a point that my blog traffic from Twitter decreased even as I was gaining hundreds of daily followers.

After investigating the issue, I concluded to mix up my tweets by tweeting other people’s content. I still tweet my own blog posts 80-90% of the time, but now I send more tweets of Inc and Entrepreneur articles.

If you decide to send dozens of tweets every day, don’t manually schedule them. That takes up too much time. I use HootSuite Pro’s bulk scheduler to schedule a day’s worth of tweets in six clicks. This one feature alone allows me to save four hours of my time every day.

Interact

For a long time, I made one of the biggest Twitter mistakes known to mankind. I focused on broadcasting my own content and didn’t take the time to interact with my audience. I got into a bad habit of not checking the notifications tab.

I scheduled tweets on HootSuite and never went on Twitter. I would then move onto writing more content for my blog and Squidoo (Squidoo was booming when I first joined. HubPages acquired it in 2014).

There were two problems with me not interacting with my followers. The first problem was that I probably missed out on opportunities and building relationships. The second problem is that an account that sends a lot of tweets, follows a lot of people, and unfollows a lot of people but doesn’t bother engaging will look like a bot.

So, for a few months, my account looked like a bot. Within that short time frame, Twitter gave me the ultimate slap—suspension. You read that right. Not a typo. Oh, and it wasn’t any suspension. It was a New Year’s Day suspension (time to throw those Twitter resolutions in the trash).

I would have lost all 10,000 of my Twitter followers because I wasn’t tweeting smartly. I looked like a bot and never bothered interacting with my followers. The only saving grace was that Twitter recognized that for the most part, I was a good user. I got my account back in a matter of minutes.

I tell people to interact with their followers to build relationships and get opportunities, but not everyone listens. They focus on the media part of social media without focusing on the social part. When I mention the word suspension, the outlook changes.

I am not the only account to have been suspended in this manner. I have witnessed accounts with hundreds of thousands of Twitter followers briefly getting suspended and then being reactivated. For the most part, these accounts didn’t interact often, but they tweeted many times throughout the day.

It would be unfair to end off this section with an “interact or get suspended” slogan. This slogan undermines how significant interaction is for knowing your audience and getting opportunities.

Getting suspended was a wake-up call. I won’t deny it. I saw what I built from scratch leave me in a matter of seconds. The wake-up call was the best thing that could ever happen to me.

I suddenly made it a habit to look at the notifications tab and respond to my followers every day, without fail. If no one interacted with me in the notifications tab, I started conversations with other people. Twitter alone led to many of my speaking engagements, guest posts, and connections.

Tweet About Yourself More Often

Tweeting about yourself gets just as much discussion as tweeting frequency. One of the most common pieces of advice is to only tweet about yourself 20% of the time and spend the other 80% of your time tweeting other people’s articles.

That’s not how I roll. I tweet my own blog posts more than the Cookie Monster eats cookies (hey Siri, Cookie Monster has cookies and I have friends).

Now that I spend more time interacting with my audience, I know this strategy works well because people thank me for my value. When your followers thank you for the value you provide in your tweets, you know that you are taking the correct approach with your Twitter strategy. For the most part, it doesn’t matter who wrote the articles you tweet about. All that matters is that the people in your audience value and appreciate them.

It is okay to tweet your content more often if enough of your followers show appreciation and a desire to read more of your content.

Grow A Targeted Audience

Just because your Twitter audience grows does not mean it’s good for your business. The number of followers you have is just a small part of the Twitter Domination equation.

One metric the equation includes is the number of targeted followers you have. Based on importance, the amount of targeted followers you have by far surpasses the number of followers someone has.

If you could have 100,000 Twitter followers who don’t care about your niche or 10,000 Twitter followers that are passionate about your niche, which group would you rather have. I’d choose the 10,000 Twitter followers any day of the week.

Growing a targeted audience allows you to get the type of engagement you would want to see when people engage with your tweets. To grow your own targeted audience, do the following:

Find influencers in your niche who gain a lot of followers every day (preferably, they also follow a lot of people every day)
Follow their followers who are likely to follow back.

That’s it. Growing a targeted audience doesn’t have to be complex.

In Conclusion

Twitter is a P O W E R F U L tool that will continue growing in importance. The best part about growing a Twitter audience is that there is no such thing as being late to the party. If you wanted to create a billion dollar search engine idea, you’re too late. Google now dominates that area and is practically invincible.

Anyone can grow a large Twitter audience, regardless of whether someone joined Twitter seven years ago or seven days ago.

How do you use Twitter to get more blog traffic? What kinds of opportunities do you get from Twitter? How do you hope Twitter will transform your business? Sound off in the comments section below!

Three Lessons I Learned From Creating Three Twitter Accounts

August 5, 2015 by Marc Guberti 2 Comments

Create Multiple Twitter Accounts Picture — Three are harder to manage than one, but other than that…

A little bit of me wonders how this was even possible. I almost always have something to do for my brand. Whether I am writing a blog post or editing a video for one of my training courses, I usually end up with a full plate.

Then I decided to see what I could add to that full plate without it breaking. After I surpassed 200,000 Twitter followers on my main account, one new Twitter account was born and another Twitter account was revived.

I tried creating multiple Twitter accounts a few years ago and seeing how that would work out. The full plate couldn’t hold the load and shattered into several pieces, but regardless, here I was giving it a second try. Maybe it was the stubbornness of an entrepreneur speaking to me. Maybe it was the hope that my full plate bulked up at that point.

It turns out my plate did bulk up. I found the ability to manage all three of my Twitter accounts and do all of the activities that I do each day. In just one month after the experiment, my two accounts combined had 3,000 Twitter followers. The best part is that the accounts continue to grow and have an impact on my brand.

While I saw my Twitter audience grow because of this new experiment, I also learned some lessons along the way that impacted me from an entrepreneurial standpoint. These are the lessons that I learned:

Always Look For A Quicker, Better Way To Get The Same Things Done

The main reason I couldn’t manage multiple accounts the first time was because I had to constantly log into and out of each of the Twitter accounts and apply the same process for various tools that I use to grow my audience. I saw it as nonsense and believed that if I wanted to manage multiple Twitter accounts, I would have to hire people.

When I made my second approach, I looked for easier ways to get the same things done. One of the biggest problems I experienced was constantly logging into and out of the accounts, so I needed one platform that would allow me to use all of the accounts at the same time without logging into and out of each one. HootSuite became that platform. I always used it for scheduling tweets, but I didn’t use its dashboard and other capabilities as much.

I also knew that constantly tweeting for all of my accounts would be a challenge. One of the most significant differences between the first attempt and the second attempt was HootSuite Pro, and in particular, the bulk scheduler. The bulk scheduler allows me to schedule a day’s worth of tweets in just six clicks. It takes me longer to schedule my tweets since I have to schedule tweets for multiple accounts, but the difference isn’t dramatic. It takes 10 minutes to schedule my tweets for multiple accounts instead of five minutes for one account.

Bulk scheduling all of my tweets only takes 10 minutes. If I were to manually schedule my tweets, it would easily take four hours to schedule a day’s worth of tweets. This one strategy allows me to save almost 30 hours of my time every week.

How I Have Applied This Lesson Elsewhere

Ever since I learned this lesson, I have been creating more rubrics for sending emails. One of the problems I come across with sending dozens of emails is the time commitment. Whether for an interview or a guest blogging opportunity, it takes time to craft a unique email each time. Now, I use a rubric that acts as my go-to email that I send to people. An email rubric looks like this:

Hello {Name},

My name is Marc Guberti and {appropriate credentials}. I was wondering if you needed a {something I know very well} expert on your next podcast episode.

{Closing}

I haven’t used this rubric for any of my emails. This was just an off-the-cuff rubric to demonstrate what I mean. If I send an email asking to be on someone’s podcast, it would be easier for me to use a rubric like this since I know what I am going to write in advance. The rubric allows me to email more people and develop meaningful relationships in a time effective manner.

Mastery Before Expansion

When I first tried managing multiple Twitter accounts, my strategy was not as sophisticated as it is now. I was gaining anywhere from 20-40 daily Twitter followers on my main account, and it took me a long time to gain all of those followers for one account.

When I first implemented this strategy, I did not fully understand what I was doing. I waited until I got 200,000 Twitter followers before I gave it a second go. At that point, growing my Twitter audience was much easier, so now that I knew what I was doing, expanding made more sense.

Many people insist on creating social media accounts on every social network known to mankind, but this is not an effective practice for social media domination. Each social network has its own learning curve similarly to each language. If you focus on learning one language, you could master that language in a few years. If you try to learn 10 languages at the same time, it would be more difficult to master each of those languages in a few years. Social networks work in the same way.

However, once you master one social network, it becomes increasingly easier to master other social networks. Once you know what you are doing on one social network, it is okay to then expand into another social network, or create a second account on the same social network.

How I Have Applied This Lesson Elsewhere

I used to release numerous products every month, but I started to realize that just because I was creating more products did not mean I was accumulating more revenue. Regardless of how many products I created, the same products were bringing in most of my sales. Creating numerous products every month wasn’t dramatically changing my results. The solution was to create fewer products, and in exchange, make them more in-depth—the same strategy I followed for my blog (I went from writing two short blog posts every day to writing three lengthy, in-depth blog posts every week).

Now that I don’t spend as much time creating products with rapidly approaching deadlines, I have found more time to promote my blog by writing guest posts and taking a closer look at my social media strategy. This blog does get hundreds of thousands of visitors every year, but more traffic never hurts 🙂

Always Experiment

Creating all of these Twitter accounts was an experiment. I wanted to see what results it would bring for my brand and if I could actually manage several Twitter accounts. I was not sure what to expect, but in the end, I got a good result.

The key to mastering something is to always experiment with it, and no matter how successful you become in a certain area, there is always room for experimentation. If you stick with something long enough, you will master all of the basics. Mastering all of the basics allows you to grow, but once you master the basics, next-level growth requires mastery of advanced techniques. While some advanced techniques are buried deep within training courses or books, discovering other advanced techniques requires exploring unchartered territory.

Creating multiple Twitter accounts and using them to grow your brand isn’t exactly an unchartered practice. Mashable and The Huffington Post do it well. However, few experts talk about creating multiple Twitter accounts and using those accounts to promote your brand. There was only one way for me to discover whether creating multiple Twitter accounts would have a positive impact on my brand. Actually getting started.

How I Have Applied This Lesson Elsewhere

I can’t possibly discuss all of the experiments I have conducted for my brand for the pure reason that I can’t remember them all. I must have conducted hundreds of different experiments to determine what leads to more blog traffic, how one goes about getting more Twitter followers and engagement, how the length of a YouTube video affects engagement, and other experiments.

I always experimented with my brand before creating my other Twitter accounts, but now that I have more time available to promote my blog, I am doing more experimenting. I have been experimenting with guest posts and more podcast interview requests with great success. I look forward to see where all of my experimentations take me in part because I know that all of my experimentations will lead me to other experimentations. The experimenting never stops.

In Conclusion

Creating multiple Twitter accounts is a highly advanced technique that you should only attempt once you have mastered the platform. After a rough go the first time, I was excited but anxious to try it again. Part of the anxiety was telling everyone that one of my new accounts would get 10,000 Twitter followers by the end of the year (it’s making steady progress), but the biggest reason I felt anxious was because it was new.

We like to keep things the way they are, but where’s the fun in stagnancy? I decided to give it a try, and if I had to do it again, I wouldn’t turn back.

What are your thoughts about creating multiple Twitter accounts? Are you at that stage yet or do you believe you need more time? Which lesson was your favorite? What lessons have you learned throughout your journey? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

The Secret Blueprint To Building Your Own Twitter Empire From Scratch

July 22, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

As part of my Twitter Domination course, I decided to run the ultimate case study—creating a new account and going from no followers to over 10,000 followers in a few months. While I am in the middle of the journey and have gained over one thousand followers for my new account, I re-learned the entire Twitter journey. I had the egg avatar, Twitter came up with a list of suggestions for my first tweet, and the number 2,000 took on a whole new meaning.

I also decided to pay more attention to a Twitter account that I almost left behind. The account I almost left behind is @Tips4Tweeting, and after some difficulty, I finally got it passed the 2,000 Twitter follower barrier. Combined with my knowledge as a Twitter expert with over 225,000 followers across all of my accounts and me remembering what it feels like to start from scratch, I came up with a blueprint you need to build your own Twitter empire from scratch:

Back To Basics

When I created my new Twitter account for the first time, I had to do something about the egg avatar, the blue header, and the fact that I had no followers and no tweets. The first thing I did was polish up the account so it would look nice. I created a picture of the avatar on Canva and used one of Canva’s Twitter header images. Then, I sent some tweets related to the account’s mission (I can’t tell you what the account is since the experiment isn’t over. I made a promise to the people in my Twitter Domination course that they were the only ones who could know what the account is and I wouldn’t promote it to my audience).

If you want to save a lot of time with your social media strategy, I highly recommend HootSuite Pro. HootSuite Pro is a great tool for Twitter users and other social media users because it connects all of the social networks nicely. One of the key differences between HootSuite Pro and the free version is the bulk scheduler which allows me to schedule tweets in bulk. I can schedule four days of tweets in just five minutes, and since I don’t have to spend so much time writing new tweets, I can go straight to promoting the account.

Follow, Follow, Follow

The first thing I did with my new account was follow as many targeted people as possible, and since the account was new, the ratio didn’t matter. At one point, I was following over 1,000 people and had less than 200 followers. Of course, the ratio matters at some point, so as I approached the 2,000 marker, I unfollowed people who were not following back. I knew I wasn’t building an account that would get 100,000 followers by only following 10 people. Just as with my main account, I knew I would have to follow people to easily achieve my goal.

Have Conversations

One thing Twitter doesn’t like is when an account goes on a following/unfollowing spree. Twitter does not like these sprees because it makes the account look like a fake, and accounts Twitter views as fake are in risk of suspension. In order to make sure Twitter didn’t think my account was a fake, I used the account to start various conversations with other accounts.

However, simply having conversations to get out of the loophole won’t do you any good. All of the conversations I started with my new account were relevant. It was the equivalent of me using my main account and commenting on another digital marketing expert’s content in 140 characters or less. Even if the person doesn’t respond to you, you had a conversation, and having conversations with influential people in your niche will lead to more exposure. You won’t get a life changing number of followers by tweeting to influencers, but it will be a start.

Getting The Ratio Closer To 1-To-1 The Right Way

Although the ratio doesn’t matter when you first create your account and follow other people, it will matter for your account’s long-term success. You want to have a ratio as close to 1-to-1 as possible, and preferably, with you having a slight edge (i.e. following 4,500 people and having 5,000 followers). When you go on your following spree, your ratio will go out of whack.

The way you make your ratio normal again is by unfollowing the people who didn’t follow you back. However, you don’t immediately unfollow someone a few days later because that raises red flags, and Twitter may suspend your account. I use Tweepi to unfollow people, and the tool allows me to unfollow anyone who has not followed me back within seven days. The best part about Tweepi is that Twitter recently contacted them and asked them to make some small changes to keep accounts on the nice list. Tweepi’s changes are designed to protect your account from getting suspended.

Jumping The Hurdle

The biggest hurdle that stops people dead in their tracks is that you can’t follow more than 2,000 people unless you have a 1-to-1 ratio. This hurdle prevents me from using some of the tactics I use to my @MarcGuberti account successful on my newer accounts. I believe it the hurdle serves its benefits because without the hurdle, it would be possible for someone to follow 1 million people but only have 100 followers. At that point, having a big Twitter audience would mean nothing, and how can one person possibly read through all of the tweets that come from millions of people? Without enforcing this hurdle early on, Twitter would have become a spam land.

The main focus for us is to jump that hurdle because once that hurdle is jumped, you can follow more than 2,000 people. Twitter then uses a follower to following ratio to limit how many people you can follow, but this ratio is much more lenient than the 2,000 rule.

After Jumping The Hurdle

Once you jump the hurdle, you must follow more people than you were before while paying attention to your ratio. You don’t want your ratio to spiral out of control anymore, but it is okay to follow 100-200 more people than you have followers (i.e. having 2,500 followers and following 2,700 people). You will eventually discover that thousands of people who you are following are not following you back. Gradually unfollowing these users will bring down your ratio.

As your account starts to grow larger, begin to follow hundreds of people per day. I typically follow 950 people with my main account every day, but since the account has a strong ratio, I don’t have to worry about getting out of hand. Once you are at the point where you can follow hundreds of people per day without worrying about your ratio getting away from you, then you are in good shape to dominate Twitter.

In Conclusion

The reason Twitter looks difficult to many users is because of the 2,000 rule. This limitation was put in place to fight spam and make Twitter a valuable resource for everyone. The limitation also makes succeeding on Twitter all the more rewarding. Ultimately, people will only continue following you if you continue to tweet valuable content, but you need people to know about your account. You spread the awareness by following targeted individuals and unfollowing the people who don’t follow you back as you approach the hurdle. Once you jump the hurdle, it becomes much easier to build an empire on Twitter.

Which tips resonated with you the most? How large is your Twitter audience? Do you have any additional tips for building a Twitter empire? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

What Twitter Has Meant For My Brand [Case Study]

July 1, 2015 by Marc Guberti Leave a Comment

I started using Twitter in October 2011, and for a while, I wasn’t good at it. At all. For several months, I was stuck in the 1,600-1,700 follower bracket. Then, I learned more about Twitter and saw a small gain in followers. This small, consistent gain was big enough to surpass 2,000 followers. As I gained more followers, I took Twitter more seriously. I did hours of research every day to learn how to properly engage with my followers and gain more of them. I learned the difference between any other follower and a targeted follower. Then, I started to gain hundreds of targeted Twitter followers. I decided to create a training course to share my success with others, and now I have over 200,000 targeted Twitter followers. After I hit the 200,000 follower milestone, I took a step back and considered how much of an impact Twitter had on my business. Here is what I discovered:

People Started To Take Me Seriously

While doing a research project for one of my English classes, I came across several comics poking fun at social media experts. I was so busy conducting research about Twitter so I could dominate it that I was unaware of the negative way some people perceive social media experts.

Although I did not know the criticisms social media experts faced, I got some of the criticism in the beginning. Some people thought since I was a teen, I did not have the proper experience or expertise to know much about social media and entrepreneurship. At this point, I had a small amount of Twitter followers, and I can assure you that the number was not big enough to stand out.

Not only did I have a small amount of followers, but I had a virtually non-existent portfolio. I was a middle school student with no social media audience and a blog about Yugioh Cards that got a few hundred daily visitors. When I switched over to this blog, the fact that I had the blog about Yugioh Cards didn’t mean as much, and I started back at square one.

I moved out of square one since then, and I give most of the credit to my Twitter followers. When I started writing how-to Twitter articles, I had a few hundred followers which was in no comparison to some of the other social media experts who had hundreds of thousands of followers. Now when I write a how-to Twitter article and people read it, they know that it comes from someone with over 200,000 targeted followers who has mastered the social network.

My Blog Got A Dramatic Traffic Boost

Increasing my Twitter activity, meaningfully interacting with my followers, and tweeting more often led to a surge in this blog’s traffic. Before Twitter, I struggled to get 50 visitors in one day. Now, I am disappointed anytime my blog does not exceed 500 visitors in one day. Most of that traffic comes from Twitter, and ever since the Twitter traffic jumped, the SEO traffic jumped as well.

My Twitter growth can clearly be seen in my blog’s traffic because there are consecutive months in which my blog traffic more than doubled. The constant doubling of my blog’s traffic allowed my content to reach more people. The doubling was a result of dramatic changes taking place, but now that those dramatic changes have become common practice, the traffic has become constant.

The main reason the traffic has been constant is because I exclusively relied on Twitter. Twitter gets the ball rolling and allows you to interact with many people, but there’s more to success on the web than Twitter. To be specific, the email list is vital. I figured this out late in the game; don’t let that be you. Although I learned about the email list’s importance late in the game, my Twitter audience is still very significant in my growth. Twitter is the main way I get people to my landing pages, and thousands of my subscribers came directly from Twitter. This is a process that I am still continuing to perfect, and the results are promising. When I get a big increase in traffic because of an email blast, I can still thank Twitter for the big traffic increase because my tweets put most of my subscribers on the email list.

More Connections

Many of the connections I have made over the years are directly because of Twitter. Some people organizing events related to my niche find me on Twitter and ask me to be a public speaker for them. I receive similar opportunities directly because of Twitter. I even became a HootSuite Ambassador largely because of my Twitter audience and my passion for digital marketing. When I attend a business workshop, and I want to connect with someone, I mention my Twitter audience which boosts my credibility. As a teen attending one of these business workshops, I can easily imagine some people wondering what type of dedication I have to be attending business workshops as a teen or if my parents forced me to come with them. Mentioning my Twitter audience immediately answers the question some people wonder, and I get more connections from it.

More Confidence

When I surpassed 100,000 Twitter followers, I reached an accomplishment that I aspired to achieve for many years. When I first created my Twitter account, I wanted to be one of those rock stars of some sort with 100,000 followers but only follow family members and a few friends. Although I follow numerous people (at this point, I follow almost 150,000 people), I did achieve my goal of surpassing 100,000 Twitter followers. Following so many people helped me build relationships that wouldn’t have been possible if I sticked with my previous goal.

I had confidence prior to reaching the milestone, and prior to starting my brand, but my growing Twitter audience opened a new door to my confidence that I didn’t even know was there. I now have the mindset that I can do anything in front of me (only if I possess the enthusiasm to accomplish what is in front of me. This is the disclaimer). I have big goals and plans that may seem impossible, but at one time, I thought it would take me five years to surpass 100,000 Twitter followers. I even created a five year plan for it back when I had 10,000 Twitter followers (don’t create five year plans because so many things happen and change in one month). I had to quickly scrap the five year plan because I achieved the same milestone in one year. I now have over 200,000 Twitter followers at a time when I wouldn’t be halfway done with my five year plan. My ability to exceed this expectation led to great joy, and a raised bar. I raise the bar high for myself every day, week, and month. Time to watch television diminished. I still play video games and run, but those are the only two things I do aside from the business. Sometimes, the raised bar becomes overwhelming, and I rarely accomplish everything in a week that I set out to do, but that’s because I raise the bar so high. For instance, this week, I was supposed to take some SAT tests, publish a training course, write several guidebooks, write three blog posts, and create a Facebook ad while going to school and getting all of the homework done (1-3 hours per night), and that is an average week. Setting the bar so high has allowed me to accomplish more than I thought I was capable of accomplishing.

More Sales

Although Twitter does not lead to a massive amount of direct sales (this is because I choose to promote my blog posts instead of my products, but I may slip in some tweets about products), it brings people to all of the places that are responsible for my sales. Twitter is the primary traffic generation for my landing pages which all directly impact the amount of sales I get. People subscribe to my email list to get the free eBook mentioned on the landing page, I send these people a series of emails, and some of those emails are product promotions. Part of success on Twitter is knowing where to take people when you take them off of Twitter.

In Conclusion

Most of the impact Twitter had on my brand was mindset. Reaching 100,000 Twitter followers taught me that I can do anything I put my mind to, and reaching 200,000 Twitter followers verified this belief. Twitter had a significant impact on my brand from a business standpoint, but the right mindset is required for long-lasting success.

What are your thoughts about taking Twitter seriously? Do you use Twitter often or find yourself inactive on the social network? Was there any part of my case study that appealed to you the most? Please share your thoughts below.

10 Ways You Can Use Twitter Advanced Search For Your Social Media Strategy

June 29, 2015 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

When I first came across Twitter Advanced Search, I was absolutely blown away. The advanced search makes it easy to find targeted individuals to interact with and/or market your products to. I learned about Twitter Advanced Search a few months after it was made available to the public, and ever since I learned about it, I used it often in my Twitter strategy. The advanced search allows you to filter out specific tweets and accounts based on what you type within the advanced search, but it can look confusing to a beginner. In this article, I will dispel the confusion and share with you 10 different ways you can use Twitter Advanced Search for your strategy.

#1: Search For Certain Keywords

The Twitter Advanced Search allows you to search for tweets containing specific keywords. You have the choice to decide whether a tweet must include multiple keywords (in the advanced search, that option is “All of these words”) or if a tweet contains one of the keywords that you specify (in the advanced search, that option is “Any of these words”).

Since I am a digital marketing expert, I will occasionally search for tweets about digital marketing to strengthen my knowledge. When I search for these tweets, I use Twitter Advanced Search to find all tweets with one or more of the following keywords: Social media, digital marketing, and blogging. Retail stores can search for keywords based on what they sell and then interact with people who sent relevant tweets. With hundreds of millions of tweets getting sent every day, it won’t be difficult to find a series of tweets with the keyword(s) you are looking for.

#2: Search For Specific Languages

One of the concepts few people recognize is how many timezones and languages fill up our planet. When you are used to hearing the same language in your neighborhood, your community, and in your every day life, it can be difficult to acknowledge that people talk and speak in other languages. On social media, it is easier to understand this concept, but there is an important connection between someone’s language and our brands.

Want to know why language matters for our brands? Here is an example. I am a blogger who writes blog posts in English. If you are with me at this point, then you are most likely read and speak English like it is second nature. However, there are some people who don’t understand English. If you don’t search for the specific language that you use to communicate with your audience, then you risk coming across someone who speaks in a different language and won’t understand yours. If one of my visitors has neither spoken nor read English in his/her lifetime, then I know it is practically impossible for a relationship to build. How can a visitor appreciate my content if that visitor does not understand the language I am using? Searching for a specific language prevents you from running into this problem. If you are an international brand with locations in different countries, then this won’t apply to you, but for most of us, the language a person understands impacts whether that person could possibly appreciate what we do or not.

#3: Search For Tweets Mentioning Certain People

Twitter Advanced Search allows you to see a bunch of tweets that mention other people. I use this feature to find people who interact with other social media thought leaders. Why is this important? Well, think of why a Twitter user would meaningfully engage with a social media thought leader’s tweet. Twitter Advanced Search follows up with tweets from people who all share a passion for social media and engage with other tweets about social media. These people are, by definition, people who interact with other social media thought leaders.

As a digital marketing expert, I want these types of followers. If these people see my tweets, then they will engage with my tweets all the same because I am passionate about digital marketing and send numerous tweets about my niche.

Brands can use this feature to see what other users say about their competitors. If certain users express frustration that your brand could fix, you can offer your services as a solution. Successful products and companies solve other people’s problems. You can build a successful brand solely around solving other people’s problems that the other brands couldn’t or wouldn’t solve.

[Tweet “Use The #Twitter Advanced Search To Discover Your Targeted Audience. http://bit.ly/1FL7IiK”]

#4: Search For Specific Tweets Posted By Specific People

The feature of getting a list of tweets from a specific group of people allows you to create a temporary Twitter list filled with your favorite (or least favorite) tweeters. When I am in the mood for a good laugh, I will use Twitter Advanced Search to search for the tweets posted by humorous accounts. I use this feature more often to learn more about digital marketing. I will type social media thought leaders’ usernames and then see a variety of tweets all about digital marketing, social media, and other tweets along those lines. If you find yourself using Twitter Advanced Search solely for this feature, it would be more advisable to create Twitter lists instead.

#5: Search For People By Location

Since my business is on the web, I don’t always use this feature. Retail stores and restaurants would benefit more from this feature because they could locate Twitter users close enough to stop by (and hopefully make a purchase). The advanced search also accounts for keywords, so if a restaurant was using Twitter Advanced Search to find ideal customers, that restaurant would search for a nearby location and then keywords like “food, hamburger (if the restaurant offers hamburgers), restaurant (maybe competing restaurants will show up. Your restaurant can say, “Come give us a try” but in a meaningful, non-sales-y way). For bloggers and web based businesses, you can search for people by location when you host an event or envision yourself hosting an event in a particular part of the world in the future.

#6: Search For Recent Tweets

Twitter Advanced Search shows an array of tweets written from the first days of Twitter to today. You should only opt to see the most recent tweets. If you own a restaurant and are looking for more customers, and you see a tweet written a few years ago in which a nearby individual wanted to know of a good restaurant, then that person’s past needs may no longer be relevant. So many things can happen in a few years. Maybe the person found a restaurant. Maybe the person lived somewhere else during that tweet and moved nearby after the tweet. Maybe that person is already a customer (you don’t want to tweet to a loyal customer asking them to give your restaurant a try).

I always search for tweets within one week, but depending on your brand, you may find it better to search for tweets posted in the past three months. Try it out and see what works for you.

#7: Search For Positive Tweets

When I look for people to follow on Twitter, I look for people who actively engage with other social media thought leaders. However, not all of these tweets are positive, and I don’t want to follow someone who I know is very likely to not appreciate what I do. When I do these searches, I make sure these are positive tweets. Some people like to express how much they enjoyed an article, and those are the only types of tweets I see when I check in the Positive option in Twitter Advanced Search. If people positively react to the leaders within your niche, and you provide value in your niche, then these people will positively react to your tweets, but only if these people see your tweets. I get these people to see my tweets by following them, and many of these people are highly likely to follow back based on their follow ratios and because I tweet digital marketing advice.

#8: Search For Negative Tweets

You can search for negative tweets about your competitors and look for common patterns. These common patterns will detect where your competitors fall short, and your brand can become the solution that leads to you helping others while making a profit. Successful brands try their best to help others, but some customers fall through the cracks. Searching for negative tweets allows you to find the customers who have fallen through the cracks. With this knowledge, you can fill up those cracks so more customers can find the advice or product they are looking for.

#9: Search For Questions

Some people will have a question about your niche, but not everyone who has a question gets an answer (FYI: if you want your question answered, the first step is to ask the question in the first place). Some people will ask their questions on Twitter, but not all of those questions will get answered. You can be the person who answers other people’s questions about your products and similar products within your niche. Some people may ask about your customer service or someone else’s customer service. When you provide your meaningful answer, the person who asked the question will be grateful for your reply, and that’s one of the ways to build a relationship between you and a potential customer.

#10: Search For Retweets To See What Is Popular

When you search for retweets, you will get an idea of what is popular within a certain niche. If you look for patterns, you will discover what patterns you can use to make your tweets more desirable so more of your followers retweet them. If you only tweet desirable tweets, then people will come back to your profile often to read your tweets. When someone reaches this stage of the relationship building process, it will be difficult for that person to forget about you.

In Conclusion

Twitter Advanced Search is one of the most sophisticated search engines on the entire web. It effectively filters the billions of tweets on the web and allows you to find the exact tweets you are looking for based on keywords, people who get mentioned, people sending the tweets, language, emotion, and other essential filtering methods.

Do you use Twitter Advanced Search? Has it become a vital part of your business? If you did not use Twitter Advanced Search before reading this blog post, do you plan on using it now? Please share your thoughts and advice below.

6 Superb Methods To Get More People To Tweet About Your Blog Posts

June 10, 2015 by Marc Guberti 4 Comments

Many bloggers look at Twitter as a way to boost blog traffic. They tweet their blog posts and encourage their visitors to tweet them too. However, most of this results in a small amount of traffic that is not enough to generate and sustain a full-time income.

My blog generates and sustains a strong audience from Twitter. Every month, my blog attracts close to 10,000 visitors from Twitter alone which puts me on pace for over 100,000 visitors from Twitter in 2015. Part of that is a result of my large audience. With over 200,000 Twitter followers at this point, my audience definitely plays a part in how much blog traffic I get from Twitter. However, there is more to getting blog traffic from Twitter than having a large audience. In this article, I will explore six methods you can use to get more people to tweet your blog posts, and as a result, get more blog traffic from Twitter.

#1: Write Better Headlines

When most people tweet articles they find on the web, they tweet the headline. Most of the people who will tweet this blog post will say, “6 Superb Methods To Get More People To Tweet About Your Blog Posts” with the link. Your headlines need to be catchy so they grab other people’s attention, and some of that attention will lead to more tweets. We like tweeting stuff that sounds cool, and if we get value from the article, it’s practically a guarantee that we share the article with our followers.

What does it mean to have a better headline? For starters, you can include a big number. My blog posts 70 Amazing Twitter Tips and 100 Amazing Blogging Tips are both very popular on Twitter, and people have tweeted about those articles over 500 times. The big number of tips indicate high value which makes people want to read the content and eventually share that content with their audiences.

The best way to get ideas for your headlines is to look at examples. Which blog posts are doing exceptionally well on Twitter? These blog posts don’t have to be yours. On the contrary, the blog posts you analyze can be blog posts written by anyone in your niche. See which pull-words they are using and how they encourage visitors to tweet their blog posts.

#2: Twitter Share Button

You can’t really expect people to tweet your blog posts unless you have a Twitter share button somewhere in all of your blog posts. I have a Twitter share button at the bottom of all of my blog posts along with the share buttons for a few other social networks. If you want people to tweet your blog posts, you must make it as easy as possible for your visitors to tweet your content.

That’s why you need a Twitter share button at the bottom of every blog post. There are few people who are willing to go on Twitter, manually copy your headline into a tweet, and then include your blog post’s link in the tweet. Sure, it takes a few seconds, but remember that we have very short attention spans. Clicking a Twitter share button on this blog already gives you a prewritten tweet that you can use or customize. All of the work is done for the visitor. The only thing left to do is click “Tweet.”

#3: Click To Tweet

Click To Tweet is a great tool that makes it easy for people to tweet certain parts of your post. When you write something important, you can include a link that automatically leads to a tweet. Click To Tweet led to hundreds of extra visitors for just one of my articles. It is one of the most underrated ways to get more people tweeting about your blog [Click To Tweet].

This Twitter tool simply makes it easier for people to tweet your content. The easier it is for someone to tweet your content, the more likely a visitor is to tweet your content.

#4: Tweet This WP Plugin

The Tweet This WP Plugin is one of the best plugins I have on this blog. After getting inspired by Kim Garst to download the plugin, I decided to give it a try. Since I used the plugin, more people have tweeted my blog posts. In fact, I currently use it in every blog post that I write. The Tweet This WP Plugin is so successful because it is practically impossible for a visitor to skip over it while reading your blog post. Downloading this plugin only takes one minute. Using the plugin on one of your blog posts will take two minutes at most. The Tweet This WP Plugin can massively increase the amount of tweets your blog posts get.

[tweetthis twitter_handles=”@MarcGuberti” url=”http://bit.ly/1CLXKBY”]The Tweet This WP Plugin can massively increase the amount of tweets your #blog posts get.[/tweetthis]

Although the plugin is great to get more people to tweet your content, it should not be overused. The Tweet This WP Plugin works like an exclamation point. It grabs our attention if it is only used once or twice in an article. However, if you use the plugin too many times, it will take your visitors’ attention away from your content. You want people to tweet your content, but you don’t want to come out as the person who says, “Please, please, please tweet my content.”

#5: Tweet Your Own Blog Posts

If you are not willing to tweet your blog posts, then there is no point in expecting others to do the same. Whether you have hundreds of followers or thousands of followers, tweeting your blog posts allows those blog posts to reach an audience of people who may retweet and share your blog posts.

Tweeting my blog posts has allowed me to interact with many people, and many of these people repeatedly share my blog posts. None of this would have happened if I decided to not post tweets about my blog posts.

#6: Grow Your Twitter Audience

This tip may not come to you as a surprise. However, many people stop by saying “Grow your Twitter audience” as if that statement is perfectly understood. There is more behind that statement than the four words you see.

If you want to double your blog traffic from Twitter without tweeting any more than you already do, then you need to double your Twitter audience. This may sound like common sense knowledge, but this knowledge allows you to realize what you have to do in order to achieve a certain goal.

Not only is it important to grow your Twitter audience, but it is also important to grow a targeted, engaged audience. A targeted follower is the best type of follower to have because that person is already interested in the niche you are in prior to following you. Your content will perfectly fit into their interests. These are the people who will account for a majority of the retweets for your blog posts.

In Conclusion

You want as many people as possible to tweet your blog posts. Few visitors start reading a blog post and immediately think of tweeting it. Visitors first get attracted by a headline and want value from the content. Then, you must make it easy for your visitors to tweet your content. Give your visitors multiple opportunities to tweet your blog posts. One opportunity is no longer enough. That’s why I always use the Tweet This WP Plugin in my blog posts, and I occasionally use Click To Tweet too.

Which tip was your favorite? Do you have any additional tip to get more people to tweet blog posts? Please share your thoughts and advice below.