Get People On the Bus Using Social Media

Last week I talked about how to get people on the  bus using video. The whole concept of video seems to seriously freak people out ~ myself included for a while, but now that I’ve been doing it regularly for a little while it’s just become another thing I have to do during the day. But anyway… while I was reading the surveys the topic of how to use twitter came up… a lot.

I did a couple videos over the weekend that work together to create a nice twitter action plan. I know I’ve discussed how to use twitter in a previous post, but I thought I’d lay it out in some really simple steps here, and let you watch the videos.

Twitter Marketing Action Plan:

What you’ll need:

1. Twitter account
2. 5 to 10 commentluv blogs you enjoy reading
3. su.pr
4. twellow.com

Let’s get started:

1. Go to twellow.com and search for people who are your target market.  This doesn’t mean they have to mention your exact blog topic, but they are people who would want to read your blog topic and get to know you better.

ex. ride on toys site ~ you could look for parents of toddlers ~ there’s plenty of them.

2. Follow 5 to 10 people from twellow.com (every day)

~ You can also just peruse your twitter stream and look for conversations that are going on. Stop by a person’s page if you don’t already follow them and check them out. If they seem interesting then follow them.  (do this 5 to 10 times a day)

3. Interact with your followers.

When you follow people they will most likely check you out and then follow you back. Now is when the real relationshipping part comes in. You need to talk to these people. You want to provide them with some quality stuff.

• have your blog posts automatically go to twitter (tweetmyblog plugin or tweetfeed.com will do this)
• if you do video have your videos go directly to twitter (there’s a place on youtube to do this)
• tweet links to seriously cool stuff
• tweet fun stuff your market will be interested in

You can use the commentluv blogs and su.pr to provide tons of great content to your twitter account, and leverage your time with blog commenting. After you’ve commented on a blog (getting a link back to your site) use su.pr to share the blog post with your twitter readers.

Su.pr also has a tweet scheduling tool where you can schedule your tweets to post later, so you are spreading your tweets out over the day instead of all at once in a few minutes. This is nice because you get to reach more people over the day. Not everyone is on twitter at the same time as you.

While sending quality  links and information is good, the way you really create relationships on twitter is by participating in the conversation and getting to know people ~ and letting them get to know you.

If you’re using tweetdeck ~ which is a desktop application you download to use twitter and facebook you can set up a whole column for people you really want to connect with. You do this by creating  a list in your twitter account, and then adding that list to your tweetdeck. (If you’re interested in a step by step tutorial on how I actually do this let me know I’d be glad to show you).

Your twitterstream can get really busy when you get a lot of followers, but that’s what makes it fun. Scan through your timeline and read what people are doing  ~ you don’t have to spend hours doing this ~ just take a glance and look for something interesting. When you find something you can reply to that person and make a comment. This will get you noticed by that person (provided they aren’t a movie star or blog star lol ~ most regular people welcome replies and to engage in conversation) and can start a conversation. The people you have actual conversations with are more likely to remember you, and you them.  Last night I got into a great conversation with Catherine Caine (who is a blogger I follow) just by making a comment about her new header.

The other way to build a relationship with people on twitter is to retweet their messages. The more your retweet for other people, the more likely they are to retweet for you. It’s a very reciprocal game over there ~ you have to play with others and others will play with you.

This may sound like a lot but it can really be done in 30 minutes or so a day. Check out the twitter action plan for more succinct time table.

Here’s the videos:

How to Get More Traffic Using Twitter:

How to get more traffic with blog comments:

If you’ve got more questions about twitter or blog commenting let me know and I’ll do my best to answer. I’d love to hear what strategy you’re using to increase your traffic with twitter  ~ leave me a comment and let me know.