What Is Twitter & How Can It Help My Website?
Twitter is a popular social networking platform that allows you to post "tweets," short text messages of up to 140 characters. Your tweets can be read by anyone who follows your account. They're also searchable on the Internet by anyone looking for real-time news or information. Many individuals and businesses use the service for linking to their Web pages, which can bring new visitors, increasing its traffic, sometimes significantly.
Other People Are Reading
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Creating an Account
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You don't need a Twitter account to reap the benefits of the service. Anyone with a Twitter account who visits your website can post a link to Twitter. However, having an account and posting your own links will enable you to take a more active role in increasing traffic to your website. Creating an account is free: All you need is an email address. When you put together your profile, include a few words about yourself, offer links to your website and upload a picture to start developing a personal online presence.
Developing a Following
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The more people who follow you on Twitter, the more people who will see your posts. The fastest way to get a following is to follow others and interact with them. Use the Twitter search functions to find people you know who are already using Twitter, and to narrow the field to those who post information that interests you. Twitter will also recommend people to follow based on your interests. Don't expect people to follow you immediately. As in real life, getting to know people takes time in the virtual world, too.
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Tweeting Links
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While no limitations regarding links are enforced, many people on Twitter frown on tweets that post only links to the user's own website. Links should be used in moderation, mixed with personal content and dialog with others. Because some website links and titles are long and tweet length is short, you can seek a solution from a number of free link-shortening services that shrink an unwieldy website address to a manageable 20 characters or less, such as TinyURL (tinyurl.com) or Bit.ly (bit.ly).
Website Buttons & Widgets
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Twitter and numerous third-party developers have created free Tweet buttons to place on your website. Anyone who clicks the button will automatically post a link to your Web page on their Twitter account. Widgets can embed a link to your Twitter profile and provide a live feed of the most recent tweets on your website. If you have a blog on your website, get connected with WordPress plugins that allow you to link your blog comments to Twitter, as well as automatically post any Twitter links to your Web pages as link-backs.
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