Blog Weekly – Twitter Daily

April 13, 2009 ·

Have you started noticing a little bird popping up all over the internet?

Twitter is a website where you post quick and timely updates about what you’re doing. Publish well researched, interesting posts on your blog every week or fortnight but post (or text) short snippets of info on Twitter on a daily basis. Think of it as micro-blogging! Once your customers are following you on Twitter, you can let them know exactly what’s new and exciting, ask for feedback, get ideas – all in realtime.

See my latest 5 tweets on the sidebar to the right of this post.

Why Should I Twitter?
Twitter profiles are starting to appear very high in Google Searches. A New York Times article describes Twitter as “…a business tool, a teenage time-killer, a research assistant, a news source — whatever”. Business are just starting to get’ tweeting’. Read why in this great article about Understanding the Impact of Twitter…

What Should I Twitter about?

New product updates
Ask customers (‘followers’) for feedback
Links to interesting articles/blog posts (Use tinyurl for links)
One sentence summary of your blog posts with link (Use tinyurl)
Dates, speakers etc for events

How to Setup a Twitter Account

Go to www.twitter.com
Click on the Get Started – Join button on the homepage
Enter your name, email and username.
(Your username will become your twitter address so your business name is a good option)
Upload a photo or image.
Post your first tweet in the What are you doing now box.
Register your mobile phone number under settings.

Linking Twitter with Your WordPress Website or Blog

The easiest way to do this is to add an rss widget with your twitter feed to your sidebar (See my latest 5 tweets on the sidebar to the right of this post).

Go to your twitter page (without logging in)
Click on the rss button (bottom right) and copy the website url to your feed
Login to your WordPress website or blog
Go to Presentation/Widgets
Add an rss widget to your sidebar
Paste your twitter feed url into the feed address field.
Give the widget a title, check number of updates to show etc and save changes

Get Follow Me on Twitter Buttons

You can also add a “Follow Me on Twitter” button on your website linked to your Twitter homepage.

Twitter from Your Mobile Phone in New Zealand

May 24th 2009 – Twitter has launched full, two-way SMS for Vodafone customers in New Zealand. The shortcode for Twitter in NZ is 8987 or TWTR. As always, Twittering over SMS is a standard rate message or deducted from your bundle and receiving notifications is free.

View my Twitter Profile…

Comments

12 Responses to “Blog Weekly – Twitter Daily”

belajar wordpress on April 13th, 2009 3:38 am

twitter is great marketing tools.. thanks for sharing
rosemary neave on April 13th, 2009 10:09 am

I have just started using twitter and have uploaded it to my blog to see how it could be used. I think it can be either very useful or a bit of a time waster. Using it for further your personal or business goals is the way to go, rather than letting twitter use you!
thanks jo for keeping me up to date on this stuff
Jo on April 15th, 2009 12:21 am

Change your comments.php file under your WordPress theme to include your Twitter address as an alternative to writing comments. See below.
Start Twittering : Wordpress Website Workshops on April 15th, 2009 8:58 pm

[...] http://www.creative-web-ideas.com/index.php/2009/04/blog-weekly-twitter-daily/
Kath on April 20th, 2009 8:57 pm

I’ve seen the light! I needed to read the articles you linked to and see it in action. I often want quick short ideas from a small network of my inner circle and see this is way to do it.

I don’t want added cell cost since I’m on a low use plan these and traveling internationally.

Do you have a favourite browser ap?
Jo on May 6th, 2009 10:48 am

NZ Flower Shop is using Twitter to update clients on flower specials, flowers in season and events like Mothers Day. Well done http://twitter.com/rosesarerednz
Start Twittering : Wordpress Website and Blog Design on May 12th, 2009 9:32 am

[...] http://www.creative-web-ideas.com/index.php/2009/04/blog-weekly-twitter-daily/
Add Twitter to Your Website : Wordpress Website and Blog Design on May 12th, 2009 9:36 am

[...] You will find instructions at
Jo on June 8th, 2009 10:10 pm

Twitter has just launched full, two-way SMS for Vodafone customers in New Zealand. Text your tweets to 8987.
Jo on July 24th, 2009 4:05 pm

Great guide to everything you ever wanted to know about using Twitter at Twitter Guide Book
Tweet Tweet - are you twittering yet…. : Web2Blog - cost effective NZ based Wordpress blog based web design, coaching and mentoring on August 18th, 2009 6:07 pm

[...] sense – and when one of Jo Couchman’s excellent WordPress mailings came through suggesting to Blog weekly and Twitter Daily, I started to see the point of twittering.
Rebecca on September 24th, 2009 1:58 pm

I stumbled across your site this morning and wish I’d found it before! Great information here.

I have been using twitter in the way you described for a couple of months. Though still not to it’s full potential as it takes time to find a good list of interested followers

I’d suggest that you use http://bit.ly instead of tinyurl and create an account. Then you have an excellent list of stats per URL. If you have Fireworks, you can also download an add-on which then lets you hover over any bit.ly URL’s in Twitter and see what the click through rate is for anything. That can be an interesting marketing tool in its own right.

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