Until I am willing to manually approve each person who joins my Twitter community, I have no choice but to live with the reality that a significant percentage of my Twitter followers are MLMers, self-proclaimed SEO experts, and consultants who would love to help me run my business . . . even though I don’t actually have one.
But the fact is, my target audience is in there somewhere. And because of that, I need to find a way to overcome Twitter’s notoriously low clickthrough rates and get people to follow my links once in awhile. Through extensive experimentation with multiple Twitter accounts over the better part of a year, along with a certain level of tracking and documentation, I know there are times when my Tweets perform significantly better than others. And for the most part, I think I might know why.
Below is a list of 57 ways that may (or may not) increase your Twitter clickthrough rates. For purposes of making this post as useful as possible, I threw in everything I could think of—strategies related to message tone, design, message construction, strategy, timing and so on; as well as some mistakes I made along the way. Also, the items in bold are strategies I have had particularly good results with over the last few months. If your time is limited, I would recommend trying these first.
And finally, if you believe I missed something or would like to recommend your own tip, please reply to this post and do so. I will gladly add your tip to this list, along with a link to your blog or website should you choose to include one. Here we go . . .
57 Ways to (Maybe) Increase Your Twitter Clickthrough Rates
- Say something original.
- Don’t write like a teenager.
- Offer something of value other than your thoughts.
- Resist the temptation to exaggerate or show false excitement.
- Don’t use shorthand . . . spell out words.
- Be consistently credible.
- Use an interesting avatar.
- Create controversy.
- Don’t make promises or outrageous claims.
- Figure out why YOU click on other people’s links, and do what they do.
- Have your own take.
- Use a call to action.
- Respect the intelligence of your audience.
- Develop your own style—and stick with it.
- Avoid slang.
- Check your spelling.
- Experiment with Tweeting on different days and during different times.
- Stop using cliches.
- Cater to multiple nationalities.
- Tweet in groups of three.
- Don’t use industry-specific acronyms and terminology.
- Make on point, and only one point.
- Don’t use ALL CAPS.
- Be sensitive to cultural issues.
- Don’t over-use punctuation.
- Build a following outside of Twitter.
- Use spacing strategically.
- Don’t sound TOO EXCITED!!!
- Ask, but don’t beg.
- Don’t get lazy.
- Say the same thing multiple ways.
- Create a Username that aligns with your focus.
- Don’t expect a tool to do the thinking for you.
- Remind yourself that getting ANY kind of web traffic isn’t easy.
- Build a community.
- Cater to people in time zones other than yours.
- Call a specific audience to action.
- Choose topics that people haven’t already run into the ground.
- Stop trying to make everyone happy—become a specialist in something.
- Break down the results of a research study.
- Collect your own data for a survey, and publish the results.
- Don’t Tweet because you’re bored.
- Construct a well-written profile (people actually read these).
- Avoid using Twitter ‘isms.’
- Ask for honest feedback and opinions on something.
- Don’t bombard people.
- Keep it fresh.
- Tweet a “Thank You” once in awhile.
- Don’t Tweet inside jokes.
- Check the trending topics.
- Don’t talk down to people.
- Use a “Tweet This” or Retweet button to increase distribution.
- Don’t write like a Ph.D.
- Ask people (nicely) to Retweet your stuff.
- Go against the grain.
- Watch how the pros Tweet.
- Search Internet Marketing portals like Sphinn for other articles on this subject.
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