Twitter: Rampant self promotion works!
About two weeks ago, I installed the “Twitter Updater” plugin to figure out if pinging Twitter brings traffic. Turns out, it does. Pinging Twitter doesn’t bring a lot yet, primarily because I am totally new to Twitter and the blog about blogging niche. So, it goes without saying I don’t have many Twitter followers. The first week, I got zero Twitter hits, I’m now getting 2-3 hits a day.
I just checked Twitter page and I now have 5 followers — and when you consider that I am entirely incompetent when it comes to Twitter, that’s not too shabby. With luck, more people who like Twitter will enjoy my posts and stop by. (I also need to devote some time to visiting my Twitter followers. After all, if they are following my blog, it’s likely they blog on topics that interest me!)
Can you create link juice at Twitter?
Unfortunately, you can’t. 
As Andy Beard noted, Twitter Links are nofollow. That holds for the self-promotional ones you create by pinging from your blog, and also editorial links to other blogs that might interest people. So, if you like someone else’s blog, it’s fine to mention them in a Tweet, but link them at your blog too.
Then is it worth the time to ping?
Yes! Traffic is traffic. Traffic from followers is a really good type of traffic. Twitter gives them a way to follow you.
Mind you, if pinging Twitter took any time, it might not be worth the effort. But the fact is, once you install “Twitter Updater” plugin on your Wordpress blog, it pings Twitter automatically when you publish.
I now need to find a plugin that lets me show my tweets here at my blog. I need it to help publicise the fact that I can be followed at Twitter, but the one from Twitter often loaded slowly. Also, since Twitter nofollows my links, I feel that, in fairness, I need to nofollow my links to their site. 
I now think of using Twitter the way I use feeds. Some people want track posts on Twitter instead of RSS; so make it easy! (Oh, and by the way, in fairness, I should tell you I got the idea of pinging Twitter by observing Jason Calacanis, who has been pinging Twitter for a whilenow. He seems to be a master of publicity; when you see him using something, you can guess it works! )
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Comments
9 Responses to “Twitter: Rampant self promotion works!”
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I have such a twitter plugin for Nu. It sounds like I should be using it. BTW: I don’t log in often but I will follow you if you follow me (on tiwtter anyway).
I also rarely log into Twitter. But tell me your Twitter log in, and I’ll follow you.
I never heard of Twitter. I am going to have to check it out. I am always the last to find out about anything dealing with blog traffic.
You’re not last Ginene. Twitter is fairly new. There are other “micro-blogging” applications being announced. I’m watching for tools to let us update there too.
I have to say that Twitter has been largely self-defeating in its aims by staying as nofollow. I suspect myself that Google will soon be abandoning Page Rank altogether which I think these days will a) cause havoc in the serps and b) have people genuinely leaving comments only on blogs they actually cared about as opposed to all over the shop just to get backlinks. A bit less attention to Google would mean a better web!
BB
I don’t know if Twitter is self defeating on this. Many will still like it. Many will still run “follow” links from their blogs.
Still, I’m going to look for a solution that’s nofollow. Fair is fair!
[…] and send it to your own. Another idea growing in popularity is to use Twitter like a feed, posting your links in Twitter to notify your followers. While it will not increase your link count it does get your posts […]
Ok sorry if this is a bit old but how the hell do you post links in Twitter???
Ummm sounds interesting I’ve vaguely heard of Twitter once or twice but not really paid any attention to it. Think I’ll go give it a looksee. Does anyone have any up-to-date feedback about it?