Wednesday, March 25, 2015

Getting a Handle on Your Twitter Handle


Until I started Bringing Up Brittany, the appeal of Twitter was lost on me. I had created a Twitter account a couple years ago, but I’d tweeted maybe a couple dozen times since registering. To me, there was no point of tweeting when my Facebook statuses served a similar purpose. Besides that, I just couldn’t imagine who would want to read my tweets. It’s not like I’m a celebrity, not even a blogging celebrity to be honest.

It turns out that Twitter has been essential to the promotion of my blog, and I’ve become somewhat of a Twitter junkie. A lot of the traffic to Bringing Up Brittany comes from Twitter, and I feel as though Twitter has helped me to feel like a member of the blogging community. Because of this, I thought I’d share some Twitter hacks that have helped me in the first few months of blogging. So, here goes!


Tweet daily. It took a while for me to work this into my daily routine, but being active on Twitter is the only way to gain followers (and to keep them). Initially, I was just trying to tweet 2-3 times a day, but the more active I became in the blogging community, the easier it was for me to double, triple, and even quadruple that number. Don’t be afraid to tweet about what you’ve been doing throughout the day—no tweet is too small— or to tweet blog updates. Thanks to the Twitter app and Hootsuite, it’s easy to update even when life gets hectic.  I had about 60 followers before I started working on my Twitter activity, and not even three months later, I have over 170.

Don’t just tweet blog updates. I tweet blog updates a few times a day, but followers don’t want to just see post updates if they visit your page. I generally tweet once a new post is up, then alternate between tweets with links to the newest blog post and a link to my Bloglovin account. I try to tweet these shameless promotions once in the morning, then afternoon, and then later that night.

Use hashtags and RTs. To be honest, I am still getting the hang of this facet of Twitter, but it is crucial. When I’m tweeting about my blog, I always make sure to use #lbloggers (the hashtag for lifestyle bloggers since I'm, y'know, a lifestyle blogger). I also use, to a lesser extent, the #bbloggers, #fbloggers, #foodbloggers, and #travelbloggers hashtags depending on the latest update. And for that extra boost, I often mention @FemaleBloggerRT, @RT_Bloggers, and @TheBlogGuideRT when tweeting about a blog post in hopes that it'll get retweeted.


Participate in Blog Chats. I’ve already mentioned how fantastic blogger chats are here, but I can’t stress how great they’ve been to me. I’ve met some lovely people through them and my blog traffic shoots through the roof if I’m an active participant in any one of the numerous blogger chats that take place each day of the week.  I always give my link at the end and ask for other bloggers to send me theirs.  I make the effort to visit every blog I get a link for and either leave a comment on a post or on Twitter.  Share the love, right?

Add photos. There’s some study somewhere that says that adding photos to tweets makes them more noticeable, and I can understand why from a logistical standpoint—the posts aren’t just boring text, the photos are eye-catching, and they take up a lot of visual space. So, I add a photo when I’m tweeting about my latest posts or giving a link to my Bloglovin account without fail.

Twitter has been good to me since I started Bringing Up Brittany, but it is a time commitment. Don’t start a Twitter account for your blog if you have no intention of updating it regularly. That’s bad JuJu right there. I hope that some of these tips are helpful!

Don’t forget to follow me @brittanyalana_!

So what Twitter tips are you willing to share?

6 comments:

  1. I just followed ya on Twitter and Bloglovin. This was very helpful as I just started a blog this month and have been very focused on Twitter. I read somewhere to really plug away for two months straight then you can pull back a little. Thanks for the info. :)

    livingoncloudandreanine.blogspot.com

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    1. Thank you so much! I didn't heard that two month thing, but that's certainly interesting.

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  2. I always try to balance out my RT's and personal tweets and blog updates. I actualyl sometimes forget to do updates so it's not so hard. But twitter really is important for blogs, I had no idea when I first started my blog!

    doitfortheirony.blogspot.com / creative + lifestyle blog

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    1. I was so clueless too. It really is important to blogging, so I'm glad I caught on quickly. :)

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  3. Fab post! Twitter is so useful if you have a blog x

    Josie’s Journal

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