I’ve talked a lot in the past about why numbers do count when it comes to social proof and this post will focus on Twitter. Twitter has consistently been in the top five referral traffic sources for Hot Blog Tips and that’s something we want to continue. This post will show you the tools we use to get more blog post shares on Twitter.
I want to geek out on the tools we use to get more retweets rather than behavior and methods. I will stress the importance of being sociable, follow real people (Never buy followers), and stay active. I found this recent post by Heidi Cohen that does a fantastic job on increasing retweets using strategic methods.
Understanding the true value of Twitter isn’t all that easy when tweets aren’t getting retweeted, replies to or favorited. Those are obvious, yet important, signals but we can gain traffic from a random tweet that doesn’t seem to go anywhere. Unless we’re testing our social reach, we may not even know the power of a tweet. Last month I showed how to use Pretty Link to track social media clicks. On that post I used the tweet below as an example of a simple tweet that didn’t get much attention at first glance but, in the end, sent over 50 people to our Facebook page. The link has just one retweet now but had zero interaction during the test.
Have you seen perfection on Facebook yet? http://t.co/k6Ni1Nrxbf
— Brian D. Hawkins (@HotBlogTips) September 8, 2013
Okay, so now that we see the power of tweeter, lets look at some tools we can use to increase re-tweets.
Triberr
I’ve been a member of Triberr for a couple of years and I’m currently in 26 Tribes (share groups) with about a thousand Tribemates (members) with a combined reach of 26 million. Truthfully, those numbers aren’t anything to get too excited about but Triberr is a powerful tool and resource when applied with respect, interaction and a little common sense.
I think many people have the wrong idea about Triberr; it’s not setup where I retweet and share every member’s blog posts like it was automated with something like Twitterfeed; I decide what to share by approving posts before they are scheduled. Now that does require me to go in and manually approve each post everyday but I think that’s important so I’m not sending irrelevant content to my Twitter followers.
Blog Engage
I joined Blog Engage($) in August of 2009. I was just telling someone that I’m a terrible member and Brian Belfitt (owner and admin) should probably kick me out but he does an great job of keeping us going. I pay to have my feed automatically added to the network but, for this topic, I want to focus on two points; the people and Brian Belfitt. The members on Blog Engage are top shelf, and I mean that. You have folks like Justin Germino, Ileane Smith, Zac Johnson, Karen Woodham, and a bunch of other bloggers that I’ve called friends for years. The members make any group or organization and they are exactly why Blog Engage is so successful. Top that off with Brian Belfitt going the extra mile on a daily bases and you have a real winner. Every post I publish gets at least a dozen retweets right away, and even more over time, from Brian’s tweets and his follower’s retweets.
Facebook Groups
There are Facebook groups for almost anything and exchanging social shares is no exception; there are a lot of them. I’m a member of two small Facebook groups that I’ve really grown to enjoy. I am glad I got to know the other members and have some fantastic relationships from it. This is the experience you want in a share group like this so it’s important to be very selective which groups you join and what niche the other members are in. You may not want to commit to sharing dating advice posts, for example, if your blog is based on finding mathematical equations for future time travel.
So here’s an example tweet from last Friday. This is true interaction from great friends I met in a Facebook group (The embedded tweet doesn’t show the replies):
Is Google Too Facebooky? – Google’s Shared Endorsements http://t.co/Jegcjc3Bnu
— Brian D. Hawkins (@HotBlogTips) October 25, 2013
Empire Avenue
I’ve been playing around with Empire Avenue for about a year now (237.55e Baby!) and have yet to do mission but that’s exactly why I’m on there. Empire Avenue is a fun networking community were we invest in one another, building wealth like a social media stock market. The details are pretty detailed but when you have enough wealth (eaves), you can hold missions. In other words, you pay stockholders to do certain tasks for you. Common missions are Facebook likes, blog post shares and Twitter retweets.
Networking
By networking I mean actively interacting on the platform the way it was designed. Real interaction has to be the most important tool of all. All of the automation in the world might bring in huge numbers but without you, it will always mean nothing. Don’t forget Twitter, just like every other social site, is a two-way street. Posting tweets and moving on without interacting, expanding your reach, and retweeting the good stuff is little better than being a lousy bot.
The Hangout Crew – Tools That Get More Retweets
Your Twitter Tools? Thoughts?
What tools do you use to generate retweets? Anyone using Easy Retweet or Just Retweet? I have an account with each but do very little there. How about Twitterfeed, anyone else using this tool? I mention in the video how I use Twitterfeed. Are you finding Twitter a quality source of traffic? I’d love to take this further in the comments below; that’s what it’s all about.
About Brian D. Hawkins
I’ve never seen much traffic from twitter. It was always on the low scale. But I was basically doing self promotion. Hopefully people will start using share buttons more and more to get my content out there. I suppose its a good idea to have a high number to be shown on your blog so people don’t think your a rinky dink nothing. But that’s never stopped me but for some people using the site, I can absolutely see that. – Scott Craighead
Hi Scott, keep in mind there’s always two or more ways to look at things and that’s just my opinion. Sheryl made the point on the video that’s it’s the niche that I’m in that likes Twitter; that’s something to consider but I do see a lot of social shares on many other niches. I think it’s just how well we interact on our network of choice.
Hi Brian,
Thanks for the mention!
You’re a real pro when it comes to social networking so I hope your co-hosts follow your lead on that. I giggled when thought that Sheryl was posting to your Facebook page but it was really Friends+me. HA!
I use most of the tools and services you mentioned with the exception of Empire Avenue.
Two that I’m really found of that you don’t have on the list are Social Buzz Club and Viral Content Buzz. I’m getting a lot of traffic and tweets from those sites as well.
Thanks again Brian and have a great week.
I’m going to check those out Ileane. Before I register on Social Buzz Club, it looks like they have an affiliate network. If you’ve signed up for that, feel free to come back and drop that affiliate link in case I, or anyone else, decides to become a paid member.
Yep, I must be getting old Ileane, I completely forgot I had Friends+me posting that. lol I noticed Feedblitz posted this article on Facebook and I wanted to wait until this morning to post there. I’ll have to go in and turn that off.
Brian,
My aff link is http://basicblogtips.com/uses/socialbuzzclub
Thanks buddy
hi Ileane ,
thanks for giving name of Social Buzz Club and Viral Content Buzz. Here i want to know that is really they provide me real traffic or they provide me spammer also ?
thanks for sharing
Thanks for the list of sites, I use blog engage and triberr, but never thought about checking out facebook groups. My sites are high end, but right now most of my traffic comes from search engines not social networks kinda strange.
Hi Brian, thank you so much for mentioning me, I use many of the methods you mention, Empire Avenue is one that I do frequent, but I should be there a lot more than I am. Twitter Feed on the other hand is great for me, I use it with some great source material, for movie and entertainment news.
But Twitter does send quite a lot of traffic my way, it is always high in my stats.
That’s nice to hear Karen, that you’re getting good traffic from Twitter. You’re getting close to 20k on Twitter and that’s pretty impressive because I know you’re not on a follow a thousand a day mission or anything like that. Speaking of Twitter, I need to see why your Twitter links aren’t showing on these comments.
I had the same issue with Twitter links not showing, I had to move the location of the TwitterLink and then they were coming up, hope that helps you out.
I follow those I find interesting, also make the use of Twitter Lists, most of the time I add people to a list before I follow them or not, so I can keep an eye on what they are tweeting 😉
I need to work lists more myself. I got the Twitter link to work, the “Twitter link format” entries in the dashboard were blank.
I don’t make a post on twitter with the intention for getting a lot of RT. If the post is good and if you make it with the right hash tags RTs will happen naturally.
That’s fine Vicky, to each their own; I’m just trying to help bloggers gain more social traffic. I would point out that your CommentLuv link is pointing to a two month old post and it’s showing exactly 3 tweets, no comments, and very little social sharing of any kind. Only you know your goals so imagine you know what you’re doing. Thank you for taking the time to comment and share. 🙂
I completely appreciate your post buddy. I just gave my point of view. I am not working actively on the blog and that is why I ain’t driving much traffic. As you said, I know what I am doing 🙂
I completely understand Vicky, I’m right there with you on other blogs myself. 😉
Excellent Brian! I belong to Triberr, more than one tribe on Facebook and a few other networking/sharing tribes. Each time I publish I can snag 50 plus retweets within a few hours. Not a bad deal at all.
Reweet others, actively chat and those numbers will jump over time.
Thanks for sharing!
Ryan
It sounds like you have it together Ryan, that’s awesome. I think I’ve seen you on Triberr, I have such a bad memory. I know we’re connected at least on Twitter. Great looking blog by the way 🙂
Blog Engage looks interesting, though it doesn’t appear to have as many writers/book promoters as Triberr. That’s my niche, so Triberr works well for me.
Nearly all my traffic is Twitter based, and most of that is thanks to Triberr, though recently I can bring a decent amount of traffic on my own.
The problem for me is that any other service would take time to build, so my current efforts seem to be the best for me. But I’m always on the look out for the next weapon to add to my arsenal.
Thanks for the ideas.
That’s good Mark, that’s what it’s all about; finding the perfect fit for our situation. It’s nice that you can bring in traffic on your own as well because we never want to rely on just one source of traffic. We never know what the future holds for any site or network. In fact, Twitter is going public soon and who knows what’s going to happen after that? I wouldn’t be surprised if Google or another big boy buys them up for 15 or 20 billion dollars.
Great post Brian on my favorite place out there- Twitter. I’ve used all except Twitterfeed. I love Triberr, get many shares from there and meet new people along the way.
I also use JustRetweet for my blog’s Twitter handle which is fairly new.
I’ve used Empire Avenue but don’t get there much at all. I wasn’t finding anything really from it except a diversion from other things.
I’ve used Viral Content Buzz but again not regularly and have noticed some traffic from it. I need more hours in the day to make the rounds.
I did not see Biz Sugar which is one I really like and use more often now as well as List.ly.
Networking is quite important on Twitter too Brian – people like to share with people they know and trust, right?
Have a good week ahead there!
Hi Lisa, I hear ya on the need for more time. Look how long it takes me to just respond to a blog comment, it’s crazy. That’s why I’ve been trying out a little automation. I need a few virtual assistants or something.
I have to agree that, in a direct sense, Empire Ave doesn’t have a lot to offer but indirectly, I’ve connected some pretty cool people. I have so many investors at this point I have to keep things running or I’d feel like I let them down. Maybe that’s what Hot Blog Tips needs, an IPO. lol
I think Brian sends my feeds to Biz Sugar and a few others, I’m not certain.
That’s a good list of tools, to get more retweets. Facebook groups is a easy option that others. Blog engage is a big network too.
Thanks Rajkumar, have you joined Blog Engage yet?
Great Post. I was not aware that twitter will provide me traffic to such a great extent. You article is so very worthy. Thank you for sharing it.
Thanks Jijin but, truthfully, any of the networks will if worked right.
Hi Brian,
Twitter accounts for approx 90% of my referral traffic. I’d be pretty lost without it.
I use a couple of UK based hashtags (#Bizitalk and #PurpleBiz) which are good for generating retweets but I wouldn’t say it sets the world on fire.
I keep seeing Triberr and Blog Engage mentioned and keep meaning to get involved – I must set aside a couple of hours to get that done!
Absolutly Mark, check them out. It’s true that a nice strategic plan for hashtags is a good idea. Just like the Please RT requests and hashtags. I rarely use them but I can see that it’s a nice call to action – Twitter style.
When you will share something useful for your audience then definitely you will get number of re-tweets on that topic. So for that you just need to focus on originality rather than spam.
While I think it takes more than just great Tweets to get noticed Hyptia, I do agree that none of the tools mean anything if the content is not worthy.
Getting more retweets is indeed very interesting and suggesting some cool groups where one can get more tweets is great.
I have heard of Triberr but I have never being all that active at it. I guess it is now time to take a closer at them.
Let me know how it worked for your Emmanuel, Triberr has some very cool members.
Hi Brian,
I’m a member of Empire Avenue, JustReTweet and Triberr is my next station. These or similar online services can provide quick retweets, social shares and traffic. But I want to emphasize potential for networking, increasing social reach and brand awareness.
This is in fact the most important in my opinion, an opportunity to meet new like minded people every day.
Wow Branko, that’s an impressive comment. I haven’t done this in a long time but I just posted it to Pinterest. http://www.pinterest.com/pin/280208408039333733/
Hey Brian,
Oh I do love me some Twitter now! It’s my #1 source of referral traffic so although I don’t track all of my links, I can see which posts do the test on which networks.
Now you know I’m a lover of Triberr but I finally left Blog Engage. I didn’t have much luck there and I hate spinning my wheels on sites that don’t really benefit me. I gave it a good run though and I’m a big networker but obviously the people I came in contact with just weren’t up for the challenge.
I’m not part of Empire Avenue either but I am part of several Facebook Groups, a few Linkedin groups and several Google+ groups. I find that they’ve worked rather well for me too.
We definitely want our content spread around so it’s always great to hear what’s working best for others. Thanks for sharing what works best for you.
Hope you’re enjoying your week.
~Adrienne
Adrienne, you are amazing! I mean it, I’m just blown away with everything I see from you. You are everywhere. I understand leaving Blog Engage, we need to benefit from our time because there’s so little of it to spend [time]. 🙂 I truly struggle with just the couple of groups I’m involved with.
I wasn’t aware that twitter would be sucha great source of traffic. Really amazed with the fact that twitter can be sucha good source of traffic. From now on gonna start using trebber too, Thanks for letting us know about it.
Well keep us posted on how well Triberr works for you Tushar.
One of the things which used to bother me a lot about twitter was getting more followers which am still working on today and getting retweets. I have never achieved this but am going to apply this information hoping to see more changes.
I don’t have a ton of followers myself Anetta but many of those that I do engage with are great people. I’ll take a few great people over a hundred thousand so-so followers any day of the week.
Getting retweets from Twitter is so much tuff. I’m getting low visitors via Twitter. But you know I’m heavily receiving traffic to my blog from the Facebook. I share my posts on many FB groups. I’m happy about it. Thanks for this nice article. 🙂
I think people grossly underestimate the power of Facebook Groups. If there’s a group that’s closely related to your business, join it and participate in it. You’ll start getting more social followers and build yourself as an authority in your space. We’ve found that many of your social followers will be cross-network. Meaning, if you participate and generate a following on Facebook, these users will also seek you out on Twitter, or other social networks.
Hi Brian!
Thank you for sharing this effective post to boost up retweets. I got some important points to get more retweets and would like to replicate in my social media campaign. In this competitive internet marketing, Social media has been playing vital role to boost up online sale. Therefore your ideas will be more helpful to capture some more visitors and increase sales also.
Hey Brian. Never knew about Blog Engage and Triberr, but never thought about checking out facebook groups. These and your other tips seem to be excellent ideas. I am going to check them out immediately. How do you actually find these groups and join? And since I have an individual and corporate Facebook presence is it available for both?
I’m on Triberr and my tribemates are great. they help to retweet or stumbleupon my blogs and I do the same for them and also there is a wordpress plugin for Triberr and many of the other ideas listed above that help you connect 3rd party sites like this with your own site / blog.
excellent tools i don’t visited two above tools before reading his great article thanks to share i will try it now .