Well I finally signed up for this little thing called Twitter and installed a plugin on my WordPress blog that automatically broadcasts my new blog posts to the world.  I had no idea how this Twitter thing worked and actually thought it sounded a bit lame.  I thought I would give it a try and came to the rather quick conclusion that it was worth learning about when after my first tweet the traffic started pouring into my blog.  It seems like people are using Twitter for a multitude of reasons and it is turning out to be a great platform for promoting a blog and marketing your writing.

Here are some ways bloggers are using Twitter to drive traffic to their blog or website:

Tweet New Posts or Updates to Your Blog

Many plugins are available that will directly tweet your new blog posts directly into Twitter.  Write a witty introduction to your post or grab readers by proposing an interesting question or discussion related to your post topic that will make readers want to click on the link you provide. Also, don’t over-tweet or you may end up annoying your followers rather than driving them to your site.

Allow Readers to Retweet Your Posts

Get your readers to share their favorite posts to their followers by giving your readers the option to retweet your posts directly from your blog.  One of the most popular ways to allow your readers to retweet is through TweetMeme.  The TweetMeme button is a tool for bloggers who want to encourage their readers to tweet their content.  The button shows the number of times the blog post has been tweeted so readers can see how popular an item is.

Don’t Forget the Social in Social Media – Contribute and Network

Using your Twitter account solely for tweeting about your latest blog posts is unlikely to keep people interested for long.  Share with the world a bit about yourself, tweet links you find interesting, and retweet other posts you find fascinating.  If someone tweets one of your articles, repay the favor and retweet one of theirs.  Twitter is all about the community – give some fellow bloggers a tweet and hopefully they will help promote you as well.

Have you tried Twitter for promoting your blog?  What worked?  What didn’t?