Did you take part in a Twitter chat recently? If not, what's holding you back?
Twitter chat is an underrated marketing arsenal every business should be on. It is proven as an essential strategy to build trust, increase brand awareness, and enhance the relationship with your audience.
If you are wondering how to start your own Twitter chat, here and here are some great guides to follow.
WHSR has started our own hashtag #WHSRnetChat, reaching out to bloggers, influencers, individuals, brands, organizations, etc. to collect their views and feedback on topics related to blogging.
We started this Twitter chat campaign with a purpose – to help our readers build a better blog.
Let's begin with our first Twitter question.
#WHSRnetChat Q1. What is your no 1 tip(s) to grow your blog in 2016?
2016 continues to be a challenging year for the blogging industry. With new guidelines from Google on how to rank better in searches, bloggers are expected to put in more hard work to achieve excellence.
One of the important element is the need to add a true level of authority to the content.
A blog should focus on providing better and more useful content to readers. In another words, bloggers may need to do more research and writer longer posts.
Here are some of the responses WHSR received to the question posed in our first Twitter Chat tweet:
produce good content and engage with readers. Also make a plan and work really hard.
— Daysinbed (@Daysinbed) January 10, 2016
top tip is work on having quality content ?
— Angie Silver (@SilverSpoonLDN) January 19, 2016
slow and steady. I am 10 years old focus on organic growth
— Fuggs and Foach (@fuggsandfoach) February 7, 2016
Several of our Twitter chat participants suggested consistency and hard work remain the fundamental keys to growing a blog.
I think consistency is always really important. In attitude, focus, posts & social media. #bloggingtips #lifestyle #WHSRnetChat
— You Baby Me Mummy ( @YouBabyMeMummy) January 10, 2016
Keep doing it! Be consistent and not afraid to share it with everyone!
— Christina Nicholson (@MediaMaven_CN) January 11, 2016
Having a unique tone of voice when blogging is equally as important as writing good content.
Tone jumps off the pages and connects you with readers. The closer you are to your audience, the better you are in understanding what they are looking for and it is a smart way to grow your blog, too!
Also, be you. Don't try to imitate anyone else. Use your own voice & create your own style.
— Larger Family Life (@largerfamily) January 15, 2016
Recently, Jerry @WebHostingJerry, wrote a guest post for Problogger to help you keep up with blogging tasks. Check out these 5 blogging strategies he is betting on in 2016.
Here are some points to conclude our first Twitter chat question:
- Produce helpful, in-depth original content
- Be active on social networks to engage more with your audience
- Put in more hard work and remain consistent
Related article: How the face of content is changing in 2016
Let's move on to our second Twitter chat question.
#WHSRnetChat Q2. What is your go-to tool(s) for social media management?
It's well know that a blogger has a hectic daily routine.
You have to read articles, do in-depth research, plan your blog post, promote your blog, etc. Your schedule is packed! As such, you need tools to help you to do things better, especially to manage your social media.
Managing social presence is one of the important parts you can't afford to lose. It is also true that managing social presence will consume much of your time and energy. We have @mentioned this question to bloggers and marketers and here are highlighted answers.
social oomph for Twitter
— You Baby Me Mummy (@YouBabyMeMummy) 23 March 2016
Hey! Definitely a combo of Buffer, Tweet Jukebox + Sprout Social ??? [@buffer @SproutSocial @alphabetsuccess] #WHSRnetChat ???
— Sam Hurley ????????? (@Sam___Hurley) 30 March 2016
Buffer and HootSuite are the ones that I use most often.
— Ileane Smith (@Ileane) 24 March 2016
I use Hootsuite and Social Oomph
— Attachment Mummy (@AttachmentMumma) 19 March 2016
So many are there, Buffer, Hootsuite etc :)
— Harleena Singh (@harleenas) March 28, 2016
We have come up with some unofficial stats on this question. Take it as a reference if you have yet to decide which social media management tool to choose.
Hootsuite and Buffer are the two most popular social media management tools among our Twitter community. You can see the rest here.
In case you need some quick hacks, here's what you need to know when you are using them.
1. Hootsuite
You can link up all your social media accounts in one place and schedule your posts. Let Hootsuite work out when to send them out. You might want to save the useful posts to re-use later.
2. Buffer
Buffer allows you to add RSS feed to your Buffer social profiles and share links directly from your blog. You can also optimize your Buffered timings with Tweriod in order to create a customized posting schedule.
3. Socialoomph
It is a great tool when you manage multiple Twitter accounts. You can create a queue reservoir for your tweets. It helps you to schedule the same tweet written differently each time it is posted.
The interesting part to me is there are a lot of great tools worth mentioning. Most probably you don't have enough time to explore them all.
Others
Let see what other social media management tools the Twitter community is recommending.
hiya, I use Social Oomph and Tweetdeck but don't use any tools for Facebook.
— Vicky Charles ( @SingleMAhoy)7 March 2016
I love Buffer, JustRetweet and Manageflitter. (I only use management tools for Twitter) :) #WHSRnetchat #socialmedia
— Jasper (@OpportunityTM) 28 March 2016
@Crowdfire is good to monitor your following ?
— Stephanie Buckley (@eatsleepchic_ie) 25 March 2016
For Twitter: TweetDeck + “Friend or Follow” are all I need.
— Adrian Jock (@IMTipsNews) 2 April 2016
I recommend @Hootsuite and @commun_it
— Nancy Seeger (@SeegerN) April 3, 2016
Here are some great social media tools to explore:
1. Crowdfire
A powerful online website that helps you to grow your Twitter and Instagram account reach. From the website, you can see who has engaged the most with your account. It also helps you to find relevant users to follow.
2. Commun.it
It is a robust Twitter management tool to boost engagement and generates potential leads. You can track all your important interactions in your community within a dashboard. The best thing is, you can set and run different campaigns according to your own schedule.
3. Meetedgar
It is simple to use. Just add all your updates to the library and create a posting schedule. Edger will use the updates in your library to create a queue. The best part is, it will “automagically” fill and refill itself and your updates is not going to waste.
Here are some points to conclude on our second question
- Social media game is changing and your blog needs one or more. Adapt to it or die.
- Depending on your niche, you may consider those unusual networks to reach your audience.
- Use tools wisely and spend some time to look into your followers and metrics.
Related article: Analyzing social media and blog metrics for business to boost engagement
Moving on to our final question for our Twitter chat
#WHSRnetChat Q3. What is the best way to make money from your blog?
Making money from blogging is always the hottest topic around the Internet. When you look at Google search trends, it is one of the most popular keywords of all time.
What does this tell you? Obviously people are looking for some real answers.
In January 2016, Pat Flynn from Smart Passive Income made $106,492.27. He is making (almost) as much as a small-cap public listed company.
But, where and what to begin with?
According to some of our participants, the best way to make money from blogging is affiliate sales.
In order: #1 Direct Affiliate sales, #2 Negotiated Ad Placements #3 Amazon affiliate, #4 Adsense/Media.net.
— Brian Jackson (@brianleejackson) 13 April 2016
Affiliate Commissions ?
— Angel Balichowski (@Angelcbali) 18 April 2016
Using a blog to provide a solution to your readers is also a popular way to make money. Here's how you can do it
cater to an audience and their needs, provide a solution thats monetizable (ie: how to increase credit score) then walk through it
— Zac Johnson (@zacjohnson) 17 April 2016
Some of them may use blog as a leads generation tool to increase sales for products or services.
use blogging for lead generation and sell your products or services. What do you think?
— Stephanie Clegg (@StephanieFrasco) 14 April 2016
Use your blog as an inbound marketing tool to attract real, paying clients for regular, recurring services.
— Brent Jones (@brentjonline) 13 April 2016
Gael Breton from Authority Hacker has analyzed how bloggers make money from blogging and came up with 3 major categories where the money comes from (which appear quite close to our survey):
Here are some points to conclude our last question:
- Many bloggers are making good money online. It can be done.
- You can always begin with one of the three categories above.
- Take action and learn from the pros along the way.
Related article: How to make (more) money blogging: niche ideas, case studies, and traffic strategies
This is our WHSR Twitter chat recap on #WHSRnetChat. I hope it is useful to you.
You are welcome to give us your feedback on our next Twitter chat question. Tag us on #WHSRnetChat to share your experience or ask your own questions.
Before I end my post, credit to those who have given us feedback. Let's connect @WHSRnet
@sherisaid, @rozkwalker, @michelotta, @30ishblogging, @cucumbertown, @cre8d, @mousefashion95, @KintsugiOfLife, @aannadobreva, @SalmaDinani, @kevvieguy, @DeepaliBhatt4, @teresamorone, @BeaverBuilder, @ClassyChicChris, @friendshiptree3, @emfriesen, @thejfoster42, @HoylesFitness, @ImRose1, @ElleAyEsse, @MikeSMcDonald, @WebpresenceUK, @INNOVEXco, @B_Grimaldi, @shyvish, @mzoptimizm, @UwanaWhat, @ikechiawazie, @MinucaElena, @PrinceBonhomme, @FreshPressMe, @christopherjanb, @bloghandsseo
