By Krizia of Eat Smart Age Smart – you can follow her @KriziaMissK
I have been following Darren regularly since September 2007, shortly after launching my first lifestyle site myBeautyMatch.com in June 2007. I remember him announcing his new TwiTip site, devoted to using Twitter to promote your blog and your business, and visited immediately.
I’ve been using Twitter to reach a broader audience since late 2008, but it was only in the spring of this year, when I launched my second site (EatSmartAgeSmart), that I really stepped up my Twitter game and started pro-actively interacting with other members.
When Twitter became a regular topic on The View, The Ellen Show and Larry King Live, I knew this platform wasn’t just a tool for techies any more. It had become mainstream and a great way to reach my audience.
I read a lot of Internet marketing-related sites and noticed a “retweet” button on a number of them. I didn’t pay that much attention at first — I dismissed retweeting as something hardcore business sites would use, but not a site like mine about healthy eating.
In June, my Internet marketing coach Yaro Starak agreed to feature one of my posts from Eat Smart Age Smart on his site as long as I made sure it spoke to his audience of entrepreneurs. Since I am both an entrepreneur and a blogger, I know all about the effects eating habits can have on productivity levels, so that’s what I focused on in my post.
When Yaro sent me an email to let me know my post was up, I was really excited. I was expecting a few congratulatory comments, but I was not prepared for the flood of messages or the staggering number of retweets the post received.
When I noticed the retweet counter climbing and climbing on Yaro’s site, I started clicking on some of his other posts and was surprised to discover a lot of them didn’t have as many retweets as mine did. I also looked at other expert guests Yaro featured and noticed many got around 30 retweets on average, but not the 70+ retweets I did.
The guest blog was originally intended to generate some much-needed attention for my new site, but it quickly turned into a lesson on why a lifestyle blog like mine absolutely needed a retweet button. There are a number of lessons I’ve learned from including a retweet button on my site:
1) The retweet button is a great way for my regular readers to share content they like from my site.
2) Retweeting is an incredible way to get old content recirculaed around the web.
3) Readers seem to be more inclined to retweet than use Digg.
4) The retweet button is a great market research tool.
I want to spend a bit more time on the last point because it’s so important for new blogs and new bloggers. When you are just starting a new blog, there are very few ways for you to know if people like your content or not. You won’t always get loyal readers leaving long or multiple comments, and you may often feel like you are shooting in the dark when it comes to content creation.
By adding a retweet button to your new blog from day one, you’ll be able to follow the posts with high retweet rates and know what people like to read, and, most importantly, what they feel valuable enough to retweet. Basically, your retweet button becomes an amazing free market research and polling tool!
I added a retweet button to my blog in early August. Since then, I’ve been amazed by the posts that did well and were highly retweeted and those I thought were great ones, but didn’t score so high with my readers.
Since my second blog only launched in April 2009, I’m sure I’ll get a more accurate read on which posts are of interest to my readers as I get more traffic, because the increase in traffic should also mean an increase in the number of readers likely to retweet.
Here’s something else I’ve discovered: a lot of the posts that were featured before I added the retweet button are getting high retweets as well, which helps older posts circulate on the web and generates even more traffic and comments from readers!
So to answer my initial question … yes! A retweet button can help you write a better blog, regardless of your niche.
Read my post on Yaro Starak’s site here.
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@mathanraj87
yes… retweet button will helpful to create blog….
sure… i think
@aisajib
Thanks to the writer for coming up with a completely different post.
Also thanks to darren for setting up such a neat and clean blog for twitter.
I really love this thesis theme. But I’m getting used to and eventually bored of seeing this theme in almost everywhere these days.
@professorbeej
Retweet buttons have been great. I’m still working on building a reader-base, but generally, the ones I have retweet a bit and get it out there. I love checking out my most recent posts and seeing the RT number having grown.
I feel bad, though, because often I want to ask for retweets or comments, but I feel that’s pushing it a bit.
@twitfools
Our blog is relatively new but the RT button has been invaluable as we strive to reach a wider audience. It is used much more frequently than the other social share buttons we have on our blog. Of course, we are also a twitter-centric so we naturally attract a tweeting audience. Thanks for another great post. Twitip inspires us to be better! Feel free to visit us at TwitterFools.com we welcome you feedback and comments.
@BetterBodiesSFV
I think that the article is great. I do have one question, how can I add this retweet button to my posts?
@KriziaMissK
Thanks to all for your great comments!
@ Sajib – this is still the best way to communicate and educate at the same time.
@ Better Bodies in Training – I am not that tech savvy and have asked my web master for some help.
This is the kind of job you can easily outsource.
Krizia
It feels like circular reasoning to retweet this post. *smile*
And for those who want to know – there’s a post in the archives on how to add the retweet button. http://www.twitip.com/get-a-retweet-button-for-your-blog/
@_Crushable_
My personal take is that social media is a secondary source, your main goal should be ranking for key phrases in google. However, twitter and retweet are great social proofs that you blog is popular and has readers, and also twitter is becoming more of a search engine it self. I have a new blog, I wrote about how to use twitter to get a date
fun stuff
cheers,
super awesome
@ariherzog
The retweet button, like the digg button, the stumbleupon button, the mixx button, the sphinn button, et al, is only effective if your readers use it. And some blogs, despite a dominance of readers with twitter accounts, are more effective with a non-twitter button. Something to think about.
@jimmyjangles
That tip doesn’t actually help you actually write a better blog, but rather helps you promote your blog.
Just sayin.
@momtohanna
@jimmyjangles ~ well actually it does. If you pay attention to the posts that are getting retweeted most you can provide more similar content. The more content your readers like the better your blog.
I love the retweet button. I have it on all my blogs. It really does help me to see what interests my readers, and I try to give them more of what they want. I was incredibly exited to read today that I can now add the retweet button to my squidoo lenses! Another great way to promote good content.
@berget
I don’t have a retweet button on my blog, but I am using the SexyBookmarks plugin. This way my blog posts will be bookmarked and shared.
Now, I realize that what you’re saying is that if I used a retweet button it would be a lot easier to see the popularity of my posts, ergo how I should be writing and which topics I should write more about (because the button actually says how many times the post have been retweeted).
It makes sense.
The reason I’ve waited until now, is that I think it’s sort of embarrassing to have the retweet button if nobody retweets. A big zero is not helping on promoting my blog, even though I might have close to 1000 unique visitors a day. A big zero speaks for itself
- Jens -
@KriziaMissK
Jimmy,
I don’t agree. If you know what people like to read, you’ll write a better blog by focusing on topics that are of interest as opposed to shooting in the dark.
I’m just sayin!
Krizia