8 Tips on Guest Posting Your Way to Twitter Dominance

l be honest: I’m a bad tweeter (or twitterer?). I’ve been on Twitter for about seven months, and I only have 680 followers. It’s been a struggle, mainly because I haven’t put much time into it as I should.

So recently I’ve resolved get better. I’ve RT’d my followers tweets, focused less of my tweets on my blog, and started building relationships. But I’ve discovered something crazy: guest posting rocks for twitter. To start the month of February, after over six months of twittering, I had 347 followers. As of today I have 680. In that time, I had two guest posts go up on Daily Blog Tips and Write to Done. After we published the guest post on Daily Blog Tips, we went from 400 followers to about 575 in one week. We gained nearly 20 followers a day. The next week, when we had a guest post on Write to Done, we added about 75 more.

Guest posts won’t just help your blog, they help you get followers. In the last month, I’ve doubled my number of followers, and guest posting is the reason why. I’ve gotten more followers from guest posts then finding people in my niche on wefollow, or through random searches. Most importantly, I’ve found better followers who actually want to read what I have to write.

The bottom line: guest posting works. It will get you more followers on Twitter. Here’s how:

1. You Need a Catchy Title – To get an article to spread on twitter, you need a good twitter title. The catchier your title, the better. But it also has to be clear. Helpful titles (like “9 More Ways to promote Your Blog Offline”, or “10 Writing Rules You Can’t break…And How To Break Them”) will spread like twitter wildfire. Check out these tips for better titles on your tweets.

2. Write Great Content – Write a good guest post. If what you write is awesome, tweeters–particularly honest, genuine tweeters–will want to RT what you have to say. The best way to get people talking (or tweeting) is to give them something to talk (or tweet) about.

3. Be a Good Guest Poster - Make sure you follow good guest poster etiquette. Check out these links over at Problogger for tips on how to be an exceptional guest poster. If one guest post gets you 125 new followers, a second may bring in 100 more.

4. Aim for Popular Blogs – Popular blogs–like Problogger, CopyBlogger, etc–automatically get tons of RTs. A lot of these RTs aren’t honest, they come from twitter aggregates, but still you’ll get a lot more exposure than you would have on your small twitter account or blog. Leverage their size.

5. Give Your Best Stuff Away – At least in the beginning. Platforms–again, like Problogger, CopyBlogger, etc–will get you more eye balls, which means more RTs, which means more followers. Use that opportunity to get your unique, fresh perspective out there.

6. Follow your Re-tweeters – Most blogs have a Tweetmeme button. Click on it, and follow the people who liked your post. You can also do this by searching for your post’s title on Twitter. If someone liked your insights once, chances are they’ll like your insights in the future.

7. Thank your Re-tweeters – If you have the time, this lets people know you appreciate what they have done for you.

8. Promote Your Guest Post - Re-tweet your post and see if it strikes a chord with your followers. You should already be doing this.

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