Many companies are using social media sites as part of their off-page search engine optimisation campaign. This is a smart move, as the social media present the opportunity to access a number of captive audiences. Instead of having to face the whole internet and ask for links, on social media sites can approach their target user groups and ask for links. This is especially true of Twitter.

Twitter can be a very handy marketing tool all round, but if you’ve got information that will interest your target users, Twitter can be a big help in getting them back to your site. The trick is in knowing when to market your business and when to just relax and chat.

Step 1: Make sure it’s all about your followers

Twitter won’t work as part of your off-page SEO plan if you don’t make it about your followers. Thousands of businesses have discovered, to their dismay that straight-out marketing simply doesn’t work on Twitter. You can talk to us at SEO Consult Australia about the social media.

Internet users are highly sensitive to marketing talk. Every day, the average internet user is exposed to thousands of marketing messages through sidebar ads, pop-ups, emails, videos and basic content. You’ve probably experienced it yourself. Sometimes, it seems like you can’t go anywhere on the net without someone wanting something of you. This gets very tiring.

On social media sites like Twitter, the users have all the power. They don’t have to put up with your marketing message in order to access the site. They’re not getting anything out of it by listening to you. You have to put something in your message that makes it worthwhile for them.

Step 2: A slow build to links

Don’t expect links right away. Twitter campaigns, like all SEO, take time. The best type of Twitter campaign slowly builds, so that your followers get used to relying on you for information. Links will follow.

It’s good to note that links also sometimes need prompting on Twitter. It’s okay to ask.

Note: Don’t jump the gun

There are some things you need to know about Twitter before you can use it as an internet marketing tool. The first is that Twitter is, exactly like the name suggests, a big tree full of social conversation. Twitter is most popular on mobile platforms because people like to catch up and comment when they’re going about their ordinary lives. Barging in there with your search engine optimisation plan will get you nowhere.

It’s best to imagine Twitter as the conversation at a dinner party. If you walk in and start loudly advertising your business, people will edge away and you’ll spend the rest of the party alone. Likewise, if you make lots of friends with ordinary social chat and then suddenly switch to your business line, people will be put off. However, if you work your way in with normal conversation, noting that you’re a business owner, and gradually build up to your internet marketing goal, people might stop and listen.