Is it worthwhile to repeat yourself?

Most folks who have a blog and use Twitter will send a tweet that links to a new blog post (either manually or through an automated means). That’ll drive traffic, but how many of your Twitter followers will see it?

TweetHint: not all of them. Probably not even a majority of them. If someone is following more than a few people on Twitter, they’re not reading everything. Twitter users drift in and out of the stream of tweets, catching whatever happens to flow by while they watch. If you’re tweeting while someone happens to be away, your tweet probably isn’t being seen.

One way to help your tweet reach more viewers is to repeat the tweet. One option is an automated tweet scheduling service such as that offered by FutureTweets or SocialOomph.

Another method (and the one which I use) is to manually post a tweet at a later point, referencing the post which someone might have missed. For example, see this tweet which was the automated tweet when my post-SXSW thoughts went live, and then I manually posted a follow-up tweet later that evening to catch a crowd that might not have seen the original one.

You don’t want to overdo it and post too many times… after all, the folks that are paying close attention don’t want to see you advertise the same post over and over and over, but I’d argue that tweeting a link 2-3 times is completely appropriate.

And so I ask… is it worthwhile to repeat yourself?

Photo by wonderferret, used under Creative Commons licensing

These other posts might be of interest to you:

  1. Future Blog Content: Schedule Your Posts
  2. Can You Tweet Too Much?
  3. 14 Things a Photographer Can Tweet About

Tagged as:
blogging,
promotion,
self-promotion,
tweets,
Twitter

Raffle TicketsHaving a contest? Want to spread the word easily to a lot of people that are already networked with like-minded individuals? Twitter is a great format for spreading the words about contests and driving visitors to your site to enter. Although Twitter is a great tool when used in a respectful way, occasionally it’s used in ways that can actually drive folks away or sour them to your brand. As an example, a while back I talked about my annoyance with contests that urge folks to retweet to win.

I was pleased this week to see that photographer Scott Bourne has laid out his contest rules, and they include very reasonable entry instructions for Twitter. He encourages folks to tweet about the contest one time, and makes it clear that participants should not retweet multiple times (there’s no benefit to retweeting). I’ve given Scott some grief in the past over how he’s handled contests on Twitter, but I want to point to his current Twitter contests as a great example of how to do it right. It’s a great model that will allow your followers to spread the word about your contest but won’t be seen as an over-the-top or spamlike promotion.

Photo by alykat, used under Creative Commons licensing

These other posts might be of interest to you:

  1. Twitter Contests: I Now View Them All as Spam
  2. Don’t Retweet to Win
  3. Facebook Contests and Promotions: Read the Restrictive Rules

Tagged as:
contests,
promotion,
Twitter