10 Ways Bloggers Can Use Twitter

Twitter is a fun and useful way to promote your blog and drive traffic to it. While it might seem that micro-blogging through Twitter might just be a fun thing to do, you can actually use Twitter to grow your blog. Remember, building relationships is a key part of growing your blog, and Twitter is an excellent tool for building relationships.

Take a look at the suggestions below for how you can use Twitter to drive traffic to your blog.

1. Drive Traffic
   Twitter has a viral marketing effect to it wherein your tweets could spread quickly across the Twitter community if they are interesting. For example, if you're hosting a blog contest or launching a new feature on your blog, send a tweet to let your followers know. Chances are they'll spread the word as well. As word gets out, more and more people will visit your blog to check out what all the hype is about.
2. Network with Like-Minded People
   Twitter is set up inherently to act as a networking tool. People "follow" users whose tweets they enjoy or interest them. As such, you'll be able to connect with like-minded people by using Twitter which could lead to more traffic to your blog and much more.
3. Make Business Contacts
   Just as Twitter is a great networking tool for finding like-minded people, it's also very effective with connecting users with business contacts. Whether you're looking to hire someone to help you with your blog or business (or both), looking for a new job, or just looking to bounce ideas off your business peers, Twitter can help.
4. Establish Yourself as an Expert
   Twitter can help support your efforts to establish yourself as an expert in your field or blogging niche to the online community. By communicating through tweets about subject-matter you're knowledgeable in, answering questions via tweets, and searching out new contacts, your efforts to be viewed as an expert (which gives your blog greater credibility and appeal) will grow.
5. Get Ideas for Blog Posts
   If you're having a dry spell in terms of coming up with post ideas, Twitter can help get your creative juices flowing. Read and send some tweets and see what people are talking about. Something you read is apt to spark a post idea or two to get you through a temporary state of blogger's block.
6. Ask Questions
   Just as you might use Twitter to establish yourself as an expert in your field, other people use it for the same reason. Don't be afraid to ask questions. You just might learn something new and find new bloggers and users to connect with!
7. Provide Live Coverage
   If you're attending a conference or meeting that you'd like to share, you can send multiple tweets real-time to share the information you learn then expound on your tweets with blog posts.
8. Ask for Diggs, Stumbles and Other Promotional Help
   Twitter is a great place to ask your followers to Digg or Stumble your blog posts. You could also ask other users to blog about your post with a link back to it or spread the word to their own Twitter followers to drive more traffic to your blog.
9. Accuracy and Fact Checker
   Imagine you're writing a blog post about a recent event but don't know how to spell the names of the people involved in the event. Send a tweet to get the information you need, and while you're at it, give your followers a heads up about your upcoming blog post.
10. Find and Share Resources
    Need a quote, interview or guest post? Want to offer your services as a source? Send a tweet!