I don’t know about you, but Twitter has made me a bit of a lazy blogger. It makes it so easy to keep in contact with my readers, and keep up-to-date with what other bloggers are up to, that by the time I’ve updated my Twitter account a few times a day, I don’t feel the need to publish a whole new post on the blog.

Twitter is also an excellent tool for marketing your blog, making new contacts, and increasing your exposure as a blogger.  Here are a few things I’ve discovered so far:

Marketing your blog
Twitter is really invaluable as a free marketing tool. How else can you reach thousands of people a day, without them even having to visit your blog? Every update you add to Twitter is effectively an advertisement for your blog – even if it isn’t directly related to your subject matter. As one Tweeter said to me recently: Twitter is all about adding personality to your blogger persona. It’s an opportunity to reveal a little more about yourself without giving everything away; your readers may not want to find completely off-topic posts when they’ve come to your blog, but everyone is happy to see a little more personality revealed by their favourite bloggers on Twitter.

Exposure for your blog
As a result, Twitter is really an opportunity to reach people you wouldn’t otherwise, who might not be all that interested in the topic of your blog. For example, they might not read personal finance blogs, but if your Twitter updates are interesting, amusing or useful, people will be more inclined to drop by your blog and even link to the posts they want to share with others.

Making new contacts
Making new contacts through blogs alone can be time consuming. Trawling for blogs, leaving comments, sending emails – it can sometimes seem like a lot of work.  But networking through Twitter is easy, and if you get nothing back, you’ve not lost anything.  Not only are you in constant contact with other Bloggers in your Twitter community, it’s simple to make new contacts and keep abreast of the current hot topics by paying attention to what others are commenting on and passing around.

Top Tips for using Twitter:

1.    First things first
Make sure your account is set up correctly with all your details so that others can find you.

2.    Target the right people
Start by finding other bloggers in your current network. Then trawl their followers and follow them – chances are, as they are interested in your topic area already, they will follow you back. If not, you can always ditch them.  It’s always worth following the ‘big’ names in your subject area, because they may have automatic follows set up, and it looks good if you are being followed by some of the big kids.

3.    Quantity vs quality followers
While some people advocate having ‘quality’ followers as opposed to sheer quantity, these can go hand-in-hand. People will be more likely to follow you if they see you already have a large following. Also, if you send occasional @ replies to a few choice big-name Tweeters, people looking at your profile will think you have a rapport with them.

4.    Get involved with other Tweeters
While you can just update your Twitter account without referring or replying to other users, it’s not very social. It makes it more fun and helps create relationships with other Tweeters.

5.    It’s all for the love of the links
Remember the first thing you learnt about blogging? Always be linking! Each time you post on your blog, link back to it. If you see something interesting on someone else’s blog, link to it. If you see something you like on youtube, link to it! Establish yourself as a resource for interesting things on the internet and people will be more likely to link to you – remember, mostly we humans are lazy, if there is someone willing to do something for us, we will let them!

6.    Have a great avatar
How many times have you been trawling other people’s followers and had your eye drawn by a great avatar? It always makes me click through to their profile. Try to keep to the theme and artwork on your blog for the sake of familiarity and be interesting and original as possible!

7.    Update regularly
Just like a forlorn, abandoned blog, there’s nothing that will be ‘un-followed’ faster than a profile that updates once a month. Unless you’re Tina Fey that is – but chances are, you aren’t. Make like Stephen Fry and update regularly so that your updates have a continuity and life of their own.

8.    Don’t be a pest
Don’t do anything annoying like setting up automatic replies to each update your contacts make. If you are contacting others, do it thoughtfully.

Favourite Twitter tools:

Advanced Twitter Search Tool
To search for Tweeters beyond your immediate community, use the Advanced Twitter Search tool, which allows you to search Tweeters and Twitters by words, phrases, language, people, places, dates and even mood (positive or negative attitude).

Tweetdeck
Adobe Air application that allows you to manage your account and stay up-to-date all from your desktop.

Twuffer
Application that allows you to write your Twitter updates in advance and schedule them for publication (just like when you post-date articles on your blog).

Twitterfeed
Allows you to feed your blog to twitter, identi.ca, HelloTxt or Ping.fm

Twitthis
An easy way for people to send Twitter messages about your blog post or website by shortening the URL so it won’t take up the entire character limit.

Friend or follow
Lets you see who are you following that not following you back, and who’s following you that you’re not following back.

Tweeteffect
See which of your updates made people un-follow you or follow you. Invaluable!

And remember, if you aren’t already following me on Twitter, feel free! See my profile here.