If you’re using Twitter for business reasons, you should care. And here’s why:

1. Measure Engagement

Retweets are an indication of how engaged your followers are. If they aren’t retweeting any of your posts, chances are they don’t find them that interesting.

2. Follower Attrition

Some of the folks who are singing your praises now will be gone in six months. That’s because you can’t be all things to all people all the time (and you shouldn’t being trying to). People grow, they change and have different needs as time goes on. New people who follow you because of a retweet they saw will take their place. It’s not personal, it’s just business.

3. Measure Content

Getting retweeted is partially a function of good content. Or at least good headlines.

How To Get Retweeted

1. Be Relevant - A survey conducted by Dan Zarrella found that people share content because they thought it was relevant for someone they know. In other words, try and stay relevant to topics your followers want to hear about.
2. Write Pithy Headlines – On Twitter all we have is 140 characters. How would someone like Shel Silverstein tweet?
3. Include links – Dan also found that retweets tend to have more links. 56.69% of retweets contain a link versus 18.96% of normal tweets.
4. Add your own thoughts – One big limitation with Twitter’s retweets is that you can’t edit the tweet before retweeting. Tools like Seesmic and Tweetie give users a second option of “quoting” the tweet where you can edit it to your liking.
5. Break News – Be the first to share breaking news on a topic. Know beforehand what might be newsworthy before it trends by creating a Google or Tweetbeep alert.
6. Not About You - Dan also found that talking about the color of your underwear won’t get retweeted as much as talking about the color of Madonna’s underwear.
7. Nurture Community – People that create trust with their community tend to be retweeted more than those who lack any connection to their followers. Don’t forget the really simple mind map I showed you yesterday to frame community development.
8. DM a Retweet request – You can also send a private message asking for a retweet. This has to be used sparingly or you’ll quickly drain your social equity account. Also, make it easy and DM a link to the tweet you’d like retweeted.
9. Use your iPhone – The Retweet app lists the top retweets. Retweeting the valuable posts sparingly will increase your exposure to new users.
10. Embed Retweets – Put a “ClickToTweet” link in your email newsletters and particular blog pages. Read “How To Get More Email Subscribers With Embeded Retweets“ for more info.
11. Timing – Dan also found that 4:00PM is the when the most retweets happen. Especially on a Friday.
12. Say Please – Dan also found that saying please also increased the likelihood that someone would retweet your post.
13. Say Thank You – People like to be acknowledged when they retweet your post. Plus it’s just polite.

You’re also using email marketing to build the community on your blog. And you’ve got that down too. You’ve even embeded your Twitter ID in your emails, so almost every Twitter user on your email list is following you.

But wouldn’t it be great if it was easier for folks on Twitter to promote and retweet your email list to their followers? What if, with one mouse click,  they could promote your email list on Twitter?

How To Get More Email Subscribers With Embeded Retweets

In this short video, I’ll cover a 4-step process:

1. Ask your email subscribers to tweet about your email list.
2. Create a custom URL for the landing page where Twitter folks can subscribe.
3. Create an embeded retweet using ClickToTweet.Com
4. Embed the retweet into the request mentioned above in step 1.

LinkedIn presents a wealth of untapped potential for non-profits. It’s the most respected professional social networking site with over 55 millions professionals from 200 different countries. Their tagline says it all: <em>”<a href=”http://www.linkedin.com/static?key=company_info&amp;trk=hb_ft_abtli” target=”_blank”>Relationships Matter</a>”.</em>
Here are a few more tips on <a href=”      http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhaydon” target=”_blank”>using LinkedIn</a> to promote your blog.<h3 style=”text-align: left;”>Title Are Everything</h3><p style=”text-align: left;”>The short <a href=”      http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhaydon” target=”_blank”>title of your LinkedIn profile</a> is the first thing that gets seen in searches. Make it interesting.</p><p style=”text-align: left;”><img src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2719/4312996494_5f251ccdf3.jpg” alt=”titles are everything” /></p>
<h3 style=”text-align: left;”>List Prior Lives</h3>If your profile only lists your current position, you’re limiting the power of LinkedIn.
When you include past employers in your profile, LinkedIn automatically alerts you of past colleagues. Including your complete professional history will help you build a network of those prior connections.<h3 style=”text-align: left;”>LinkedIn Email Signature</h3>An embedded email signature is an easy way to promote your skills and experience (and your blog) in the course of doing business.<h3 style=”text-align: left;”>Improve Your Google Rankings</h3>Because LinkedIn profiles <a href=”http://www.johnhaydon.com/?p=185″>rank very high on Google</a>, exposure for your blog goes along for the ride. However, to maximize this potential, select “<a href=”http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnhaydon”>Full View</a>” in your profile settings. Also, customize your public profile’s URL to be your actual name – then put this link on your website and use this link when you comment on blogs.
<img src=”http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4025/4312974616_2db0d94261.jpg” alt=”LinkedIn URL” /><h3 style=”text-align: left;”>Edit “My Website”</h3>LinkedIn profiles allow you to list blogs or websites. Edit the <em>“My Website”</em> section and include your non-profit (select “Other” from the main menu). In addition to your url, edit the text to include keywords for your organization. Again, this will help SEO.
<img src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2768/4312974584_3499709830.jpg” alt=”LinkedIn Anchor Text” /><h3>Import Your Blog</h3>LinkedIn has several applications, including a WordPress blog import. This allows you to feature your most recent blog posts on your LinkedIn profile.
<img src=”http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4046/4312996360_eecde1e353.jpg” alt=”wordpress blog” /><h3>Tweet Your Status</h3>You can also post your tweets to your LinkedIn status. But be careful with this one – especially if you’re on Twitter a lot. Select the option that allows you to pick which tweets you wanted copied over to LinkedIn.<img src=”http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2736/4312260963_58b24a1c06.jpg” alt=”selective tweets” /><h3>What cool thing have you done with LinkedIn?</h3>

I’m amazed by success stories of individuals picking up new clients, receiving a full time job and selling more products because of the way they utilize the Q&A section on LinkedIn.

This post is focused on driving traffic to your blog, but if you harness these principles you will notice more than just traffic as a bonus for your business.  Let’s begin.

Ask Interesting Questions

The more compelling questions you ask, the better each response will be.   If you are trying to promote your blog, then you will want to ask questions about your niche or industry. If you were an online marketer who specializes in email marketing your question might be:

“What is your biggest challenge you face with email marketing, and what is your favorite email marketing provider?”

At the end of your question (where they provide room for additional comments) you could mention that the best answer will win a free 20 minute strategy session from you. Also offer to add their comments to your blog.

Hopefully you already have a reference page on your site with a rating system for the best email-marketing providers. Then you would have many posts regarding best practices on email marketing.

By asking a question, you are peaking others’ curiosity to click on your LinkedIn profile (or the link listed with your question) They would then recognize why you are an industry leader based on the content from your site.

Give Your Best Stuff Away for Free

Answering questions is also a great way to promote your blog.  Not only are you building yourself up as an expert in a certain niche, but you are also increasing views back to your LinkedIn profile.  If setup properly, your profile will direct more people to your blog.

When you answer questions, don’t blatantly try to promote your site. Simply offer the best answer possible that helps that individual solve their issue.

Try to set yourself apart from the crowd of people answering questions that push their products and services.

Give the best answer without pushing yourself, and the right people will be naturally drawn to this; they will check out your blog and become your fan.

Be Yourself

The Q&A section on LinkedIn is just one aspect you should be focusing on to drive traffic to your site.  Joining and creating groups, customizing your websites on your profile, adding your blog to your profile, updating your status, along with other aspects will within LinkedIn will ultimately make LinkedIn a traffic driving machine.

Continue to optimize your profile, stay active, ask interesting questions, and offer great advice for those seeking answers.

Here is a good intro video for Google Analytics.  If you are new to use Google Analytics, this is a good place to start. SBT recommends you use Google Analytics to follow “the numbers” on your site.