I recently asked the help of a few Twitter users to measure the impact that Twitter can have on promoting a blog post. Plenty of bloggers on Twitter will tweet about their own posts but I wanted to see the power of “retweeting“, when other Twitter users put out a link and suggest your blog post to their followers.

The outcome: Some simple Twitter promotion and retweeting DOUBLED my normal blog traffic for the day.

I’ve found myself referring to Twitter as broadcasting channels, no different than TV or radio. Each channel (person) has it’s own set of followers (audience). Some are shared and the sizes, interests and interaction of the audience vary.

The Blog Post To Be Retweeted
The first thing I did was create a post of solid value and interest. No, not all of my posts make this criteria. So I thought that sharing our email marketing campaign statistics would be a great post.

The Twitter Broadcast Channels
Next I hit up some folks I know on Twitter from various web and Internet marketing backgrounds, “Twitter styles” and number of followers. Accepting my request to help were Desarae Veit of Sniki, David Mihm a Portland Web Designer, Kirk Anderson a Wisconsin Web Designer and Mike Rynchek, a Minneapolis Online Marketer. I’ll break down their Twitter handles and followers at the end of this post, but these four broadcast channels and myself gave me exposure to over 2,300 followers.

The Retweeting Message
Here is a screenshot of a Twitter search of the TinyURL that was given to them to retweet my post. You can see how each of them suggested my post/link to their followers and audience.

The Blog Traffic Result
Retweeting and the Twitter broadcasting made my unique visitors double, my page views double and I gained 8 new subscribers that day. No doubt, it was a powerful promotion tool for my blog. I went into this little experiment hoping for a bit of a spike but was very pleased with what it offered up. A few of my retweeters even shared with me that their readers gave them feedback or thanked them for putting them onto my post. How cool is that?

Twitter is a great broadcast tool and traffic generator, not just a great networking tool.

The Twitter Info On Those Who Helped
Here again are those that helped me and how you can follow them on Twitter. They all put out some great tweets on web design, social media, online marketing, SEO and small business. I suggest you follow them.

• Desarae Veit (1400+ followers) http://twitter.com/desaraev
• Mike Rynchek (500+ followers) http://twitter.com/mikerynchek
• David Mihm (300+ followers) http://twitter.com/davidmihm
• Kirk Anderson (150+ followers) http://twitter.com/kirkaanderson

Of course you can always follow me as well at http://twitter.com/AaronWeiche .

Do you have a Twitter story to share on what it has done for your blogging traffic, web traffic or another aspect of your business? I would love to see your comments on this.

If you’re like me you learn far more by getting your hands on a real life example. It’s one thing to read how Twitter can help you or that e-commerce success could be yours; it’s another to get the details of a true experience. Here are two posts I came across recently that through sharing their own experience or interviewing bring great insight into success online.

+ A “Non Big Brand” Twitter Case Study from Sugarrae
Get an outline of how a website providing Blackberry news and info started up with Twitter, gained initial traction, then flatlined and then reach a whole new level. This post has a great outline of what led to their recent burst and success using Twitter to strengthen their community and interaction with their website. Pay attention to the 9 great items on why their “Second coming” increased the success.

+ A Small Business Marketing Success Story: K9cuisine.com from Matt McGee
Matt wrote this article for Search Engine Land and put together a great interview with a niche e-commerce website that serves the premium pet food market. Company and website owner Anthony Holloway outlines their start, their success and the choices they made to get where they are.

Of interest to me was the information on how they leverage customer reviews of the products to increase the content and offering on the site. K9cuisine.com has created a simple but fantastic method to follow up with customers and get their 2 cents after the purchase. Every small business e-commerce website can learn one thing or more from this post.

When getting new business cards to start 2008 I added my Skype ID to my listing of contact information on my business cards.  I use Skype quite a bit, it’s one more way to connect with me, so it made sense.  Now that I have been growing addicted to Twitter, I think that having my Twitter ID  on my business card would be an even better idea.

My main value in Twitter currently is networking and following other great business, web design and Internet marketing minds.  As Twitter continues to grow  in the mainstream, I hope to utilize it as a touch-point and educational tool with my clients and potential clients.  These reasons lead me to think that my next reprint of business cards later this year will have my Twitter ID on it.  (AaronWeiche)

Here is a mock-up of my current business card with my Twitter info replacing where my current Skype info is.

Business Card Front:

Business Card Back

Are you considering adding your Twitter ID or do you already have it on your business card?  Maybe you heavily utilize another web service like Facebook, LinkedIn or an IM.  What about those?

It was after watching a video on Twitter Marketing 101 posted on Doug Karr’s blog that I finally signed up for Twitter. I had probably made it to Twitter.com numerous times after reading other blog posts or print articles on Twitter, but for some reason I held off on getting involved. Looking back I compare it to late 2006 when I finally started business blogging after sitting on the sidelines (for far too long). Now 30 days into Tweeting, I have put out 73 tweets, the last one on writing this blog post. I’m following 41 people and in turn being followed by 34.

What Was My Hesitation To Start On Twitter?
I thought there couldn’t be enough value in short thoughts, randomly in the day. I couldn’t wrap myself around the benefits and use of the technology, mostly because I didn’t even give it a try. I thought that online interaction couldn’t get any better than a blog post and comment string. I was wrong.

“Finally signing up for twitter and tracking peeps down”
Yup, that was my first Tweet. With that first update I starting to search out people already using Twitter and I started to understand the value. Foremost for me in the beginning, Twitter was going to be access to some great minds in web design, Internet marketing and all that other web stuff I love. Finally I looked at what I could “buy” by being on Twitter instead of what I could “sell”. I could suddenly see what intrigued Lee Odden, where Ted Murphy was pitching Social Spark ( I heart Rockstartup.com), what conference Rand Fishkin is speaking at or even the random humor of Aaron Mentele and Ed Kohler. I was eavesdropping on great Internet minds, thanks to their sharing via Twitter.

Participating In The Conversation
I remember when starting to blog, the pressure I felt to make “valuable” comments on all these great blogs and posts I was reading. The fear of saying something basic (or stupid) to these great web minds often lead me to not participate. Then I decided I would never get anything out of sitting on the sidelines and that these great minds would probably still interact with my takes even if they weren’t earth shattering. They did.

I learned even more because I jumped in the game. That same thing has applied to Twitter. The first few days I thought I had to tweet some great information, break some great news or hype a blog post first. Then I remembered my blogging experience and I just went with what I was really doing and being myself. Turns out I have things to offer without being an A-list. Now the tweets come easy, without pressure and I get more out of it. I enjoy it.

The Benefits Of Twitter So Far
The biggest benefit has been the access to the intelligent and savvy minds of industry experts as I touched on. What a great source to get a better pulse of what they are plugged into … or what they just ordered for lunch.

Another benefit has been finding other peers out there locally in Minneapolis and in other areas of the country doing what I do and being equally talented at it. Rick Brooks of Flyte New Media, Teddy Garcia of Cyber Media Marketing, August Ash Web Design here in MN and of course knowing even more on Paul Jahn’s local search thoughts. Being in the industry that has the biggest users of Twitter is a benefit. If I was into pottery or cooking, I doubt I would have access to so many respected and experienced folks.

Getting put onto news or industry articles quickly has been another benefit. People like Matt McGee, Chris Winfield and Jennifer Laycock put me onto some great info well before I would ever find it through blogs … and maybe I wouldn’t even find it at all.

I’ve been baited and hooked on Twitter as well. Just last week PRmoxie of Sterling Cross Communications mentioned a new business publication in Minneapolis she was just added to and when I asked her how to get in on it … she let me know a good PR person (like herself of course) could make that happen. A sales pitch on Twitter! That tweet did get me thinking of when the timing will be right to utilize her services. Without following her on Twitter, that wouldn’t have happened.

So What’s Next?
It certainly has been an eye opening month for me on Twitter. I haven’t even touched on the many other business or marketing uses of Twitter and the accompanying tools others have created. I’ll be posting more on that down the road. I’m looking forward to tapping in to more great minds, access to industry information and learning. I’m interested to see what my threshold is for following, can I possibly follow 100 people and still get great value? 200?

I will be using Twitter to launch and promote an internal web project for Five Technology later this month and I can’t wait to see the results. Lastly I’m curious to see what it will take to gain more of my own audience and followers.

Will mainstream media and attention push more small business owners and management, especially in the Minnesota area, to join Twitter to follow a great small business web design and Internet marketing mind? I hope so and they (and you now!) can follow me by visiting Twitter.com/AaronWeiche.

It’s not hard to imagine the same growth and acceptance blogs have seen in the mainstream this past year hitting Twitter. But even if that doesn’t happen, I have already found the value of Twitter for me, in just 30 days.