Twitter remains a key player in the social media world.

It’s real-time, it’s interactive and most of all, it allows bloggers and creatives to connect in a really straightforward way. On the whole, users have increased and the trend goes that if you tweet more, you get more followers. With the added bonus of Periscope and Moments, you’re able to get a real insight into the people and brands you follow.

What I love is that it’s not just an app to share your thoughts or promote your content. You can build relationships. Twitter will soon be celebrating its 11th birthday in March and with its age, it’s brought on new features, all with the aim of making it more interactive. Some people are worried that Twitter is on its way out – I disagree.

But despite all the talk about falling sales and its inability to keep up with the big players like Facebook, this platform is still growing.

There are nearly 320 million monthly active users, which is nearly 200 million more than two years ago! But that’s not all. Not only does Twitter have a large audience, it’s an engaged one. 6,000 tweets are shared every second – that’s 350,000 every minute, 500 million a day and 200 billion tweets every single year.

So what does this mean?

Basically, if you aren’t using Twitter effectively, you’re missing out on a HUGE platform to help you grow your blog, personal brand and reach your online goals.

Take me for instance.

When I started blogging three years ago, I had absolutely no idea how anything worked. Sure, I knew social media was going to benefit me, so I set up all my profiles and that was it. I’d already seen some success from having a personal Twitter account, but changing to a more professional one was a totally different ball game.

In a class one day during my MA course, my friend was on Twitter and saw me tweet – but I hadn’t actually tweeted, it was one I’d scheduled to go out. He was completely shocked and it turns out no one else knew you could do this either. I thought to myself, no way. Surely I can’t be the only one who actually knows how to use this platform effectively?

But it turns out I did. So I continued to learn more and more about it and as I took my skills from job to job, the results were amazing.

I helped businesses go from a few haphazard followers to a full blown community of thousands of people. And from no inquiries on Twitter, to it becoming the main source of people getting in touch.

So many brands now focus their marketing efforts on Twitter, because it’s a way of having a direct conversation between the brand and the user. But it’s not just a conversation – it’s developing a relationship. It’s something that could make a one-time visitor become a regular reader or customer.

How big is that? Your Twitter followers exist because these people WANT to know more about you. They want to know your thoughts. They want to read your content. They want to talk to you. No longer is it an advert you hear on the radio that irritates you and makes you want to switch off. You can promote on Twitter without it actually coming across as promotion, grow your brand with people who trust you.

What’s even better is that if you put some time into it and create a strategy, you can see your results increase rapidly. Not convinced? Check out these stats from Brandwatch:

92% of companies tweet more than once a day, 42% tweet 1-5 times a day and 19% tweet 6-10 times a day
77% of Twitter users feel more positive about a brand when their tweet has been replied to

Now you might be wondering – what about the other social media platforms out there? Of course – they’re still super important. I, for one, LOVE Instagram. I think Pinterest is a great tool to promote your blog and Facebook is definitely worthwhile to have.

But one of the best things about Twitter is that it’s completely unique. It’s its own unique news station. It’s a one-stop shop for everything I need and I can honestly say that I love posting and engaging on this channel.

That’s something I can’t say for all the other platforms out there. Plus, Brandwatch listed that there are 50 million active small business Facebook pages, yet only 2.5 million of those pay to be ‘active advertisers’. That means, people see the worth in being on Facebook, but they don’t see the worth in having to pay. Hence why brands love Twitter so much. Users follow you on there because they want to.

So, there’s really only one question left. How can you use Twitter effectively?

First of all, no matter what you blog about – beauty, fashion, interiors, blogging, business, lifestyle or a mixture of those things – you can use it.

POST CONSISTENTLY

I know what you’re going to say, I sound like a broken record! You know that being consistent is key. But what you might not know is that posting consistently doesn’t mean five times a day. It doesn’t even mean fifteen times a day. It means whatever works for you.

Obviously some rules apply, just like everything. Less than three tweets per day and your results will be minimal, so start from there and work up. You’ll soon find a balance that works for you.

If you really feel like sharing all your blog post links to Twitter is just going to be a completely waste of time, schedule it. I love using Buffer. Check out my previous post for all the information you need and I have a free posting schedule you can download right here.

INTERACT CONSISTENTLY

I just love being consistent, alright! The beauty of scheduling your Twitter posts is that it leaves you with more time to engage. Bloggers that do really well on Twitter (and brands too) have conversations with people. That means not just replying to every single tweet you get, but starting conversations too. When other users can see that you’re active and engage with the community, they’ll be more encouraged to follow you.

You don’t need all the wit or inspiring vocab – you just need to find a voice that works for you.

KEEP AN EYE ON YOUR ANALYTICS

True, they’re not the most important thing, but it’s so important to keep an eye on your stats. What tweets perform best, follower growth, impressions and how many mentions you get are just some of the things the Twitter Analytics tool will cover.

USE HASHTAGS AND EMOJIS

I talk about these a lot, but hashtags aren’t just exclusive to Instagram. Include one or two in your tweets and they’ll perform a hell of a lot better, PLUS if you add an emoji in there, there’s a 20% more chance that your tweet will be shared. Take a look at trending hashtags and also what other bloggers use as these will give you some good ideas. Twitter chats are a great place to start!

Using hashtags, posting at times when your followers are most active and replying to your followers are just some of the many ways that you can develop a loyal audience and grow your following organically.

Posting regularly and being consistent helps to increase all of these things, and that’s the cherry on top of the icing.

Is Twitter one of your favourite social media platforms? Do you have any tips for bloggers that aren't in this post?