*The following is a guest post by Stacey Cavanagh, an online marketer.
Whatever our reasons for blogging – whether it be for hobby, to give advice, or a way of earning an income – we all need one core thing in order for our blogs to succeed: readers. Without them, what’s the point? Twitter is a potential source of massive numbers of new readers, based on them seeing links to your blog from other members. But how can you get people to Tweet
links to your blog? Quite simply, it all comes down to whether or not your readers feel that your content is worth passing on to people they know. Creating a Tweet-worthy post means you essentially have to give something to your readers, whether this is new information, a good old fashioned laugh, or a talking point. Here are a few hints on creating a blog post that’s worth Tweeting.
Give it a Good Title
The title is the first thing your regular readers will see. If your article is a witty one, make your title witty. If it’s going to tell your readers something new, make sure they know through the title that by reading it they’ll get some information. Include a word or two that gives a clear indication of what it’s all about. Take this post’s title, for example. The post is about writing blog posts that people will want to share on Twitter. The title gives an indication of this. However, an overly long title can be off-putting. Keep it snappy.
When Blogging the News, Have Something Special to Say
Plenty of us blog on the news or current events. Or we may blog on issues being covered on a good number of other blogs and sites. That in itself is fine, providing you add a new dimension to it. If you just post a link to another news article on some other site and say “Here, read this,” why would your readers then link to your site? Why would they not just link directly to the original site from which you sourced the story? You need to add a new spin to material like this. Add your own opinion or commentary. Make it more valuable to the reader. There should be something they can gain or find out from your site, whether it’s an opinion or analysis, that they could not gain just from reading the original story.
Unique Content
Whether you’re discussing a news article that’s doing the rounds on millions of sites or you’re writing your own piece completely from your own head, your content should be unique. Having word-for-word copies of something else online will do you no SEO favors and will do your readers no favors. It comes back down to the big, “Why would I share this?” question. Why, if ten sites are showing exactly the same piece, would people share yours? Keeping it unique means that your blog is the only place your regular readers can send new readers to to access that very article.
Be Human
Let your personality shine through in your blog posts. More personable posts are generally more reader friendly, and it’s the more reader friendly of your posts that will receive the most benefit from people passing on your link through Twitter. Being human in your blog lets your readers feel as though they know you to an extent. If they know you and like you, they are more likely to want to share your content with their own contacts. While business blogs obviously require a level of professionalism, you can easily maintain this without being almost sterile about your posts.
Keep to your Niche
It’s something of a pet peeve of mine to go onto blogs I follow almost religiously and find frequent off topic posts. We all wander from topic from time to time. But as an example, I used to follow a blog about personal 
finance. And then over the course of a week the blog author had made 4 separate posts about entirely unrelated items, such as gadget related posts. I wasn’t following his blog for gadget information, and so after the 4th post, I un-followed and was done with it. The people who are most likely to Tweet your posts are your regular readers. They’re regular readers because they’re interested in your subject matter. If you go off topic, you risk losing their interest altogether.
Read Before You Post
Once you’ve completed an article it, read it. And then reread it. Ask yourself, ‘what do my readers gain by reading this?’ Do you give them hints? Do you make them laugh? Do you cause them to stop and think? If you can’t identify anything your readers gain, consider rewriting before posting. There has to be a reason for someone to Tweet your blog post.
As I’ve mentioned already, Twitter is a phenomenal way in which you can reach out and attract new readers. While your own Twitter account is good means of publicizing your posts, you ideally want your readers to feel compelled to share it too, thus extending your network of readers. Taking a bit of time to perfect your posts can grant massive reward in this way.
