How Twitter Has Made Me a Better Link Builder

I’ve been on Twitter for a while now and at first I really didn’t get what all the buzz was about. But around a year ago I decided to get a little more serious about it. Why? Because I have brilliant friends like Adam Cohen who kept telling me how powerful it was. So I gave it a serious try and I’ve never looked back. I have no doubt in my mind that Twitter has made me a better link builder for several reasons. And here’s just a couple:

1. I Follow Some Excellent People. I follow all kinds of people. SEO & link building experts like @graywolf, @wiep, @sugarrae, @lisabarone @dazzlindonna, @debramastaler and others. Social media friends like @chrisbrogan, @JessicaKnows, @ambercadabra, @cr8tivejen and @jowyang. And people who are just fun to know like @marybabysteps, @bellastrada and @chatterboxcgc. Of course, I have my real-life friends like @Jaimison10, @pittfall, and @boggles. Now my family is on there like @mpgarlock57 and @katiegdc. I’m a firm believer in the fact that if I’m the smartest person in my group of friends, I need new friends. I want people who challenge me and teach me knew things. These are a small portion of the people I follow who do just that.
2. I Read More Blogs. Because these people (among others) are constantly putting out great information, I feel like I’m in an industry news room every time I fire up Twitter. I get constant updates on new posts, insightful articles and more.
3. It’s Made me a Better Blogger. I want to keep up with these people as well as I can and that means that I have dig a bit deeper to come up with great original content to push out to my twitter stream. And since I know these kinds of people could read it, I don’t want it to be junk.
4. I’ve Made Better Connections. I’ve gotten the opportunity to work with tons of bloggers and content managers that have helped me with projects, given me insights into industries I didn’t know too much about and in all give me new ideas to brainstorm.
5. It’s Made Me More Transparent. The power of Twitter shows me the power of real time feedback and the need to be transparent. And by that, I mean in everything I do. I’ve always been a white hat link builder. Twitter has just pushed me to strengthen that position and pursue it with everything I’ve got.
6. It’s Taught Me That I Still Have a Lot to Learn. And this is the crucial element. As much as I know about building links, I’m constantly faced with blog posts and tweets that tell me I have a lot more to learn. And in my quest to be a link buiding expert, I think that’s critical to understand.

In all, I’m yet to find a tool that has been more beneficial to my career than Twitter. The relationships, the knowledge sharing, the candid discussions… they all play into this effect that Twitter has had on me. And, by the way, if you want to follow me, go for it. If you want to follow my company just hook up with @Intrapromote.

Tagged as: twitter impact, twitter lessons, twitter link building