Oh man. Ever since launching blog consultations, one of the most common questions I get asked is, “how do I use Twitter?” Luckily for you, I’ve been around the Twitter block a few times, and have some useful answers to help you grow your blog or business using Twitter. Want to know the deets? You got it.

Use images in your tweets

Sarah let me in on this sweet statistic: tweets with images are 94% more likely to get retweeted. Holy cow! So the next time you promote that recent blog post on Twitter, make sure to upload a photo, too. Twitter images are 440x220px, and you’d be doing yourself an even bigger favor to create an image of that size, with your post title on it. Not only will your post stand at in someone’s feed, but they’ll be able to quickly glean why it will be useful. (Here’s an example).

Join Twitter chats

A twitter chat is where a bunch of people congregate on twitter at a specific time, in order to answer questions provided by a specific host. The questions are usually geared toward helping you think critically about your blog or business and I often walk away from them feeling motivated and learning a thing or two. Aside from that, most twitter chats get a large amount of participants, meaning it’s very easy to meet new bloggers and gain some extra followers, too. Kayla has a nice post with some great twitter chats for creative entrepreneurs.

Share other people’s work

This is a no brainer, but it’s SO important! Twitter is a way for you to grow your community and make real connections with other influencers. The best way to do this? Share other people’s work and don’t forget to “@” them with their username. Also? If you share their posts in an interesting way, they might retweet you, which will get you in front of their Twitter audience, too. Plus, your Twitter followers will get bored if you only share your own stuff. Mix it up by sharing relevant work from others.

Use it as the first point of contact for collaborations

Growing your blog can often mean collaborating with others, whether it be other bloggers or Big Time Brands. If you want to collaborate with a blogger or brand, sending them a long email right off the bat (if you’ve never spoken before) might seem a little intrusive. Casually say what’s up on Twitter and let them know you’ve got an idea brewing. That will put you on their radar and will help your collaboration idea seem more personal when you pop it into their inbox in the near future.

Host a Twitter chat

So you learned about Twitter chats up above, but what’s stopping you from hosting one yourself? You’ll need some dedicated readers or clients to get it off the ground, but the great thing about Twitter chats is that every time someone tweets using your chat’s specific hashtag, their entire feed will see it and get curious. This is how I’ve ended up joining lots of chats myself! Lots of Twitter chats happen on a consistent basis (every week or month at the same time), but if you just want to do a one-time chat (great for learning more about your customers if you ask the right questions), then that’s totally great, too. Feeling fearful about putting yourself out there? Try partnering with a blog buddy to get it off the ground.

Pin a tweet that will grow your following

Twitter now has a function where you can pin a tweet to your profile, so it will always sit at the top. Sometimes I just pin my favorite posts, but you can certainly be more strategic with this — like pinning a tweet letting your followers know that you’re killin’ it on Instagram and they should probably follow you there, too.

Tell me, what’s your favorite thing about Twitter?

p.s. Want to know four more ways to grow your blog using Twitter? I’m sharing extra details, including my new favorite tip, with my newsletter subscribers later today. Don’t miss it! You can subscribe right here.