How To Use Twitter For Blogging Ideas

Credit: jaylopez

Almost all bloggers that I know have had trouble coming up with new ideas for their blogs from time to time. Newbies have to deal with this issue more than experienced bloggers. These days, there are just so many tools that one can use to come up with new blogging ideas. You just have to learn how to use them. Twitter is one of those tools. It’s a powerful social network that connects you to the world and gives you access to millions of people. Many bloggers use Twitter to drive traffic to their blogs and push products. There is nothing wrong with that. Don’t forget that there is a lot of value in listening to what others have to say on Twitter. It’s not hard to miss things when you are the one who’s doing all the talking.

If you are ready to listen to what others have to say on Twitter, here are 5 ways you can use this network to come up with new ideas for your blog:

• Track top stories with Topsy: lots of Twitter fans use Tweetmeme to find the top stories in Twitterville. I personally prefer Topsy. It’s a powerful Twitter search engine that lets you find out what’s trending and what people are talking about online. It even shows you who the influential players are. Great tool to gather information for your next blog post.
• Ask Questions: if you are too impatient, you can just ask questions on Twitter. There are tools that let you share polls and questions with the Twitter community. Just make sure your question is to the point and something worth answering (that goes without saying).
• Track keywords: tools such as tweetbeep to keep track of your favorite keywords on Twitter just like you would on Google using Google Alerts. You’d be surprised how many ideas you can get by looking at your Twitter alerts.
• Pay Attention to Trends: this is really a no-brainer. Keeping track of what’s trending on Twitter is a must for every blogger. It’s even more helpful if you are struggling to come up with an idea for your next post. twendz is one of many tools you can use for this purpose.
• Integrate Twitter into your blog: I have seen this done many time by top bloggers. Here is how it works. You ask a question, gather feedback, organize them all, and turn them into a post. Don’t forget to give credit to those who have contributed and add your unique take to it as well. We have all seen those “top blog posts for this week” type of stories. There is no reason you can’t do it for Twitter.

What are your suggestions? How do you use Twitter to come up with new blogging ideas?