A Beginner’s Guide to Getting More Followers on Twitter
Author: Jamie | Filed under: Social Media
Ever looked at one of your competitors and wondered how they managed to get so many followers on Twitter? Accumulating more followers on Twitter takes dedication, hard work and perseverance. It doesn’t just happen overnight.
Reciprocal following
The most basic route to getting more followers on Twitter is to start following people. Chances are, a few of those people will follow you back. Some people always follow back as a rule, others will just think you look interesting.
The great thing about Twitter for marketing is that you can put yourself out there. Most people get an email when they get a new follower, which means one more person knows you exist.
Most of the basic techniques of growing an audience on Twitter involve making use of this.
Who do I follow?
The big question for new tweeters. How do I find the people that will be interested in my business? Or even, how do I find the people that I will find interesting?
The most obvious place to start is Twitter’s own who to follow function. Once you’ve started off with your friends and the big hitters in your industry, it will offer you some related tweeters. It’s not 100% accurate (or anywhere close) but it might give you some ideas.
Hashtags are another good way of finding people to follow. If a particular hashtag has arisen in your niche, click on it to see every post containing it and start following the people using it.
Some people develop publicly available lists based around a particular topic. Be on the look out for these, they might be a handy who’s who for your area.
Finally, try looking through other people’s followers. If you run a recording studio, try following people who follow Music Tech Magazine. If they’re interested in the magazine, chances are they’ll be interested in you.
There are various tools available to do the latter (both free and paid) either automatically or by hand. TweetAdder and Tweepi are two such tools worth a look.
Give them a reason
Following someone isn’t enough most of the time. It’s essential that you update regularly and as interestingly as possible. Some people will reciprocal follow as a matter of course, but most people will take a look at your profile first. If they like what they see, they’ll follow. If not, or if they suspect you of spamming, they won’t bother.
The number 1 rule of getting more followers? Be interesting.
Image Credit: lemort
Jamie,
Love the post.
I would add to your rule of be interesting is to “give” of your knowledge and expertise. Particularly if you are tweeting for your business.
Jude recently posted..6 Email Marketing Pitfalls for Small Businesses to Avoid
Hi, this is an intersting blog and all the points listed are valid ones. Lists are particularly good for grouping relevant followers into one list and this seems to work well.
As the character limit is only 140 the tweet has to be of interest.
@Perry – thanks very much for taking the time to post – I’m glad you liked the article.
@Jude – thank you Jude – that’s a very valid point you make. I still see lots of people tweeting about what they had for lunch rather than using it as an opportunity to promote their industry expertise.
Thanks for the approval Jamie,
@Jude adding to your post, it is also imperative to build up a cirlce of trust amongst your followers as this will not only give you credibility but will also prove your worth.
http://www.mikepedersen.com/building-trust-online-to-maximize-your-business-growth/
@Perry – yes, that’s an excellent point regarding lists. It’s something that I experimented with earlier and dropped (not sure why?!). However, you have prompted me to pick it up again. ;o)
@Jamie – very true. Even worse than tweeting about your lunch is not tweeting at all. I’ve noticed that potential competitors are scared to RT content (probably fear of losing business).
One final observation is the Tweeps who are gracious and share content naturally seem to be the most successful, which comes back full circle to your point about “be interesting”.
Jude recently posted..6 Email Marketing Pitfalls for Small Businesses to Avoid
I totally agree Jude – I regularly tweet other people’s content if I think it will be of value to my followers. I don’t think it’s much fun for anyone just to tweet about themselves all the time.
I’d love to get more readers to my blog, but I’ve never used Twitter. Your post is a very helpful explanation of what to think about when I finally take the plunge.
Denise recently posted..Downton Abbey is Classic British TV
Hi Denise, I’m glad you found the post useful. Twitter is one of the top sources of traffic for this blog so I’m sure you’ll find it useful.