One of the most prominent questions asked by many new (and not so new) Twitter users is: How do I get more followers?
I can start arguing here about the quality versus quantity, but at the end of the day, getting more fans and followers is one of the most common goals for businesses as well as for the individuals.
There are various methods, which you can use to increase your followers. I’ve tried many of them, and I would like to share with you the ones that really make a difference for all the Twitter accounts I work for.
1. Make sure your profile is properly created – upload a good picture, write interesting bio about yourself (try to included specific keywords to the niche you want to attract), provide links. If you can, customize your background. I would say it is the ‘essential kit’ to make a good first impression, when people look at your profile and decide within the seconds if they want to follow you or not.
2. Focus on your content – add value to your followers by posting interesting content regularly. Make them remember you as someone who has quality tweets so your tweets won’t get skipped over in their home stream.
3. Approach and engage – get them to notice you by engaging with them and catching their attention. Retweet their tweets, start conversation, reply and comment. Be social; don’t just promote yourself or your business.
4. Find and follow interesting users yourself- don’t wait until they find you one day. And once you followed them, send them a message and say hi; reach out to them. They will be more likely to noticed you and follow you back.
5. Look through other users’ followers, following and their lists – see who they follow or are followed by? Are there any interesting people for you?
6. Be out there – be consistent so people can see your content. Remember that some of us check Twitter only in the morning, others during their lunch break or on the bus when they’re coming home, some before they go to sleep. Use an automatic scheduling tool to time your tweets throughout the day. But please also make sure you log in twice a day to check for any messages, mentions and for your ‘interaction time’.
7. Offer advice and help – find hashtags on topics that interest you and monitor them. When you find someone asking a question, looking for help or advice, jump into it. You will expand your expertise outside your existing Twitter circle (and gets you more new followers).
8. Participate in #FollowFriday – promote other people worth following by recommending them. Every Friday, just select someone you follow, write a short explanation why and tag it with #ff or #followfriday. That’s a great way to get noticed by those people, and if they find your tweets useful, they might remember to recommend you as well.
Those are some of my most effective tactics I use on the daily basis for the majority of our clients at Social Media Shop. There are many great tutorials and articles about getting more followers, and trust me you can do a lot more than the above seven points; however they really work well for me.
What strategy do you use to increase your following? Do you find some of points more useful than others? Feel free to share your opinions and suggestions below.
