First off, in no way am I a Twitter expert. In fact, I was a very slow adopter when it
came to this particular platform. Of the things I am going to list here, all of
them I learned after sitting on Twitter for two years doing basically NOTHING.
Eventually I decided to care and, although at the time of writing this I only
have just over 2,000 followers, I have quadrupled my following over the last 8
months. So, while I am sure there are lots of other great ways to build a
following, these ideas can help you get some results and you can build from
there.
1. The Followback
This is the simplest, most effective thing I’ve done. When someone follows me, I follow nearly
everyone back. The only ones I don’t are
those that I find offensive for whatever reason. Most Twitter users expect you to follow them,
if you don’t, they’ll unfollow you. If you do follow them, you’ll not only
retain them, but often win their favor.
This will result in mentions and retweets—which can help you build more
followers.
2. Following
Because other Twitter users know the follow back rule, it
only makes sense that they will follow you back when you follow them. So, follow
people. Don’t just follow everyone
though, follow people that are relevant to you.
If you are a marketer, follow marketing people. If you are in the technology business, follow
those in the technology business. You can follow Oprah or J Lo, but the odds of
them or other mega stars following you back are pretty low. And quite honestly,
unless you are in the entertainment business, they aren’t really going to
benefit your business anyway. If you follow people that are relevant to you, you’ll
be amazed at how targeted your list of followers will become overtime organically—people
like you just find you.
3. Mentions
Every time I get a new follower, I publicly thank them for
following. It’s good for relationship building and often times, it gets
retweeted and more followers get onboard. If you ever find yourself in a mention
with a list of other Tweeps, follow all of them and then retweet it. This lets them know why you followed them and
most times, everyone in that tweet will follow you too. It’s pretty cool.
4. Lists
This is a new strategy of mine, but it seems to be working
so far. Of my followers, I’ve made a
list of the most influential—those that have the most followers of their own
that are most likely to retweet others.
Instead of always going into my main feed, I go to my list of
influencers and retweet them. In doing this, I can focus on building relationships
with those who are most capable of helping me build my audience. This doesn’t mean I ignore everyone else—Tweeps
with smaller audiences, those who like me, are still building their network,
are often more likely to help. So, when
creating your list of influencers, I would caution you to go for those that
have more influence than you, but that are still hungry for audience. Once one’s
audience is ample, they don’t usually care as much.
5. Cleaning up
Not everyone will follow you back—some don’t know the etiquette,
others aren’t trying to build audience and a few just aren’t that active on
Twitter. After awhile, you might want to
clean up the list of people you follow to keep it all balanced. There are a lot
of apps that can help you do this. I
personally use Tweepi. It is a free app that analyzes my Twitter
account and tells me who I am following that isn’t following me back. About every 1-2 weeks, I go through and
clean house. Tweepi also tells me who is following me that I am not following. Early on, when I was still figuring Twitter out, a few Tweeps fell
through the cracks. Tweepi helped me identify them and eventually follow them back.
Hopefully these tips were helpful. I am constantly
experimenting and will keep you posted on the other things I discover about
Twitter and everything else. If you have a few good tips of your own, PLEASE SHARE!!!
