As I’ve mentioned in all my Twitter related posts so far, the micro blogging service is growing everyday and (in my opinion), every serious webmaster should have an account there that they visit as often as possible. Twitter is a great marketing tool and should be optimised by everyone. Followers are a big part of marketing successfully with Twitter, and that’s what this post is dedicated to.
Before I start…
Whilst I’ve said it before, I think it’s incredibly important that we all remember that quality followers are the key to successful Twitter marketing, so if you have ten thousand followers but none of them read your tweets, there’s no point in even having an account. That said, having a good amount of followers is an important part of Twitter.
Ways to get more followers
- Quality tweets – If you spam your Twitter, people won’t want to follow you. I think the reason for that is fairly self explanatory.
- Follow back – Quite simply, everyone wants more followers, so if you follow back, people are more likely to follow you.
- Be custom – Get a custom background and avatar. If you don’t, you risk looking spammy, and people won’t follow a spammy account.
- Make friends – If you have friends on Twitter (and show it publically), people will follow you because everyone likes making friends, and you’ve shown you’re friendly.
- Community – Join in communities on Twitter. For instance, followfriday is a great place to start.
- Be helpful – If you’re helpful and answer people’s questions, people will be more inclined to follow you.
- Retweet – If you see a good tweet from someone, Retweet it! If people see you’re doing this, they might follow you in hope you’ll RT one of their tweets.
- Join in trends – On the right side of Twitter there is a bar with the latest trends. Tweet with those keywords and you’ll get exposure.
- Just ask! – On your blog or website, point people towards your Twitter account. How’s that for targeted?!
Quality Tweets
I’m always going on about quality tweets, but what actually makes a quality tweet? Well, different people would define ‘quality’ in different ways. Personally, these are the sort of tweets I would say were quality:
- Replies – If you’re replying to someone’s question or just having a conversation. It may not be quality to just anyone, but to the person you’re replying to it’ll be worth it for them.
- Useful links – Emphasis on the ‘useful’ part of that. Posting a link or two isn’t spammy. What is spammy is when you persistently post your own links that aren’t really relevant to anyone.
- Retweets – Retweets are where you do just that: tweet someone else’s tweet again (which a reference to the original tweeter). Not all retweets are quality though, so make sure if you are going to retweet something then you make sure it’s a quality tweet.
Twitter, eh?!
You can follow me on Twitter @teenius. I always follow back and will help you out as often as I can.
Alternatively, if you liked this article, please leave a comment below with your views, and also consider sharing the post with others by either retweeting it or clicking on one of the icons below.
Once again a great post Simon, i really need to get into Twitter and I will follow your great advice on here when I do!
Matt
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Thanks, Matt
I’m glad the posts could be of help to you.
You should definately get a Twitter account. It’s a great way of networking with other bloggers which, in my opinion, is one of the most vital things any webmaster can do.
“Follow back – Quite simply, everyone wants more followers, so if you follow back, people are more likely to follow you”
It is indeed but there is no guarantee that they are quality followers.
Yes, that’s a good point you raised. They might not all be quality, but you’re bound to pick up a couple of quality followers at least by following back.
Anyway, this article was aimed at getting followers, not neccessarily quality followers
lol
You’re right, people will just follow back just to seem nice. On my personal account, I only follow people who tweet about things I care about.
Alex | Blogussion.com’s last blog post..5 More Experimental Writing Habits You May Want to Try
You’ve covered all the main points
However, now I have started unfollowing people- quality not quantity.
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Thanks Farrhad
My plan is to wait until I have more followers and then start unfollowing people. I’ve recently been unfollowing a few people who post like 10 tweets in 20 seconds. It just gets in the way of the quality tweets in my timeline.
Agreed. Well regarding my experience I started by following a bunch of people randomly, then started interacting with them along with keep finding people of my niche and some good people to hang-out and now I un-follow many of them daily, as quality matters when you understand a system.
Agreed. I think that it’s a good idea to build up your Twitter followship before you get rid of the spammy followers. I mean, if you clearly don’t follow back, people are unlikely to follow you in the first place unless you are an AMAZING person.
Very well explained.. Some really great points there. I’ll also repeat the same thing, Incase of Twitter, go for Quality not Quantity !
Enk.’s last blog post..How to Write a Perfect Post ?
I definately agree with the quality over quantity point, but at the end of the day you can have both with Twitter (which is one of the things that makes it so good in my opinion).
Absolutely Simon, we should experiment more and mostly out of the box to get most out of our time we are on Twitter. Nowadays, I am upto checking the RT phenomenon how well it pleases my followers, and those who seeks my updates.
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RTing is a great way to show you’re active in the community (which makes more people follow you), but I think you should only do it occasionally as it might look like you’re just there to RT and not do you own tweets
Great points here, Simon.
I am already following you
I would like to add another point though:
Do something interesting outside of twitter to gain followers. Post quality tweets to keep your followers.
Argh! How could I have forgotten that?!
Very good point Gloson. Look at problogger and other idols in the blogging world. All of them have thousands and thousands of followers purely because of who they are!
Thanks for the suggestion.
How rewarding is Twitter. Is it just a numbers game in order to get more coverage. Or is there quality leads online?
It’s certainly good to have a lot of followers (even if they aren’t quality) as it will act as a catalyst for more people to follow you, of which some are bound to be quality users. It’s a tough game to get the right followers, but when you do it sure pays off!
Some nice tips here Simon, I haven’t paid much attention to Twitter of late, so I can’t say I have done everything you have said above
There are a lot of ways to get Twitter followers. I know of one that I use to build my Twitter accounts that you missed.
But you covered just about every other way to do it. You can’t be quiet on Twitter, you have to be active and talk to people!
Alex | Blogussion.com’s last blog post..5 More Experimental Writing Habits You May Want to Try
Yeah. As Harish said, frequent updates are good, but I would recommend doing them at different times as it’s really annoying if you post like 10 tweets in 30 seconds (I’ve started unfollowing people who do that!)
I would recommend following others, doing frequent updates, having a custom avatar and background will get you more followers. I think people without an avatar look spammy. So I never follow such people.
Harish | Blogging Kid’s last blog post..Taking A Break For Few Days, Its Holidays For Me So Stay Tuned
Thanks for the comment, Harish.
I think a lot of people underestimate the importance of having a custom avatar. It’s the first impression people get of your Twitter account, so if you can’t be bothered to upload a picture… what does that say about you?! Well, to me it says you’re a lazy tweeter
lol
Yeah and if you want to talk about this Avatar thing in detail.
Having a Company logo or your Pic as avatar will also makes a difference in the quantity of people that will follow you.
Some just look for cool dudes/tweeps of same niche not the company, so here Company logo is not going to help and vice verse !
Enk.’s last blog post..How to Write a Perfect Post ?
I think if you’re making the Twitter account to advertise your business, it’s better to use your company logo (like I use the Teenius character on my twitter), but if it’s for personal use or multiple projects I think it’s better to use a general avatar, a photo of yourself is usually best!
All really important things to do when Tweeting. I got 40,000 followers now and find the most important thing is just be honest.
Michael
Great to have someone who’s so experienced on Twitter here commenting on Teenius
Thanks for dropping by.
Wow, its Good to see Michael Dunlop here..
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I have a recommendation for you..
Your follow me on twitter and
RSS subscripting is not catchy
Work on it
Some of you might have heard of this little utility: Hummingbird from Mesiab Labs. There have been some good feedback from its users. I am planning to buy this tool to increase my targeted follower count.
On this post, I think tweets that benefit other can earn you strong followers. Just bluntly advertising your site or product at every tweet will definitely not help you earn any favor from your followers.
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