It’s funny how things evolve. A year ago people had no clue what Twitter was. These days it seems like everyone has Twitter accounts, from popular celebrities to busy homemakers. I’ve even seen commercials on TV that list the Twitter handles for popular brands.
Currently Facebook is a more widely used social network platform for both personal and business use. Twitter is a close second leaving other social networking sites like Digg, Stumble Upon and Technorati in their dust.
If you are a casual Twitter user who just has a Twitter account to keep up with your favorite companies or celebrities, you really don’t need to worry about getting more followers. For those of us who blog or who have a product or service they would like to promote in the public eye, having a lot of Twitter followers is important.
I remember when I first opened my Twitter account. I would follow people with 5,000 or more followers and wonder how in the world I would ever find more then 100 people to follow me, let alone a few thousand. Currently I have around 6,000 followers. It blows my mind to think about how I acquired so many, which I am grateful for. Actor Charlie Sheen picked up over a million followers on Twitter within 24 hours of opening his account. WOW!
Having a lot of Twitter followers is important for businesses and bloggers alike. Businesses use Twitter to keep customers up-to-date on their latest sales, new products and to interact with their customers on a daily basis. Bloggers, such as myself, enjoy having Twitter followers to keep them up to date on new blog posts, campaigns or just to network and make new friends. Personally I use my Twitter account to keep people up to date on new blog posts, giveaways and to share articles I feel might be an interest to others.
If you are a blogger that works closely with companies and public relations firms (PR) you will want to have a large Twitter following. Companies and PR prefer to work with bloggers that have a large reach, meaning they can share information with a lot of people at the same time.
I can tell you from experience that it’s not always easy to get people to follow you on Twitter. Over the past year I have learned a lot about Twitter. I thought I would share with you a step-by-step guide to gaining more followers on Twitter.
Set up a Twitter account.
If you don’t have a Twitter account the first thing you will need to do is create one. Twitter is free and easy to set up. It only requires some basic information to get started.
If you have a company or a blog I would recommend using your business or blog name as your Twitter account name. Your business or blog is your “brand” so it makes sense to set up your Twitter account to reflect your brand. Take for example my Twitter name. My blog is called She Scribes so I set my Twitter account up as She_Scribes. You cannot use spaces between words, only dashes and underscore lines.
If your business or blog has a long name you might want to consider abbreviating it in a way that will be easy enough to remember and easily recognized. If your blog name is Karen’s Day to Day Life as a Wife and Mother, for example, you wouldn’t want to use KarensDaytoDayLifeasaWifeandMother as your Twitter handle. You might want to consider something a little easier such as KarensLife.
Follow others.
Once you have your Twitter account set up you’ll want to start following others on Twitter. It has been my experience that many people will follow you back once you start to follow them. Big companies sometimes will follow you back. Celebrities most likely won’t.
If you do not know a Twitter handle you can start with companies that you like. You can search for them on Twitter or you can do a search on the Internet to find their Twitter handle. Let’s use Disney as an example. You could do an Internet search for Disney Twitter. The search will bring up their Twitter account if they have one (which they do). You can also find Twitter handles by visiting a company’s website. Most companies have their Twitter name or link to their Twitter account on the home page.
If you enjoy reading blogs chances are those bloggers have Twitter accounts. You can either click on their “Follow Me on Twitter” buttons on their web site or do a search for them on Twitter.
When I first started out on Twitter and I didn’t know how to find people to follow I would check out the people or companies that were following my favorite bloggers, as well as who my favorite bloggers were following. When I came across someone that looked interesting I would follow them too. Take for example my Twitter account. If you are following me on Twitter you can easily see who is following me by clicking on the word “Followers” on my main Twitter page (www.Twitter.com/She_Scribes). Once you are on my Followers page you can scroll through to see everyone who is following me. If you see someone that interests you go ahead and follow them. You can also click on the word “Following” on my Twitter home page to see who I am following. You can also scroll through the list and pick and chose people or companies you are interested in following too. Ideally those people or companies will follow you back.
You can also find interesting people to follow simply by reading the tweets that others send out. Many times I read tweets that include a Twitter handle. Often I check them out to see if it’s someone I would love to follow. Occasionally I see a Friday Follow (FF) come through. A Friday Follow lists several Twitter people worth following. Sometimes people do them randomly and other times it’s part of a group or forum.
Spread the new about your Twitter account.
Now that you have a Twitter account set up you’ll want to share your Twitter I.D. with everyone you know. Tell your friends, family and co-workers what your Twitter handle is.
If you have a blog or a website but sure to post your Twitter handle predominantly where everyone can see it. If possible set up a Twitter button and link it directly to your Twitter account so people can follow you quickly and easily. If you visit my website, www.SheScribes.com, and scroll down on the right side bar you’ll see a Twitter bird holding a sign that says “Follow Me”. If you click on that it will take you to my account on Twitter. There all you need to do it click on the follow option. The follow option can be found underneath the picture of the person, company or logo on the left side of the screen. There is a button that says “Lists” and right next to that is something that resembles a wheel. If you click on the wheel a drop down menu will show you different options. The middle option says “Follow”. Click on that word and you will instantly start following that person.
Another suggestion would be to post about your new Twitter account on your site or send out an e-mail or newsletter to your readers.
If you send out a lot of e-mails you should include your Twitter handle in your signature line. Be sure to include the direct link (www.Twitter.com/YourHandle) or @YourHandle so people know how to find you easily. You are more likely to gain more followers if you make following you quick and easy. No one is going to want to have to do a search for find your Twitter handle.
Be sure to include your Twitter handle on your business cards. I’m surprised by how many people don’t think to include that information on their business cards.
If you frequent a lot of forums make sure to include your Twitter handle in your signature line on the forums too. Make sure to check with the forum rules first and foremost. Some forums frown upon things like that.
Make people want to follow you on Twitter.
Now that you have your Twitter account set up and you have some followers you’ll want to make sure to keep your followers, as well as to continue to increase your following. People are not going to follow you because they have nothing better to do. They are going to follow you because they are interested in what you have to say or what kind of information you can share with them. Twitter is not like Facebook where you can constantly post Tweets that say things like I’m having breakfast now or My dog won’t stop barking at the UPS man. You will want to make your tweets interesting to your followers. It’s OK to post personal things like that from time to time, just don’t do it all the time. Often I have tweeted out I hope you have a great day just for the fun of it.
If you have a business be sure to tweet out any kind of sale or discount you are having. People will want to follow you so that they don’t miss out on any great sales or discounts.
If you are a blogger tweet about your latest blog posts. Make sure to include a link to the post in your tweet too so that people can easily hop over to your blog to read it. I use www.TinyURL.com to shorten blog post URLs to make them fit within the 140 allowed characters on Twitter. Recently I did a post about marriage. The URL is https://www.shescribes.com/2011/03/why-dont-marriages-last.html. That does not leave me much room to tweet about it on Twitter. When I use TinyURL it shortens the post URL to http://tinyurl.com/4nbkfzh. This allows me to tweet out a message like “Read my latest blog post about marriage http://tinyurl.com/4nbkfzh.”
If you find yourself lacking inspiration on what to tweet about you can always tweet about interesting articles you have found on the Internet (be sure to include a link to the article) or you can tweet about current events or the latest news story. Some people also like to tweet pictures.
Providing your followers with interesting Tweets will ensure that they will continue to follow you as well as tell others to follow you too.
There are applications you can use that will automatically update your Twitter account whenever you add a new post to your blog or a comment on your Facebook page. When I add a new post to my blog the post title appears in my Twitter feed as well as a link back to the post. It does this automatically. The same applies to Facebook. Whenever I post something on my blog’s Facebook page (www.Facebook.com/SheScribes) it automatically posts that information to Twitter along with the URL of the post. This is a great way to keep posting on Twitter on days you might not otherwise have a chance to.
Tweet often to keep your followers interested. If you tweet only once in a while you will quickly lose followers. Make a point of tweeting at least once a day, if not more often. I know some people on Twitter who tweet up to a dozen times per day.
Consider re-tweeting interesting tweets to your followers. There is an option on Twitter that allows you to tweet out things that others have tweeted. For example, Plus Size Mommy recently tweeted “I think Australia will be fixed/rebuilt back up quicker too… those are my personal feelings #JustSayin #Japan“. If I feel like this is something your Twitter followers might find interesting you can simply click on the re-tweet button which is found by putting your cursor over the tweet you want to re-tweet. The re-tweet button has two arrows going in a circle.
Using hashags is also another great way for people to find your on Twitter. There are hundreds of hashtags floating around on Twitter. You can either do a search or make up your own. For example, when I am posting on Twitter about a giveaway I will use the hashtag #giveaway and #win. That way anyone searching for giveaways will find my Tweet and visit my blog if they are interested in entering. Hopefully they will want to follow me on Twitter too.
Interact on Twitter.
Now that you have followers on Twitter you will want to make sure they keep following you. One of the best ways to do that is to interact with others on Twitter. Twitter is not just a place to tweet out messages. It’s also a great way to interact and network with others. If you read an interesting tweet from someone be sure to tweet back to them with your comment. You can do that easily by highlighting the tweet with your cursor and then clicking on the reply button which has an arrow pointing to the left next to it. Redbox recently tweeted about the movie Mars Needs Moms, asking anyone if anyone has seen it. Since I saw the movie I can reply back to them telling them my thoughts about it.
You can easily carry on a conversation on Twitter by either replying back and forth to someone’s tweets or by sending them a direct message via Twitter. If I feel its something that I’d like to keep private I opt for private direct messages otherwise I just have a conversation like I would a regular tweet. You can engage several people in the same conversation by using a hashtag. Right now a popular hashtag is #Japan. If you search for #Japan on Twitter you will see all the tweets and conversations going on about Japan.
Try and dedicate at least an hour a day (or as much time as you can) to Twitter. During that time tweet about things that you think are “tweet worthy” as well as interact with others. I have found when I dedicate at least an hour a day I gain more followers.
Do’s and Don’ts of Twitter.
I have stumbled across various sites and programs that offer you hundreds of new Twitter followers for a fee. Please do not fall victim to these types of scams. They like to prey on people who either want a “quick fix” or are naive about how Twitter works and how to gain legitimate followers. Twitter is FREE. You should NEVER pay a fee to get more followers. These kinds of scams might get your more followers, but they won’t be quality followers. You want people to follow you because they are interested in what you have to say, not because they are being paid to follow you. I have a family friendly blog. I don’t want porn stars and gambling companies following me on Twitter.
It’s OK to ask people you know personally to follow you on Twitter. That happens all the time in forums that I belong to. That is perfectly acceptable. It’s like that old saying, “You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours“, or in this case “If you follow me on Twitter I’ll follow you back“.
You can use following you on Twitter as an extra entry in a giveaway if your blog or site is hosting one. A huge bulk of my followers have come from giveaways I have hosted on my site. I give an extra entry when you follow me on Twitter and up to three additional entries if you tweet about the giveaway I am hosting to your followers on Twitter.
Don’t follow massive amounts of people on Twitter in hopes that they will follow you back, then immediately unfollow them. Twitter frowns upon that and you will be penalized for it. If you start following massive amounts of people all in one shot it sets up a red flag. Ideally you should follow a few people per day. There is no limit to how many people can follow you back on a daily basis.
Follow people or companies that truly interest you. Don’t follow someone in hopes that they will follow you back. I currently follow around 6,500+ people on Twitter, but only around 6,000 follow me. Not everyone I follow follows me back. I follow them because I have an interest in what they have to say. Another words there is no point following a pet supply company on Twitter when you don’t even have a pet.
Don’t bring drama to Twitter. If you have issues with anyone on Twitter or in your personal life DON’T make it a public display on Twitter. That is not what the site is for. Consider it a “Drama Free Zone”. If you have issues or problems with anyone on Twitter take it off Twitter or use the direct message option. By airing out your dirty laundry on Twitter for all to see you will quickly lose the followers you worked so hard to aquire.
Do not abuse Twitter. Twitter is meant to be fun and engaging. It’s not meant for spamming others or blasting people with nonsense. If you have a sale going on for your business, great! It’s OK to post it on Twitter a few times (not one after the other). Just don’t get obnoxious about it and post non-stop tweets about the sale. You will find that you lose people quickly if you do that.
I’m sure there are many other great tips on how to get more Twitter followers. If you have any suggestions I would love to hear from you. Please feel free to leave a comment.
Kimberly
*Twitter images found on Google.com. Sources and copyrights unknown. If you know any copyright information please contact me or leave a comment so I can provide proper credit. Thank you.
Tammy says
Thanks for the tips – Twitter can become really addicting! I watch my ‘tweet friends’ on my iTouch whenever I’m out and about!
Annie @ Annie's Heart says
Very well written guide! I am going to email this to my mom since she keeps asking me “how to twitter” LOL
She goes, “Annie, I have a twitter, now what?” Since she is just a non-computer lady without a blog or business I doubt she will get much out of it, and at least this article will help her understand how to use it and if she even wants to 🙂
Thanks!!
Blommi says
I remember when I said I would never participate in twitter… I now have about 5500 followers…. never say never.
Dee says
Thanks for the reminders. The biggest problem for me is interacting on Twitter. I follow people and have twitter followers but I don’t post randomly it’s usually new blog posts and giveaways. I really need to work on changing that.
barb g says
Hey great info I didn’t know how to retweet! I’m still wanting to know how to actually send a direct message on twitter.