5 Easy Steps to Get More Followers on Twitter
Here are five easy steps you can do right now to get more followers on Twitter. No time for chit chat, let’s get right down to it:
1. Follow OTHER people on Twitter.
The best way to get more followers is to follow more people yourself. This works because chances are if you follow others, they will also choose to follow you. It also works because your chances of being retweeted go up – the more you are retweeted, the higher the chance that others will find you and your tweets of interest, and so will follow you.
Now, if you really want to make this work for you, you want to follow the right people. Depending on your business or activity, this can be people in your geographical location, your industry or those who tweet about the same topic as you do.
How to find and follow people in your geographical location
If you are a local business or personality, you might want to follow other Tweeters who live in your city or geographical area. This is good for retail businesses or services, bands, radio stations, film festivals, organizations and clubs, groups etc. – anyone whose business is mainly local.
Here are some tools you can use to find Tweeters in your ‘hood:
- Twellow.com/twellowhood
Click on the map to find your country, then province, state or region until you get to the city you want to target. Twellowhood will then show you a list of all the people who tweet from that location. You can now scroll through the list and choose who you want to follow, then make some time for the dull work of pressing the “follow” button next to them. I did this this morning while listening to podcasts and recorded tutorials. - Use Twitter advanced search.
Click on the link above to take you to Twitter.com’s advanced search. When on the page, scroll down to where it says “Places.” Add the city you are targeting, the distance from it you consider reasonable, and click “search” at the bottom of the page. You will be provided with a list of all the twitterers in that area. Now what you do is roll-over the Twitter user-name and click on “follow.” Make sure you are logged in with the right Twitter account if you have more than one account.
How to find people in your Industry or Topic
- Once again use the Twitter advanced search. This time scroll to where it says “Words.” Enter your industry, or topic, like marketing or voice-overs. You can get very specific using the fields they provide, for example use ” This exact phrase” for multiple word strings like “video production.” You can even excluding certain words, for example when looking up Newfoundland you might want to exclude the word -beiber or you’ll get lots and lots of kids people trying to bring Justin Bieber back to Newfoundland in your results (Please, Justin, if you hear this Come BACK!)
- Use Blastfollow to find people who used a certain hashtag and follow them immediately.
How to find people in your Industry AND your location
You can once again use Twitter advanced search to search through the content of the tweets but you may get better results if you want to search only the Bios and Names of Twitter users. The best tool for this is Google’s advanced searched. This extra cool tip comes from Guy Kawasaki’s presentation on how to be a power Twitter User and are simplified below.
- If you want to search through the bios of Twitter users, use this formula in Google search but make sure to change the word voiceover to the service you are interested in :
intext:”bio * voiceover” site:twitter.com
Google will now search only through the twitter.com site and the results page will only show those who put voiceover in their Twitter bio. Very handy. - If you want to search through Twitter user names you can use this formula.
intitle:”voiceovers* on twitter” site:twitter.com
Google will now search through the users who put voice over in their Twitter user name, like twitter.com/voiceoveractors or in their actual displayed name that appears in the right hand top sidebar (that name is editable! See below Tip 2.)
Last but not least, you can follow everyone who follows you. This can be done manually, or you can automate this with tools like: SocialToo, SocialOomph.com/ that have autofollow commands.
2. Make sure YOU and are easy to find on Twitter
By using the reverse-process of the tips above you can make sure others can find you or your service more easily:
- If you are a local service provider try and put your industry or town in your name e.g Twitter.com/voiceoveractors or e.g Twitter.com/realestateNL
- Change your displayed name – this is the name that appears in the right sidebar at the top before it shows your website and bio. You can change this to include your key offering or keyword. E.g John Smith Voiceovers. To edit your displayed name choose Setting from the menu top right of your page and then choose Profile.
- Make sure your bio has your keywords or phrases that one can find you with in it. Use a keyword searching tool to find phrases that people actually use when searching. Google’s keyword tool is good for that. Remember if you are a band or author that putting your genre in your bio is a good idea.
3. Start being helpful and offering advice
Don’t waste people’s time. Do be helpful and someone worth following:
- Start by tweeting good content: tips, tricks, anything you deem useful.
- Tweet regularly. Try setting a schedule, like tweeting every day during an afternoon break or just before bed.
- If you run out of things to say, Tweet other people’s content. Things to tweet are useful articles, reviews, ebooks, videos, sites, white papers that you have enjoyed.
- ReTweet other tweets posted by the people you follow. Use RT plus the original poster’s login at the start of your tweet to give them credit (should look like : RT @ireneduma plus the original tweet.)
- Search your genre or area of expertise on http://search.twitter.com/ Then answer people who are looking for something or asking for help. To answer them make sure you use their twitter login name preceeded by an @ sign. E.g. use @ireneduma if you want me to see your tweet. Make sure you follow these people too.
- Search your keywords or area of interest then retweet the best posts to your followers. You will often receive a public thank you that exposes your twitter handle to new audiences.
- Get involved with memes. Memes are current trends and can be found on Twitter here tweetmeme.com,
- Use hashtags in your posts to be included in the memes. Read my article What are #hashtags to learn more about hashags and how to use them.
- Post pictures with twitpic.com
4. Ask people to ReTweet you
When your followers ReTweet your posts it promotes your @username. This will makes it more likely that other Tweeters will follow you because 1) they found the post was useful and 2) it came with word-of-mouth marketing: their friend is following you so you must be worth it.
- You can put Pls ReTweet this in your post. Don’t use this every time, but it’s good for timely tweets and/or non-profit do-good deeds.
- Add a tweetmeme retweet button to your website. It also comes as a plugin for your web site built with WordPress – get the tweetmeme plugin here. That’s what I am using on my blog – you can see it at the top of this post, flush right.
- Retweeting is easy if you use tools like Tweetdeck or Hootsuite.
5. Ask people to follow you.
And make it easy for them to do so.
- Put your link to your twitter page on your website, Facebook page, email signature, forum signatures, business card, bottom of every blog post
- Get Twitter badges or widgets to place on your website:
http://twittercounter.com/pages/twitterwidget
- and always ask people to follow you.
Like this – if you liked this, please follow me on Twitter.com/ireneduma
and retweet it by clicking on the button at the top of the page.
Thanks!
EAVB_YGNLAAHLQR
2 commentsMore Twitter Tools and Tips
Here are some more Twitter tools and tips to help you get tweeting.
I use Tweetdeck.com to organize all my Twitters.
I search Twitter with search.twitter.com. Search for your subject, your name, your company’s name, your competitors’ names etc. to see what people are talking about. Start talking with them, and building relationships.
You can also search for hashtags on Twemes. Hashtags are a tagging system on Twitter where you put a # in front of any word you like. They are kind of like Technorati tags that way.
Use #hashtags to groupd your tweets on one subject. More info on how to use hashtags here.
Use RT – this means ReTweet – to take someone else’s Twitter post and send it to your followers. To use it just add RT to the top of your tweet, followed by @originalsendername, and their original message.
RT @originalsendername original message
Search Twitter users bios on Tweepsearch. Find people in your industry or genre to befriend.
Share photos on Twitter with Twitpic.
Check out popular videos on Tweetube. Share videos on Twitter with Tweetube.
Why did someone unfollow you? Check out Tweet Effect to find out which of your Twitter updates might be responsible for people following or leaving you.
TweetLater is an excellent tool for Twitter automation. You can automatically follow those that follow you – and send an intro message with it. Some marketing experts say this is the best way to build authority. Others disagree. Your choice. Tweetlater also lets you program your tweets to send at specific times, though I think that’s kinda crummy. You’re not in a dialogue if you’re not there.
Visit the TwiTip (Twitter Tip) blog which is edited by Darren Rowse from ProBlogger Blog Tips. Follow Darren on Twitter.
Vist the Twitter Fan Wiki to look for tips or info, or to add your own.
How To Get more Followers
Kevin Rose just put out his list of how to get more Twitter followers. Kevin would know – he is the founder of Digg and has over 88,000 followers on Twitter making him the second most followed after President Obama.
Want to check your stats or see who else has loads of followers? Top Twitter users posted here on Twitterholic?
Follow me on Twitter – Twitter.com/ireneduma
No commentsWhat are Hashtags?
Have you noticed Twitter tweets going by with words that start with the # sign in them. Like this one? #FBTip
It’s called a hashtag, and is a way for you to organize or add a metatag to your tweets. It groups tweets about the same subject all together.
Are you familiar with Technorati or Flickr tag? Hashtags are the same but instead of adding them to the bottom of your post, you just add them right in your Tweet’s sentence by putting the # sign in front of your word. Any word you want.
Why use a hashtag?
If you add hashtags to your tweets it will be easier to search and find any posts you made on that subject. For example Facebook Marketing guru Mari Smith uses this little word prefaced by a hashtag or pound sign -#FBTip – for all her Facebook tips that she posts to Twitter,
Just do a search on search.twitter.com. You can also search for them on twemes.com, or tweetchat.com.
Start using your own hashtag for your own tips or sets of categories you want instant access to. For example if you are a blues band (are you listening Porkbelly Futures?) you might want to use #bluesmusic whenever you post some news about your band, or CD or other post on topic that would be interesting to other blues music fans.
#bookadvertising would be a good one for Book Trailer Production company Bookshorts.com.
Learn more about Hashtags and how to use them in this video from Facebook Mari.
Get more Free Facebook Tips from Mari.
Become my Twitter Friend on Twitter.com/ireneduma
Should You Twitter?
Twitter was quickly adopted by kids to broadcast what you are doing. Adults quicky called it fritter. But surprisingly Twitter has grown quickly among lots of time-challenged adults who dig the micro-blog limit of 140 characters and it has quickly become a tool of choice for social networking geniuses and advocates like Gary Vaynerchuk of winelibrarytv.com and Chris Brogan who writes about social networking business strategies.
So – the bottom line is Twitter is yet another tool you can use to build brand, fans, and community. The question is -
Should you Twitter?
I think if you have a business or are your own business, like many artists are, then yes, I think you should consider Twittering, or definitely know why you are not. And here’s why. This is where the new business is going – it’s going to the web and since this is how they play, then if you don’t want to be left behind, you might consider playing there too.
The good news is Twitter is easy, Twitter is quick, and that makes it a good place to start practicing this new “dialoguing” business that’s changing the rules and the game.
How to Twitter?
Twitter is touted as mini-blogging or micro-blogging. You are allowed only 140 characters to write a post so they are very short posts, kind of like a Facebook status. You can update often throughout the day, and let people know what you’re doing. You can update from the web, or by texting from your cell phone.
But there’s no sense in jumping on the Twitter bandwagon if you don’t really know why you are doing it. To that end, I found this great article which outlines a Twitter strategy for bands. It is super comprehensive and smart, and explains how to make Twitter a part of your branding and marketing plan. It’s written by Ariel Hyatt of Ariel Publicity, a music PR firm, but this strategy will work for authors, artists, filmmakers, photographers, entrepreneurs or the self-employed too.
In the Musicians Twitter Roadmap article above, Ariel interviews Laura Fitton, who explains how to use Twitter to create a community and promote yourself even if you are new to “social networking.” They talk about how to sign up and set up your profile, create the right brand, linke to Your Mobile Phone, how to find friends and follow them, who to follow and more, in nice and easy to understand English.
What to Twitter?
There are lots of gurus out there telling people what to Twitter. The thing to remember is that Twittering isn’t about the direct sell, but about building relationships and trust. This is becoming more important as the consumer public is becoming more knowledgable and wary of the hard sell or scams, and also more apt to do a ton of research online before buying. There is a general trend toward more authenticity and transparency too – fans want to know you and hear your thoughts and opinions, not those that your PR person made up.
One way to build fans and friends is to join in on the conversation. Do a search on Twitter using this Twitter search tool for words like your name, your book titles, your genre or your topic of expertise – and you can reply to people using the @ sign. Add your two cents worth, or point out a link to that subject on your or someone else’s blog.
Use twemes.com or tweetchat.com and do a search for hashtags – those are like Technorati tags for Twitter. What are Hashtags you ask? Click on that link to find out.
How to find Twitter Friends.
Social networking is all about friends. The more you have the better. The article above explains how to find friends. A new tool launched just 3 weeks ago can also help.
Mr Tweet helps you find friends by analyzing your current network and suggesting new friends and members whose feeds may be of interest. Just follow Mr tweet then wait for a DM, or direct message from the service. I did, and just got myself a load of new friends to follow.
Automate Twitter
But just a bit. Die hard Twitter users and social networkers frown on automation because it’s the antithesis of the spirit, which is all about communication, dialogue and transparency.
But I think setting your Twitter posts to automatically update your Facebook status is fine. To do that go to your Facebook account and install the Twitter application. Then set it to allow status updates from Twitter. You can change this anytime.
I think sending Twitter updates to your MySpace page is also ok, especially if you are like me and don’t go there very often anymore. Twitter has created customizable “badges” which are widgets that you can embed onto your MySpace pages as well as onto other websites and blogs, which will show your latest tweets.
My fave Twitter friends
I like having “friends” who are really smart and passionate about their subjects, go deep into it, and have no trouble sharing what they know. When I pop onto twitter via the web, I am always guaranteed a link to a fascinating article, post or news item from Gary Vaynerchuk, Chris Brogan, or Ken Nichols to name just a few.
They are also good examples of how to Tweet useful tweets. I really don’t care that you are eating breakfast, or are tired, or are going somewhere – unless I am stalking you. If I just admire you, I’d rather you spare me and just tell me what you learned when you got there.
Twittering isn’t for you if:
- your audience doesn’t use it
- you absolutely don’t have time
- you don’t care about listening
- you don’t like sharing
Should Screenwriters Twitter?
How serendipitous is this? My new Twitter friend Jill Golick whom I met via Ink Canada Facebook Edition just posted an article called Twitter and the Wired Writer. How did I find it? She Tweeted it.
More Tips on Twittering Real Good from some bright minds
Check back often as I will be updating this whenever I come across a great article.
- How To Use Twitter by Guy Kawasaki, the power entrepeneur, explains how he uses Twitter as a Twool. Excellent advice and some more great reasoning on why you should use Twitter as a marketing tool.
- Twitter Power Guide eBook. For the more advanced Twitter user familiar with Google Reader, RSS and Yahoo Pipes, this FREE ebook is just out from Christopher Penn – savvy marketer, blogger, podcaster and podcamp founder. Not to be missed.
- To get up to speed with Google reader, here’s my How To RSS guide with Google Reader.
- Darren Rouse of Problogger and Twitip writes his thoughts on the blogging VS Twitter debate, and how the two platforms compliment each other.
Last but not least Follow Me on Twitter
1 comment
