Twitter is a simple yet powerful marketing and networking tool. Building a following takes time and persistence. For most people Twitter may be a little overwhelming, it’s power of it however is undeniable. Twitter spreads news faster than CNN. The trick to getting your message out there is to have an attentive following. Short of buying followers (strongly frowned upon, and can possibly get you banned from Twitter), what are the best ways to gain followers?
Here’s our list of five easy ways to build your Twitter following:
1) Broadcast That You’re on Twitter
Seems like a no-brainer I’m sure, but hear me out. Most people don’t broadcast their Twitter presence nearly enough. Share your “Follow Me” Twitter link on your website/blog, Facebook page, LinkedIn profile, business cards, e-mail signatures, conference presentations, articles and any and every other place you can think of.
2) Follow Influential People in Your Topic
Use Twitter’s search function to look for specific words related to your industry. Follow the leaders that appear in the search results. Ask them questions, join the conversation, and get involved as much as possible. Your followers will come.
3) Use Hashtags
This is a hashtag: #marketing. Twitter uses these to help categorize and give context to conversations. It’s also one of the biggest things people search for when looking for followers. If you’re an expert dog groomer – you could search #dogs, #doggrooming, #petgrooming to find the conversations you want to get involved in. We’d also suggest using your hometown airport code as a suffix to all your posts. It’s a good way to gain local followers.
4) Write Good, Creative, Useful Tweets
If you tweet about the root beer you had for breakfast – it’s not likely someone is going to be interested in what you have to say. However, if you tweet about exclusive discounts at your store to your Twitter followers – you may start to see some followers come in your door. Tweeting for charity is another classic example. A good way to save time with Twitter is to mix in some content from your favourite blogs – it’s easy and useful way to keep your bird tweeting.
5) Follow, Follow, Follow
When you follow someone, there’s a good chance they’ll follow you back. There’s a plethora of Twitter tools out there, many of which involve an auto-follow function. So follow as many people who are tweeting about the topic you find interesting – there’s a good chance 25-50% of them will follow you back.
