Twitter is an indispensible social media tool for bloggers and online small business owners. Within a short while, this social interaction service has become so popular that it is being actively used by even politicians and celebrities. Twitter is a household name today. In this article, you will find ten important tips to get more followers.
1. Tweet and Tweet Helpful Things
We can find thousands of idle Twitter accounts, the owners of which may have even forgotten their user IDs. There is no wonder these accounts tend to lose followers in the long run. The whole point of this social media tool is to inject useful tips and insights into the Web community. This can be done only through tweeting regularly.
Also, you need to tweet useful stuff that your followers find invaluable. Some Twitter users tweet about their personal, day-to-day activities, which warrant little or no attention at all. People don’t want to know about what you had for breakfast or whether you are taking a limo to work.
2. Get Into Suggested Users List
Twitter has a feature called ‘Suggested Users’, which displays a number of profiles a new Twitter account holder may be interested to follow. If your account makes it into this list, the number of followers you get overnight will be overwhelming.
However, for getting into this list, you really need to be a valuable Twitter user. Verified celebrity accounts are automatically added to the suggested users list. Normal users also can get into it if their tweets are interesting and relevant to the topic at hand.
3. Maintain and Promote Your Twitter Profile
Look at your Twitter profile and see if you feel like following it yourself. Many Twitter profiles are so poorly maintained that people tend to get out of them quickly. Make sure your front page has only valuable posts and not just retweeted stuff or random links. Also, you can enhance the look of your profile with a custom background image. Put all the necessary information about yourself in the bio column, with link to your main website if there is one.
Moreover, make sure you promote your Twitter profile by linking to it from as many places as you can. Other ways you can promote your account include running and participating in Twitter contests, ‘tweet this’ button in your blog posts, and printing your Twitter ID on your business cards. Occasionally, you can be a guest blogger in one of the blogs out there, and get a link to your Twitter profile. Another effective way is blogging about this social media service; thousands of people are interested to know more about Twitter and follow anyone who blogs about it.
4. Encourage Retweet
Retweeting is the process of tweeting what someone else has tweeted on their account. You may notice that retweeted statuses have the ID of the original tweeter. Encourage your followers to retweet your statuses. This will display your ID on other people’s accounts, thus giving you a viral promotion.
5. Participate in Hashtag Groups
Use hashtags when you tweet about anything contemporary and interesting. For this, just put a hash character in front of the keyword, as in “#windowsphone7”. Hashtags make up internal groups in Twitter that discuss a particular topic. When you get into any hot topic, you have a great chance of increasing your follower count.
6. Tweeting Pictures
If you have any nice pictures to share, put it on Twitter. Besides TwitPic, you can tweet pictures through mobile apps like Tweetie. This is an easy and smart way to gather more followers as pictures are retweeted virally.
7. Follow Many Tweeters
You should not expect people to follow you when you follow only a few. When you find a good Twitter account, follow it impulsively. This will not only help you gather valuable information, but also gain you more followers.
8. Interact Intelligently
Twitter is a social interaction tool, and will benefit anyone if it’s used properly. You should start conversations with your followers and the people you follow. Ask and answer questions, and get into discussions with others. Make your presence known in the community, and you will be rewarded with a whole bunch of new followers.
9. Tweet Efficiently
Twitter-related services are many out there. You can tweet from mobile phones in any platform, whether it is iPhone, Symbian, or Android; you can even tweet using SMS. You can tweet from your desktop using Adobe AIR Twitter clients (eg., TweetDeck, Digsby) that help you post quickly. These apps keep you constantly connected to your profile and the people you follow. Efficient tweeting will make your Twitter account an active one that many people will be tempted to follow.
10. Track the Statistics
Today, you can easily track how many users are interested in your posts. Twitter-based services such as Qwitter and Chirpstats can tell you how many followers you have lost over time. The reason why you should track this statistics is important. This will give you an idea of why your tweets are not interesting enough for some people. This information is very important in the long run. You can get an idea of what works among your followers and what doesn’t. Once you isolate the reason why your followers quit, you can rectify it, and thus gather more followers.
Many users of Qwitter have realized that they lose followers when they post unnecessary, redundant things instead of interesting, fresh stuff. Too frequent tweets also may be a reason for people to quit your account.
Conclusion
Nowadays, Facebook is the only other social media service that gets as much attention as Twitter does. Today, the Web is not the realm of a select few, but is trampled by millions of users from all walks of life, including celebrities and politicians. Twitter has become such an instant news fetcher of key events that it’s a necessity to have an account, not a choice anymore. If you follow the tips found in this article, you can be sure to build a successful Twitter account.