Twitter is the social media platform that allows for the most back and forth conversation. While Twitter has its issues from spammers, too much noise and bad content, it thrives in the cocktail party sense. It’s even a place you can engage others from other platforms. For example, you can find a business on Instagram and move the conversation to Twitter. The idea is Twitter is still relevant as we’ve discussed. But don’t go into Twitter just to build up your number of followers. An unengaged audience provides no value. So let’s look at 10 Hacks to build your Twitter following with people that may actually chat with you.
1) Engage others
People care about themselves–show interest in what they are talking about especially if you have a similar interest (don’t interject on things you know nothing about, unless of course you want to learn about it). Ask questions, give credit, offer ideas. Engage!
2) Follow people that follow back
If you see someone with 10,000 followers and they only follow 200 people back there’s a 99% chance they aren’t going to follow you. Now if this person offers you value in their tweets, give them a follow. You shouldn’t just be looking for an audience on Twitter. You should be looking for people to learn from. If you don’t see value in this person, then why follow them as they have no interest in following you back based on their follower to following ratio.
3) Use Crowdfire to help with your Twitter following (app)
Track cheaters that follow you only to unfollow you. Yes, that’s a thing. People will follow you with the purpose of getting you to follow them back. It’s a scam. And once you follow them, goodbye! And this is difficult to track unless you have an app that allows you to find these people. Crowdfire will sort out people/businesses that have recently unfollowed you. This “Recent Unfollower” list will include these people and people that just for whatever reason decided to unfollow you. Good news, you can just unfollow anyone you don’t wish to follow anymore.
4) Using the the Crowdfire app, find non-followers.
Chances are celebrities aren’t following you back. That’s okay. You want to know who you have followed recently (in #2 above) that decided not to follow you back. Here you can then unfollow those people–if you like. Of course, as I stated, if they are giving you value, by all means, keep following them. The goal isn’t to only have a list of large followers, but to have people you follow that provide you something that you want.
5) Search Twitter for the phrase: “thanks for the follow”
If you type that phrase into twitter search and then click “All Tweets”, you are going to see people tweeting this phrase out in bulk. Of course, some of those tweets are automated which is a bit bogus because automated tweets, besides posting a blog post on Buffer or Hootsuite (or another program like those), is not genuine. However, you can then look at these people’s followings to see if they have anything of value in their timeline or profile. If so, and if their ratios line up, give them a follow. Good chance you will get a follow back and even someone saying, “thanks for the follow”. Then after several days, apply #4 above to #5. Make sense?
6) Those who like or retweet you deserve a follow–well most of the time!
If a person takes the time to like or retweet a tweet you put out there, then follow them if their ratios line up and if they aren’t spam. You will see spam accounts and 90% of the time these will be easy to spot. But for those that are genuine like what you have to say and took the time to give you a little love. Give back by following them. From there, watch them follow you back.
7) Use Twitter Search to find people talking about a topic you like
For example, say you like the Buffalo Bills (like me). Search for something to do with the Bills. Click “All Tweets” and there you will see people chatting about the topic in real time. They are active on Twitter right then and there. You like the Buffalo Bills and chances are they do too (or at least they like talking about the team). Check their ratios and if they seem like someone of value, click follow. They will see this follow come through as they are online and they will follow you back. For more advanced searches, simply apply the variables on the Twitter advanced search page.
8) Create quality content first and then promote it–basically, become a person of value
#6 works best when you apply this idea of creating quality content. If you have a blog or a vlog of some sort, send out an article or video link and, the better the content, the better the chance it has of being liked or retweeted. Then you apply #6 above. Articles, pictures, videos, links to audio clips are more likely to be liked, retweeted or commented on then some regular comment (not all the time). Create great content, promote the great content, then follow people who give it a look.
9) Give love — like & retweet other people
If you like a blog post, an image or a video or just a tweet of any variety that came from someone else, prove it by liking or retweeting it. Retweeting is more valuable. You would want this done for you so do it for others. It helps that individual, it shows what you are interested in, and it will lead to people finding you more easily on Twitter–which leads to more follows (and more engagement). And by liking or retweeting someone else’s content, they will see this and may follow you. It also helps promote the good stuff of Twitter, thus cutting through the noise.
10) Follow back!!
It’s that simple. When you open your Twitter app, you will see your notifications. In the notifications, you will see people who have recently followed you. These are people who are interested in what you have to say or are pulling a fast one on you. But no worries–because you are now armed with #3 above and you will quickly know who is trying to pull these stunts. So find out who followed you and if their ratios line up and if their value is in line with what you are looking for, follow back.
Building a Twitter following takes time. A great thing about Twitter is you can do this while watching a game or taking a break. With some effort and time you will find an engaged audience. And who knows, the next person that follows you could be your next client. It’s happened for us and it would be awesome if it happened for you!