Being effective in your social media efforts isn’t about who has the most followers, but one shouldn’t think that it isn’t important. Building your influence begins with building your social media following. Here are 5 steps to show you how you can get more Twitter followers the right way.
1) Use appropriate hashtags.
Strategic use of a “hashtag” is a great way to get involved in your niche’s conversations. There are lots of great ways to find the best hashtags to use to maximize your exposure. From a broad perspective, try using your best judgment and searching for common words and phrases from your niche. For example, if you are a master chef, try using the Twitter search function to see what people are saying about #frenchcuisine or #cookingtrends or my personal favorite – #nomnom.
2) Post shareable content
Having your tweets “retweeted” is the best way to expand the reach of each post exponentially. If the average Twitter user has 100 followers and you get 10 retweets, then you have increased your potential reach by 1000. A great way to do this is by adding helpful, interesting, or amusing commentary on relevant content. To put this into practice, you would summarize your thoughts on an article you have read and share it along with the article link. If you provide an insight that goes beyond what one can learn from the article itself, your tweets are likely to be shared.
Note: Don’t be afraid to say “please retweet” if it is especially good content, especially if it is your own. Studies have shown that these posts get retweeted more often.
3) Follow new people.
Twitter makes it easy to find new people in your area of interest to follow. They have a great little function that provides suggestions for new people to follow. Go follow new people to gain fresh insight and to create more conversation. Basically, treat Twitter as you would your offline life, and go meet new people and have fun with it.
4) Aim for quality over quantity. Then go for more quantity.
Post high-value content that will be of great use to your followers and then don’t be afraid to tweet it a few different times. Guy Kawasaki proudly claims that he posts the same tweet 3-4 times per day to account for different time zones. If its good material, by all means, get it out there.
5) #Spellcheck
You can really lose a lot of credibility by making too many spelling or grammar errors. If nothing else, the grammar police who will undoubtedly show up at the first improper usage of to, two, and too, will detract from your message, at the very least.
Fair warning: I’m a card-carrying member of the grammar police. You’re =/= your.
Finally, don’t get overwhelmed. Try out these tactics a few at a time. Stay consistent, and over time you will build your following.
I want to hear how you build your own following on Twitter. Any tips I should have included?