Twitter has evolved into one of the most popular, go-to tools when it comes to reaching broad audiences, whether you’re promoting content, branding yourself as an expert in a field or networking with individuals who share similar interests.
One way to expand your reach on Twitter is to obtain more followers — but it’s not as simple hitting the follow button and hoping they follow you back. Engagement is the key behind every social media strategy. Remember the more engagement you get through retweets and mentions, the more followers you will gain both in the short term and long term!
So let’s jump straight in. Here are 15 of our biggest Twitter tips:
1. Provide
We can’t all be witty or insightful or clever. But we can all offer something: discounts, samples, promotions, advice… offer something of value. Followers will appreciate the gesture, and if what you offer really is worthwhile, they’ll spread the word for you.
Twitter offers are also a free way to sense-check customer interests and do a little market research; if you offer a promotion and no one is interested, you learn more about your market — without spending money on conventional advertising. Use special offers and promotions to find out what customers value. When you hit on the right mix, your current followers will retweet to their friends… and your following will grow organically.
2. Leverage Your Other Social Media Profiles
Link to your Twitter profile from your other profiles across the web. Facebook, YouTube, Linkedin, etc. On your Facebook page include a link to your Twitter profile in the websites section. On YouTube you can link to your Twitter profile in your bio, and in the description section for videos. You can also mention your Twitter username in your videos, or watermark it as text on top of the video.
3. Ask Your Followers to Retweet You
Ask your followers to “Please Retweet” your best tweets. Saying please has been proven to get better results. We have tested this out and it really does work. Every retweet usually leads to a few new followers, depending on how many followers the person who retweets you has.
4. Use #Hashtags in Some of Your Tweets
Hashtags can help people find your tweets through trending topics, and Twitter search. #Hashtags are not pretty to look at so use them sparingly. Some people detest them and will unfollow you if you use them all the time. #AvoidStupidLongHashtagsThough
#Hashtags do open your tweets to other tweet streams so using them when you are starting out can open your tweets up to a larger audience than just your followers. The more people that find your tweets, the more people find (and follow) you.
5. Tweet Cool Pictures
People like to see and share cool pictures. Pictures tend to retweet well, and the more retweets you get the more followers you can potentially net.
6. Tweet During Peak Times
Tweet during peak twitter traffic times. Check out this post we wrote about everything you need to know about timing your tweets so you can get your tweets more exposure. The more exposure your tweets get the more followers you will pick up in the process.
7. Participate in Trending Topics
Trending topics are visible to thousands of people at once. Participating in a trending topic can give your tweet more exposure than it normally would. With more exposure your tweets have a better chance of spreading, and this can net you a bunch of new followers in the process.
8. Use a Tweet Button in Your Blog Posts
Sites with twitter share buttons installed get seven times the twitter mentions as websites without them. Twitter recently launched the official tweet button, and we recommend you use it. If you install this button into your pages or posts manually you can also choose to have the button recommend people to follow after a tweet is sent.
9. Create a Great Looking Twitter Background
Most people still use the web based version of Twitter, which means they will see your background when surfing to your profile. If you take the time to create a custom Twitter background people will notice and you will get more follows as a result.
10. Pick a Short and Memorable Twitter User Name
The shorter your username the better. Many people still use the classic style retweets, so having a shorter username means that more people will be able to retweet your tweets.
11. Run a Contest
Running a contest is a great way to attract new followers. Offer a good prize and make sure you clearly communicate the rules of entry. If your prize is related to your brand then it can also help find targeted followers who are interested in your area of expertise.
Be creative! Try giving away an experience, a vacation, a meeting with a celebrity. Contests draw attention! Offer multiple prizes, including a grand prize, 3-5 mid-level prizes, and as many small prizes as you feel like.
Set a hashtag for your contest like #mycontestisawesome or #winmystuff, and include it in every tweet about your contest.
Launch your contest through Twitter and any other mediums you are using. Blogs are great at driving contest traffic, because they can explain the prizes and rules in greater detail.
You can use the conest as an inbound marketing vehicle for your website and award prizes based on who drives the most traffic back to the contest page! Get contest entrants to use bit.ly links which have built in analytics so that you can track who sends the most traffic.
12. Interact
This is something many new users miss on Twitter. Twitter is not simply a medium to broadcast like television or radio, although some people do drop the ball and use it this way. Twitter is meant for both broadcasting AND interaction.
Answer back to people who tweet you. People who talk to you will be much more likely to follow you. Whenever someone tweets or retweets us we check to make sure we are following them, and we imagine that many other people check this out as well.
13. Participate in #FollowFriday
Throughout the week keep track of the people who retweet and make a positive impression on you and reward them with a #FollowFriday recommendation. More often than not people you recommend for #FollowFriday will return the favor.
14. Add Yourself to Twitter Directories
There are directories like Twellow, wefollow, and several others where you can add your Twitter profile and get more followers. Wefollow is an especially helpful Twitter directory because it is the largest directory on the web.
There are dozens of directories of Twitter users online, including Twiends, WeFollow, and Twellow, and more. Add yourself to as many directories as you can find under the proper categories, and you will begin to see some users following you from these sites.
When someone follows you through one of these directories you will receive a notification email from Twitter – if you have these turned on. In these notifications you can see which directory they followed you through.
15. Tell Your Contact List to Follow You
Send an email to your existing contact list letting them know that you are on twitter, and that they should be following you. One way to do this is to use an emboldened post-script in any newsletters you might send.
Well there you have it, some of our tips on how to grow a large Twitter following. Have you got any other tips? Would love to hear them via the comment section below. Also don’t forget to follow us on Twitter here!
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