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May 24, 2012
I use these strategies everyday and every time I'm on twitter. This information is given to you for free. I'm not asking for any money nor am I selling you anything. How about a favor for a favor? I help you with Twitter, and you help me by viewing my campaign for contributions on indiegogo OR just share the link. That's all. I'm taking a fair amount of time to write this. More time than it would take to share this intact to others.
If you'd like anymore free Inbound Marketing advice, just email me with the subject "More Inbound Marketing Tips, Please" My apologies for this post not being all spiffy looking.
Some essential tips you can use to increase your twitter followers for free.
These
tips will not cost you anything more than some time, effort, and
patience. A following of Quality tweeters won't happen over night and I
suggest you use these tips continuously. The more you take advantage of
these essential tips, the better chances you get more quality followers
that will support your endeavors.
Section 1 - Targeting Tweeters
Finding
quality Twitter users is easy if you know where to look. If you're using
twitter as a means of promoting your brand, products, or services then you should keep this one thought in mind: TWITTER IS ABOUT COMMUNITY, NOT POPULARITY. Not only do I believe in this phrase, I enforce it about
85-90% of the time. Some people will follow you just so you can follow
them back but will hardly interact or support your efforts.
What you want for the Twitter community
you build is to get QUALITY FOLLOWERS, ones that will engage with you,
and that you will engage with as well. I
would rather have 1,000 quality followers that will engage and support
my efforts than to have 100,000 followers that will barely listen to me. Of
course, it doesn't hurt to have a few hundred users as fillers. You
never know when you can convert these people into quality followers.
 |
| Keyword Lists are good for targeting and tracking. Even our government uses Keyword Lists (shown). |
#2 - Do your twitter searches using a combination of hashtags (the '#' symbol in front of a #word/#phrase), keywords, and phrases. Depending on your search queries and suggested queries from google keyword tool you will either get results or not. Sometimes I do my hashtag searches using google, bing, or yahoo. Most users don't search google for twitter results. Its a toss up depending on the hashtag query you look for.
#3 - Follow users that are either tweeting,
retweeting, or have your keywords in their bios. Take some time to
check out a few of their lists as well. They may have lists that follow
tweeters who are in direct alignment with your interests. Follow them as
well. Your initial aim for new accounts should be at most 500 profiles to follow.
Do as many a day as you can without overdoing it. I would suggest
following no less than 50, no more than 100 per day for at least 5 days.
Honestly, that's all you really need if you're targeting the right
users when starting off.
#4 - BE THOROUGH IN YOUR SEARCH!! The point here is to find a bunch of tweeters that are in direct alignment with your interests. You wouldn't follow people in the medical field if you're plumber. At least, not right away. Keep your eyes on the Twitter Trending Topics
as well, if you see that there's a trending topic that relates to your
interests in anyway whatsoever. Look through those results and scan the
tweeters that have added to that trend. The more people that you find
tweeting about your interests the better because they can become quality
followers.
#5 - Follow Twitter verified accounts,
famous people, and celebrities that align with your interests and see
who they are mentioning, retweeting, or replying to with their tweets.
Scan and follow those users as well. Dive into their followers lists and
find tweeters that align with you as well. I DO NOT SUGGEST YOU FOLLOW A
PROFILE THAT HAS NO PICTURE OR BIO OR BOTH.
NOTE: When scanning a users profile, look at how many people they follow vs following.Stay away from users with a ratio like 5,000 followers vs them following 200. Chances are
you will have a harder time converting them into followers. Check out their Bio, Picture, and URL
(if provided). Most importantly LOOK TO SEE WHEN A USER TWEETED LAST!!
Why follow a tweeter who hasn't tweeted in months or years?? #Pointless
#6 - Let the people you follow, or that follow, you know
that you're following them and that you recognize them as following you
with mentions (@+username). Do your best to mention tweeters that are
tweeting often or tweet consistently. Famous tweeters and celebrity
tweeters barely tweet anyone back. If you follow 100 people in a day you can either tweet each separately or tweet a few usernames at one time.
No more than 10 users and do your best to VARY YOUR MENTIONED TWEETS
with different phrases/hashtags like #NowFollowing #GFMPublishingFollows
(replace gfmpublishing with your username) #shoutout(s). Or just say
"Hey, Hello, Looking forward to your tweets" something. Change it up so
that twitter, and its users, won't think you're spamming them.
#7 - Other sources to find users and potential followers include Twitter Directories
(GOOGLE THE PHRASE!) that let you submit your twitter URL or username
to a database of hundreds/thousands of other twitter followers based on
categories and subcategories. Many of these sites offer paid options
that give you the featured spot for your selected category making you
more visible to other tweeters. LinkedIn is a great way to find people on twitter in your industry giving you opportunities for networking. Also, many blog authors
have their twitter handle right on the front of their blog. If you're
an artist or band, set up a special sheet or web form that allows fans
and supporters to leave their twitter username before and during a show.
Friend Rise
is a new site that lets you grow your social networks. You can filter
your Twitter user search results to narrow the profiles that are
displayed when using the service. Social Bookmarking Sites Like StumbleUpon, Digg, Reddit, and Delicious, are all great avenues to promote your twitter account. DON'T OVERLOOK THESE SERVICES!!
Section 2 - Engaging Your Community
After you've followed a set amount of users who are directly aligned with your interests, you must engage with them. Meaning, you must show them that you notice them and that you want them to notice and support you. Here is another thought to keep in mind when engaging: NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR BRAND, MESSAGE, PRODUCT, OR SERVICE!! That's right. Though it may sound like a step back, it is actually a step forward. People want you to know about them first, which gives them the incentive to find out more about YOU and want you're about. Because of Social Media, the internet is more about discovery these days and less about being forced to discover.
#8 - Talk to the people you follow or who follow you.
Look through their tweets and see what they're talking about, then jump
into the conversation. Add your views or opinions without sounding
overbearing or like an asshole. If a user is tweeting about something
that has nothing to do with what you're about, that's fine. Remember "No
one cares about your brand, message...etc" Not yet at least. So for
example: I see people talking about how they passed a college test or
made some sort of achievement or did something. I would then either
reply to that by congratulating them and asking them about the
difficulty of reaching that goal. This makes the user feel important. I
also engage with sincere interest! I truly want to know. I may not remember every chat, but at least I'm engaging my network. You never know when you may have to relay that information to someone else.
#9 - Behold the power of the Retweet!
Once you see that your number of followers has significantly risen (at
least past the 100 mark), it's time to start retweeting. Why would you
wait to retweet? Well...if you don't have a decent amount of followers,
who's going to see what you've retweeted? Its possible that tweet wont come up in general search. Many users will never scan
your tweets after following you. Unless they are truly interested in
what you have to say or what you have to offer. If you have at least 100
followers then the person you're retweeting may be more inclined to be
thankful that you are spreading their message. Spread your retweets out over several minutes
instead of just back to back all of the time. You want to be selective about what you retweet. This shows the user you
are retweeting, and their followers that you deem their tweets
important. Other users will want to feel that importance as well and
will follow you in hopes that you will retweet their tweets also.
#10 - Favorite Tweets that resonate with you,
your brand, product or service. The user will get a notification that
you favorited their tweet. This goes beyond just retweeting because your
favorites are stored in a list. Anyone that comes to your twitter profile and looks at your favorite tweets will get a sense of what interests you.
You may even give people worthwhile information as well. You can even
promote your favorites list in emails, blog posts, websites or on other
social networks.
#11 - Use your DMs properly.
You can't direct message users who are not following you. So don't try.
For those that are, only send them DMs pertaining to what you've found
out about them. Refrain from tweeting things like "Thanks for following,
check out x,y,z at these links. Or follow @username." The reason being
is that you will come off sounding like you're spamming. You can thank people for following but do it in ways that seem more appealing.
"Thanks for following me, I have also followed you back. Looking
forward to your tweets!" Keep it friendly and sincere. Refrain from
sending specific updates about your endeavors to certain followers until
you know that they are actually interested. Believe me, they will tell
you. Reply to every DM you receive from users you follow or that follow
you IF that DM seems to be relevant to your interests.
#12 - Follow everyone back that follows you.
Thank everyone that mentions you in a tweet or retweet. Be sincere in
your thanks. Reciprocate by saying something nice to that user. Unless you're famous or a celebrity, you need to follow everyone that follows you! This will give other users the impression that you will follow them if they follow you and that will be a true assumption.
#13 - Promote your followers with the hashtags
#Shoutout, #S/O, #FriendFollow, #FF, etc, followed by a few @username
mentions in that tweet. No more than 7. Place a variety of special
messages in those tweets. Although you want to approach twitter as a
community and not a popularity contest it helps to connect the people in your community with each other.
Other tweeters are looking for people that align with their interests
too. You can help by with some promotions. For example: #Shoutouts to my
awesome #Followers @Username @TwitterUser @Tweeter @whoever. For every 8
tweets you create in your promotions add in your URL to your site,
blog, youtube, etc. Make sure you shorten the link with Bit.ly or let
Twitter shorten it for you.
#14 - Use Lists to keep up on your favorite tweeters
in your community that engage with you often. Lists are a great way to
also create a qualification process. For instance: You may not follow a
certain user due to the fact that their interests don't align with
yours, but you're interested in who they are. So instead of following
them, place them in a list. You don't need to follow a user to place them in a list.
I do this often with famous and celebrity tweeters. This keeps my
timeline active with only quality twitter users that are active in the
community I build. Plus, as your followers and those you follow grows,
you'll want to be able to find their tweets fast. If you're following 30,000 users imagine how much activity will be in your timeline!! List your favorites and you'll always be up on what they are doing.
#15 - Do not argue or get into twitter feuds, beefs with other twitter users.
If you feel there is friction or tension, kill them with kindness or be
classy in how you handle disputes. If other followers see that you're
the type of user that gets into disputes, they may unfollow you or block
you. You want to be professional during those times of friction. Show that tweeter that you're not bothered by their nasty comments or sordid views about you.
Attracting More Followers
This section is more like an addon to the first two and not its own because there are only a few tips to consider. The rest of the tips in the first two sections do a lot to attract followers.
#16 - Provide useful, helpful information to your followers.
If you have a quality list of followers based on your interests, then
you when you provide useful and helpful information that's relevant to
your community, you will have a better chance of your followers
retweeting that information. Share news stories, how-to practices, videos, audio, ebooks, events, etc., that pertain to what your community is into.
Scour the web for important information that you know your followers
can use. If you have an RSS feed reader set up, this will make your job
much easier. And again, for every 8 or so tweets you put out with useful
info, do one tweet about your product or service. If you're tweeting
often, this shouldn't be a problem.
#17 - Use DMs to share information with a follower
if you see they have asked a question yet no one has replied with an
answer. You can help turn a negative situation into a positive one and
your follower will gladly thank you either with a DM or a mention. This
will show their followers that you are valuable resource!
#18 - Be active in other social networks, blogs, groups, or forums where you can have your Twitter profile set up visibly. Simple as that. Twitter should never be the only place you go to build your community.
#19 - Place the hashtag #TeamFollowBack
or #Followback in your profile's bio and in some tweets. There is a
good side and bad side to this. The good side is that you will be
visible to many users that want to increase their followers list and
don't mind following back for the most part. The bad side is that you
will be visible to more spammers or robot profiles as well. Plus, I've
found that some users who claim to be part of the #TeamFollowback
movement only do so to gain followers and either never follow back or
unfollow users to make their profile look special as though they're
famous or well known. Remember my thought: Twitter is about
community, not popularity. Users like the ones I just mentioned lack the
substance to add to your community and only want followers. Your
conversion rates will be lacking with those types of followers in your
community.
Maintaining Your Twitter Community
Once you've got the ball rolling and
have built up your following, you will want to maintain a balanced
community. Twitter puts a cap on your following efforts if they see your
ratio of followers to following isn't balanced. This can hender your
efforts should you find more quality tweeters to add to your community.
You would then be subjected to placing those users in a list until you
are able to follow them. Analyzing your twitter metrics can aid you.
#20 - Use a social media metrics tool like Simply Measured, Social Bro, and Twitter Grader
to keep tabs on how your community is growing or shrinking based off
your efforts. Social Bro offers A TON of data that shows your influence
on twitter as a whole and it tells you who has followed/unfollowed you
recently. Unfollow people how have unfollowed you and PUT THOSE UNFOLLOWERS ON BLAST!!!
This will let the rest of your twitter community and other tweeters
know that a certain user has unfollowed you. For Example: @Username
#Unfollowed me for some reason and now I've #Unfollowed them. Also, the
site http://who.unfollowed.me is also a great tool for this purpose.
#21 - Keep any eye on users who you follow that have stopped tweeting for a long time.
Give them no more than 6 months to start tweeting again. If a user
isn't active, there's no sense in keeping them connected as this will
ruin your twitter ratio. Best practice? Put those users in a list like
"People That Haven't Tweeted In 6 months" then check that list from time
to time if you see those users become active again and are consistent.
#22 - NEVER STOP ENGAGING!!
It doesn't matter if you go on twitter for hours, days, or weeks at a
time before taking a break. The point is you must consistently engage
with your community whenever you are on twitter. Users will not be upset
if they haven't heard from you on twitter for awhile. Just as long as
you don't forget about them. People realize that you have a life.
Promoting your brand, product, service, or message
Just because no one cares about what you
have to offer initially, doesn't mean they will never care at all. And
it doesn't mean that you shouldn't promote yourself at all either. You must know when and how to promote yourself and your brand effectively.
#23 - Follow the 10-1 rule or create a similar rule depending on the size of your twitter community and how active you are. The
rule states that for every 10 tweets you post that do not pertain to
anything relevant to you and what you're about, you should post at least
one that does. Retweets, useful/helpful tweets, and mentions all
fall under the 10 in this rule. It doesn't matter how much you've spread
out those 10 tweets, just post one after every 10. Chances are after
your community has grown to great numbers, people will take the time to
retweet your promotion or look into it.
#24 - Don't be pushy with your promotions!
Be slick with it. Make it look as though you're tweeting useful
information or that you're just sharing things you've found across the
net. Instead of saying "Watch my new Youtube video about blah blah blah" say "I just watched and incredible Youtube video!" or
"This article really hit home for me." and add your own URLs to that
tweet. If you've been building quality followers and engaing with them,
chances are they're going to want to see what you're fussing about. Don't
ask for feedback or opinions...people will tell you what they think.
When your followers click on the links in question, then whatever
page/site/blog they go to is when you use a CALL TO ACTION like
Subscribe, Share, Sign Up..etc. RETWEET, PLEASE RT, or similar should be
the only command you issue when promoting yourself on twitter.
#25 - Make sure your bio has the correct info
you need in it pertaining to who you are, what you do, or what you have
to offer. The URL you provide should be the one you want your twitter
community to go to the most. Be specific in your bio and make sure it's
consistent across your other networks, sites, and blogs. You should even
add a small, readable URL and/or Brand Logo to your profile photo. Make
sure the photo is in the most efficient size possible. Read this post on SlideShare about creating the perfect Twitter profile picture.
#26 - If you are blogging (which you should be) or have a site
you should have a "Tweet this" button on each post or somewhere highly
visible for your web traffic to see. This gives visitors the opportunity
to tweet your promotions for you. Especially if they find your posts or
information useful and helpful, THEY WILL SHARE IT ON TWITTER! You
should even place a twitter widget on your blog's side column or your
website's hompage, header, or footer. This will show your visitors that
you are on twitter and your recent twitter activity as well as anyone
who mentions you or retweets your tweets.
#27 - Use your twitter metrics data to pinpoint when users in your twitter community are active the most.
Social Bro has a great heat-map feature that shows when your most
influential twitter users are active the most. The free version of
Social Bro only shows information for the top 100 influential tweeters
in your community. You may also search Google on CREATING A TWITTER HEAT MAP.
NOTE: Social Bro sucks as a desktop application but shines as a Google
Chrome App/Extension! I suggest going with the Chrome version.
#28 - Most importantly, be patient with your promotions.
If you are offering something of value to your followers in the
slightest bit, you will not have to worry about people being
unsupportive. Remember what I said before that growing your followers
and promoting yourself on twitter takes time, effort, and patience.
Depending on how you use these tips or how you handle yourself on
twitter, it could take months for you to see an increase of support for
your brand. Even though the belief should be that people don't care
about what you have to offer, the upside to this is that people generally WANT to discover what you have to offer without feeling FORCED to do so.
Using Automated Profiles
It
may sound strange, but there are ways to build your following on
Twitter without actually engaging with users at all. Having at least two
twitter accounts can aid
in that aspect. Having one account in which you are actively building
and engaging in your followers is find and dandy, but I also suggest that you create at least one
additional account that you can AUTOMATE as a set it and forget it tool.
Here's how I went about it.
#29 - Set up a new twitter profile that deals with type of subject or category not exactly related to you, your brand, or anything that can be sold. Create a simple bio that explains to users that this profile is an automated profile
about said topic or category. Make sure your URL is in the bio and that
"Created by @Username" is in there as well. The profile picture should
have nothing more to do with you than maybe a small logo in the corner
of the pic. The pic should pertain to the profile and not to you.
#30 - Do similar twitter searches like the one I stated above
for profiles that match what your new profile is about. Follow at least
500 profiles. Do mentions, promos, whatever you need to do to get those
users attention. The purpose is not to truly engage with other users,
but to gain their attention in some way.
#31 - Automate that account using a service like TwitterFeed. TwitterFeed allows you to take one or more RSS feeds from various sites or blogs and tweets each updated feed to your twitter account automatically. You can set up how often you want each feed to be tweeted and how many tweets each time a feed is sent to your account. For added incentive, you can create a hashtag of no more than 20 characters that will post before or after the main tweet is fed to your timeline. You can even add a Bit.ly account to Twitterfeed to shorten lengthy URLs (though twitter will do this for you as well). An RSS feed for a website or blog is usually visible as an orange symbol with white stripes inside of it. The stripes resemble the universal wifi symbol and can be straight or curved. RSS feeds are not hard to find if you're looking for them.
#32 - Combine multiple RSS feeds into one using a service like Chimpfeedr.
This will make it easy on you to set up your twitterfeed so instead of
having multiple feeds set up into twitterfeed, you can have one total
combined feed.
#33 - Limit your engagement
to following/unfollowing everyone who follows/unfollows you, Replying
to mentions if a user is directing a question or statement towards you.
Replying to DMs from your followers that you follow if need be. And
maybe retweeting a few tweets here and there. The point is keep the
aspect of this profile as a source of information or leads. With
twitterfeed constantly updating your timeline, you won't have to worry
about adding your own tweets and since your bio clearly states your
profile is automated, your followers should know you won't be personable
with it all the time.
Automated Profiles can serve as a gateway to your other twitter accounts, website, or blogs
and can be a great way to drive traffic to those areas of your online branding. The key
to using an automated profile effectively is providing useful, helpful, and valuable info
to the twitter community that follows you. In my case, I set up an automated profile that
specifically tweets job leads. This way users can find work if they so choose. Try setting
one up for news, photos, how-to guides or video feeds. Automated profiles WORK!
#34 - Stay away from monetizing a twitter profile.
Its too much like spamming and advertising, twitter has strict policies
regarding people monetizing a profile with Affiliate tweets. Twitter
will shut you down if they feel as though you're violating those
policies. If you've gained a large amount of followers overtime, it will
be sad to have to start all over again. However, there are a bevy of
profiles that still do this. If you plan to make an Affiliate profile on
twitter YOU MUST DISCLOSE THAT IN THE PROFILE BIO!! There are
actual laws that state any person representing advertisers as an
affiliate must have it visible to other users/visitors on their site or
in their profile that you are providing content as an Affiliate.
You might be asking now about other channels like email when promoting your twitter account. I don't suggest you blast your twitter usernames in an email unless you already have an email subscriber base already set up
where you consistently provide email newsletters or updates. Anything
outside of that will seem like spam or unsolicited emails to people you
don't know or haven't networked with.
I
sincerely hope these Essential Tips help you in your quest to build a
truly quality community on twitter. Please share or forward this blog to people
you know can use it.
Thank you in advance!
Grimm
The SH-Xperience
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