Photo courtesy of NextLevel Social Media (Creative Commons)
Participate with engaging content to increase your Twitter reach
Guest post by Andrew Lisa
One thousand is a nice, round number — and an admirable goal for a month-long drive for Twitter followers. A respectable number of followers should have a comma in it.
One thousand followers in 30 days, you say? Here’s how I’d get started.
Watch out for carnies
1I’ve been offered more ways to “get” 1,000 Twitter followers (or 3,000 or 5,000 or 10,000) than there are actual followers on Twitter.
By get, they mean buy. Don’t buy followers. The overwhelming majority of those followers will likely be bots or spammers, and it will be instantly obvious to anyone who’s looking that you fell for a scam. (Want to see who’s legit? See SocialBaker’s Fake Followers app.)
Play the niches
2I’d start with a helper program like twiends to find people relevant to whatever your sector or niche may be. When you find them, follow all of them, or at least the ones who seem active and relevant and sane.
Generally, they’ll follow back, giving you real followers in your genre. If they don’t, I’ll usually give them a week before I boot them.
Participate
3Don’t just broadcast your message over and over and over. Retweet things you find interesting or funny or helpful. Respond when people favorite you, retweet you or follow you.
Time check
4The most brilliant tweet ever written is just a lost thought if no one is there to read it. I tweet the most when I’m on a break from my work — so does everyone else. Twitter is by far the most active in the morning before people start working and at noon when they break to eat. Watch for a smaller pop in the evening as well. Tweet when it counts.
Link compelling content
5Generally, people retweet things that are useful, funny or interesting. If I see a great how-to or a cool article that no one is talking about, I’ll share it with Twitter. I want people to think of me as someone whose tweets they should look out for.
Tweet what’s trending
6A true stroke of genius that separated Twitter from the rest of the pack was to lay out right there for us what everyone was talking about. Trending topics are indicated with hash tags (#). Find a way to link your content to one of those subjects and inject yourself into the conversation most people are having.
Follow back
7In the beginning at least, I recommend following everyone back who isn’t spamming. Celebrities have the luxury of lopsided following/follower numbers. We don’t.
Don’t rant
8We have the right to say basically whatever we want on Twitter, but that doesn’t always mean we should. As soon as a person makes a statement that’s political or religious, they’re instantly going to turn off a lot of people, no matter how well thought out their argument.
Don’t ask for retweets or follows
9It’s begging. People hate it. Don’t do it.
OK, you should be on your way to 1,000 now, and because nothing attracts a crowd like a crowd, keep it up and watch your followers grow.
What are your tips for gaining a following on Twitter?