How to get more Followers on Twitter

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How to get more followers on Twitter...The Right Way

As a Social Media Marketing Specialist for businesses and brands, more often than not, Twitter is one of the many social media platforms we incorporate in the marketing strategy to accomplish client goals. Weather it is lead generation, brand awareness, reputation management, search engine optimization or any of the other many benefits you can enjoy with Twitter, one fact remains the same. You need followers. And the more qualified followers you can get, the better your results.

Twitter is about exponentially spreading the word. Even if one of your followers is not exactly in your target demographic, they may re-tweet one of your tweets and viola....all of that persons followers are now able to view your tweet, click the link, learn about your business/brand, etc.

Below I will go into some of the proven successful tools, tactics and ideas I incorporate to grow my clients Twitter accounts.  This lens is a work in progress because social media is a work in progress. So check back often to see what is new!

Basic Tips for your Twitter Account 

What you should do first

Everyone has their own standards, but basically, your Twitter account needs to have a good presence in order to attract followers. Here are three easy-to-do tips that you should absolutely incorporate before you even attempt to find your followers!

1) Have a unique avatar. A default avatar on Twitter screams ... Don't follow me! Bonus tip: Use the same avatar to represent you across the social universe. This will help visually establish your brand...even if your brand is you!

2) Fill out your bio and link. You have 160 characters to tell everyone who you are and what your interests are! Bonus tip: infuse your bio with keywords and key phrases...it's indexed by search engines! This is also the place that gets searched by programs like TweepML and Twellow when pulling words that people search for.

3) Create a branded background or have someone design it for you! Bonus tip: Design the background for the most popular screen resolution of 1024X768 (about 50% of the population uses this resolution). You can include the links to your other social networks, your web or blog site, and your email. These link are not hyperlinked unless you use a program like clickableNow.com but even then, the links are only clickable to those who also have the software.

Who in the world are you connected with?

Strategies for Getting more Twitter Followers 

Proven ways that will get you hundreds of followers, fast and free!

1. Tweet at least four times a day. Your tweets should include a link to an interesting, humorous or insightful article, blog or product/service announcement. Use a URL shortener like bit.ly or ow.ly. Schedule your tweets randomly throughout the day.

2. Re-tweet often. Add in your own sentiment to the re-tweet.

3. Actively seek out and follow appropriate profiles. I aim for a minimum of following 50/day, every day. Keep reading for a list of resources and tools for following.

4. Put your twitter link on your email signature, business cards and any other collateral materials you use.

5. Cross-pollinate your social media with twitter buttons and links on your Facebook fan page, website, blog, LinkedIn...everywhere!

5. Use one of the popular resources to follow back those that follow you, or simply click on your followers and reciprocate.

6. Use the @(username) to directly yet publicly carry on a conversation with people.

7. Thank those who re-tweet you of give you a #follow friday recommendation.

8. Be genuine, be helpful and be polite while offering a bit of your personality into every tweet. @MariSmith does this beautifully.
"Whee!! I'm at my second home ~ San Diego airport!! Lol. Flying out to Chicago to speak at MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer!! #mpdm ;)"

9. List your twitter name in directories, such as Twellow (like yellow pages for Twitter).

10. Find tweeps (twitter people) who's tweets you like and recommend them on fridays with a hashtag and the words, follow friday. So it would look like this... great to follow #ff @(insert user name). Hint, you can recommend multiple people at once. These people will likely reciprocate with a #ff back to you and others will see it and start to follow. This works!

11. As they say, be genuine. Offer good value. Stick with it. The rest will come!

What Not to do to get followers! 

Don't follower more than 1,000 people a day...Twitter puts the limit at 1000.
Don't forget to follow back those who are following you and best if its done within 1 to 2 days. This is not only common Twitter courtesy, its a great way to get followers.
Don't follow just to follow. What good is it if you have thousands of followers who are not interested in your tweets?
Don't use the entire 140 characters. Leaving room for someone to RT will help spread your word and get you more followers.
Don't respond to your new followers with an automated, generic direct message. I don't even look at mine.
Don't forget to actually read what you are retweeting. Though the message may seem innocent enough, it may link to something you find inappropriate.

Best Tools & Resources to Grow your Twitter Following 

These are tried and true tools. They will be updated frequently so check back. Pleae, feel free to leave your recommendations at the bottom of this page. What's worked for you?
Bit.ly
A powerful URL shortener that provides history, metrics and a browser bookmarklet making it easy to shorten any page on the internet you happen to be.
FlashTweet
FlashTweet is a Twitter application that simplifies the process of acquiring more targeted followers. You can add multiple Twitter accounts to your profile, discover who you are following that is following you back, mass follow users based on search terms and location, unfollow multiple friends at once, schedule tweets in advance to run throughout the week, insert RSS feeds that will automatically tweet the title and link of your blog or another site.
SocialOomph
Previously TweetLater, SocialOomph is great for scheduling tweets, vetting followers, key-word alerts, auto-follow features and more!
TweepML
TweepML is a simple format to make it easy for people to share a list of Twitter users ("Tweeps"). You can also follow an already created list of people based on a search term, such as "social media".
Twellow
Twellow is a directory of public Twitter accounts, with hundreds of categories and search features to help you find people who matter to you.
Tweepular
The ultimate follower management tool for Twitter jam packed with many features. Use this tool to follow those who are following you and to unfollow those who are not reciprocating your follow.
Twit Pic
Lets you share pictures on Twitter. You can post pictures to TwitPic from your phone, our API, or through the site itself.
Ttwitterfeed
Feed your blog to Twitter, Facebook and more!
Twitter Grader
Twitter Grader : Measure the power and authority of your twitter profile. Using a detailed 5 piece algorithm, Twitter Grader assigns every users you run through its system a grade from 1-100. Using this tool you can investigate how engaged the people you're following are and that can help you decide if you want to keep following them
Twitter Karma
Another tool for managing your Twitter friends and followers, providing ways of sorting and filtering them as well as bulk following and bulk unfollow.
Twitter Logos
Free Twitter logos, Twitter buttons, Twitter icons, Follow me buttons, Twitter graphics, Twitter designs.com has the largest collection of unique twitter logos, twitter icons and twitter buttons to add to your blog or website for free.
Twubble
A free Twitter tool that will help you expand your social networks by searching, based on the people you follow, a list of other fellow Twitter members whom you like to follow.
Qwitter
Qwitter: Catching Twitter quitters
Qwitter e-mails you when someone stops following you on Twitter with a message like this:
John Gruber (gruber) stopped following you on Twitter after you posted this tweet:What's the difference between Arial and Helvetica?
WeFollow
Twitter Directory and Search, Find Twitter Followers : Twitter celebrities, actors, TV personalities, or new Twitter friends in your area. WeFollow is a directory of Twitter users organized by interests. Find likeminded friends today!

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What has worked for you? Add your favorite tools/resources for getting Twitter followers.

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  • Reply
    AJ2000 AJ2000 Oct 29, 2009 @ 9:11 am
    Diane awesome lens! I agree Twitter is an incredible tool for networking and boosting your business results. Your explanations clearly emphasize the importance of targeting your followers and credibility. Something a lot of the so called "Twitter Experts" fail to emphasize. When someone discusses these important aspects, like you have, you can rest assured you're dealing with a true expert. For this reason I created a report called Twitter Marketing Mindset (http://www.TwitterMarketingMindset.com) and Twitter Marketing Tools Lens here on Squidoo to help educate people on these issues. I look forward to reading more of your lenses and its a pleasure to have found you. Sincerely, Eric Bonnici
  • Reply
    GrowWear GrowWear Oct 28, 2009 @ 7:09 pm
    Welcome to Squidoo!
  • Reply
    DianeRayfield DianeRayfield Oct 28, 2009 @ 11:23 am | in reply to pkmcr
    Thank you!! for the Squid Angel blessing! :)
  • Reply
    ronpass ronpass Oct 28, 2009 @ 3:13 am
    I concur in pkmcr's thoughts Diane - great start. You obviously have a lot to offer. Not too many people get blessed by an Angel (lensrank boost for quality work) and you have scored one already. May many Angelic blessings follow.
  • Reply
    ameliachen ameliachen Oct 27, 2009 @ 9:46 pm
    Useful lens, there could be a section of Do's and Don't, also you could provide several case studies of Twitter use example could include HabitatUK's hashtag spam. Thanks for your helpful suggestion on my lens, on it I've placed a link to this page!
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by DianeRayfield

Hi and welcome!

I am a Certified ISMA (International Social Media Association) and founding member Social Media Marketing specialists with Harp Socia... (more)

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