I was skimming through the Q&A section of LinkedIn when I found the following question which cuts right to the heart of the 'Twitter dilemma' for many users. It was titled: 'How do I continuously increase my following on Twitter?' It read:
I have been put in charge of our Twitter account. Our following is slowly increasing, but I still haven't got the hang of it. Is their any secrets to getting an ample amount of followers without paying for them? They always seem to unfollow me and I feel like I'm wasting valuable time.
My reply:
You say that you feel like you are wasting valuable time because your followers seems to unfollow you. Their actions are a direct reflection of their engagement with your message (or lack thereof) - if someone unfollows you it is a sign that they feel that YOU are wasting THEIR valuable time. Gaining a following on Twitter is about more than just racking up large numbers or using bulk follow-unfollow software to bulk-up your following with random unengaged followers. Gaining followers on Twitter requires balancing a few distinct elements. Here are some tips to make sure you are engaged with the right audience and more likely to keep them following your every tweet.
1) Develop a bio which clearly distinguishes who you are and contains keywords relevant to your target audience - words they are likely to use in searches.
2) Search for the people whose topical tweets relate to your areas of business and interest. Follow them. Pay attention to the topics which most engage their audience
3) Begin a cycle of engagement. Post links to articles of interest to your core audience, leverage the power of the people you follow by RT'ing relevant posts, @reply to people and engage in micro-conversations, link to your own company's content and press releases (but not too much). Remember to use #hashtags and words which are likely to be searched by other tweeple. A nice linkbait-crafted Tweet doesn't hurt either to help you catch someone's interest.
4) Measure, measure, measure. There are a lot of tools available which provide quick and easy tracking of any links you tweet. HootSuite (http://www.hootsuite.com) is my favorite, allowing you to both shrink long URLs as well as track statistics on how many people clicked on any given link. This is a great way to tell what topics engage your audience and which ones leave them cold.
5) Don't be afraid to unfollow people. It's a Twitter reality - sometimes you follow someone who just doesn't add value to your Twitter experience. Maybe they don't ever Tweet about anything of interest, maybe they overtweet and make it impossible to view other people's tweets, maybe they are just spamming the heck out of you every day. Use unfollow to groom your audience, shape the quality of the people you listen to and that will influence the quality of your following.
You can't remove the 'social' from 'social media.' Prove yourself to be a valuable information resource for your audience and you will gain followers - engaged followers. Get involved with other Twitter 'influencers' (people who create and promote content and already have strong followings) and you will show that you are committed to more than just placing advertisements in the Tweetsphere - this will give you reputation and credibility which translates into followers of value.
Kevin B. Hawkins
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