Here are 9 super simple tips I’ve tried and seen work to get more Twitter followers for our @tint Twitter account.
1) Use a Relevant Profile & Cover Photo
The first step to get more Twitter followers is to make sure you have a clean, high-resolution logo for your profile photo and relevant cover photo. This way no one thinks you are a spammer or fake user when they are deciding if they should follow you. Believe it or not, there are hundreds of thousands of spammers on Twitter today, and you can usually tell because they never bothered uploading a profile photo. Don’t be mistaken for one of them!
2) Have a Unique Twitter Bio
When people are deciding they want to follow you or not, they will scan your Twitter bio to see if what you will be tweeting will be relevant to them. A good formula to follow is stating out what you do, where you work, and what industry you’re interested in. This will quickly allow potential followers to gauge if you will be sharing relevant information they will want to follow. Optimizing this can get you more Twitter followers because people are always looking for new people to follow.
3) Tweet Consistently; Not Excessively
Maybe the most important tip, it is crucial that you tweet consistently to engage your followers and new followers because no one will want to follow someone who last tweeted 10 weeks ago. A good habit to follow is about 3-5 tweets per day spaced out in between a few hours each. This will remind your followers who you are. Don’t be a person who keeps sharing every minute because you will clog up your follower’s newsfeeds—which will get you one ticket to an “Unfollow.”
TIP: If you need to reply to a bunch of people, just make sure you have the @username as the first thing in your replies. Having the @username ensures that all your followers don’t get spammed with all your replied conversations.
4) Tweet with Opinions or Questions
It is key to not just tweet for the sake of tweeting. When you do tweet, attach a witty opinion or a genuine question with it to get your followers engaged. The more they engage, the more viral your tweet goes—which leads to more exposure and more Twitter followers. If you just tweet an article title or a bland statement, it seems like you don’t care and your followers won’t care either.
5) Tweet with Relevant Hashtags
Hashtags are words with a “#” behind it. They usually represent a topic your tweet is about. If you are tweeting an article about social media, use the hashtag #socialmedia because there are thousands of people searching for content related to #socialmedia on Twitter daily. By hashtagging your tweets, you’re exposing your brand in front of millions who are actively searching about that topic. If they find their answer with your tweet, they will most likely follow you because they respect and want to receive more relevant content in the near future. Use it wisely and get more Twitter followers; abuse it and people will see it as spam and unfollow you.
6) Spread your Twitter URL
Attach your Twitter URL on your Facebook profile/page, business cards, email signatures, and your websites. Since you will be actively sending out emails or business cards, people will naturally want to see what you tweet about and most likely give you a follow since they just met you.
7) Retweet Others
A retweet is when someone finds your tweet interesting and wants to share it with all their followers (with your Twitter username attached). There’s no other ecstatic feeling when someone loves your posts that they are willing to share it with all their followers. The same goes for others. If you retweet other people’s tweets, they will most likely follow you as a sign of appreciation and return a retweet at a later date. Retweets are the easiest way to get in front of tons of new followers/customers.
8) Follow Relevant People
One of the quickest ways to start getting more Twitter followers is to first follow others so others know you exist. But don’t follow random people; follow people you’d like to actually follow you. The reason is that they will most likely find you or your brand relevant to them and want to follow you after. One word of caution is to not follow hundreds of people before you start getting followers yourself. If you follow more people than people follow you, people start to question your legitimacy. A good rule of thumb is to have a 1:1 ration of following to followers. For example, to start finding relevant people, just search on Twitter “social media” if you want to find social media gurus/consultants/enthusiasts.
9) Engage, not Promote
Last, but certainly not least, whenever you tweet, remember one rule: Tweet something you’d be excited about if you saw it. Offer your audience engaging content that they can be excited about. Many brands make the mistake of using Twitter as a promotional megaphone—constantly marketing their brand with the intention of getting more traffic. You would hate that if a brand did that to you, and the same applies to all your existing and potential followers. No one will want to follow a brand that constantly tweets “check out my site, check out my store, check out my brand…”
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Building a large Twitter follower community takes time, but if you follow these steps and invest time into conversing and engaging your audiences, you will get more Twitter followers on a daily basis in no time.
Have any other tips or advice you’ve found effective to get more Twitter followers? Let us know in the comments below!
