How To Get More Twitter Followers
Want to know how to get more Twitter followers?
It’s easy to make mistakes with social media. One of the biggest mistakes that businesses tend to make is to think that the most important thing is the number of followers you have. This is the case with all the social media platforms, but it’s probably most common with Twitter.
Of course, on the face of it, if you see a consistent rise in your follower numbers on Twitter then this has to be a good thing. It’s a clear sign that you have a successful Twitter strategy. However, it’s all too easy ending up chasing the numbers in the misguided belief that your following is the be all and end all.
Celebrities don’t help matters. Harry Styles is the ‘most followed’ Twitter user in the UK with 29.5m followers. Worldwide, Kim Kardashian has a staggering 49.3m followers. Donald Trump has 17m. Interestingly though, Kardashian only follows 106 people and Trump follows just 41. Liam Gallagher, on the other hand, has 1.3m but in typical Gallagher-style follows zero people!
Businesses can get seduced by such numbers. Of course, celebrities use Twitter in different ways to businesses. Some businesses make the mistake of ‘buying’ followers to artificially boost figures. This is not advised. The focus should be on increasing your Twitter following organically – naturally – and although you do want more followers, it’s equally important that a business gets the right followers. Having a massive following but no engagement is next to useless. So, here are some tips for how to get more Twitter followers – more of the right followers for your business.
Get your Twitter profile right
It is important that your Twitter Profile is complete and attracts the attention of any potential follower. Most people will look at somebody’s profile before they click the magic ‘follow’ button. Make it count: location, links to your website, images – and your bio. You are limited here, like everything on Twitter, to 140 characters. It needs to be catchy, concise and compelling.
You can also use the ‘Pinned Tweet’ feature. This allows you to ‘pin’ one of your tweets to your profile so that it will be the first thing than any users see if they look at your profile. This could be a special offer, a campaign – or just a popular tweet that will catch people’s attention.
Use images and hashtags
The ‘click rate’ on tweets is greatly increased when they feature images. Don’t limit yourself to photos either. Videos or GIFs (animations) are also very engaging. Adding hashtags – although they should not be overdone – is a great way of spreading your message and finding followers.
Cross-promotion
In the digital world, no single platform works in isolation. Embed your Twitter feed on your website, embed tweets into blog posts and promote your Twitter on your other social media platforms. All of this improves your reach and will get you more followers.
Post engaging content
At the end of the day, whatever you do or try on Twitter will all fall down if the quality of your content isn’t there. You need to be consistent and regular with your tweeting (at least once a day) but if you want your business to go beyond merely having a presence, the content needs to be useful for your audience. It needs to be a combination of tweets that promote the services or products you offer and content that shows that you are an expert in your field. This is how you build credibility and earn trust with your followers.
And finally… Patience
Patience is a virtue, we all know that, but many businesses forget this when it comes to social media. Things can happen very quickly on social media. Things do go viral. But in general, it takes commitment and time before you really start seeing results. You don’t gain thousands of followers overnight. Rome wasn’t built in a day, after all. But the businesses who stick with it and are willing to try new ideas and try things differently occasionally are the ones that see success with social media.