Increasing your Twitter followers helps you or your company establish a social media network that can have many benefits, including an outlet for custom content, a sounding board for opinions and ideas, and possible base of prospects for social media marketing. To grow your follower base takes time (if done correctly) so be patient. You should also remember that there is a wrong way to utilize social media, so before setting out to grow your network read our older blog on 5 Social Media Marketing Mistakes a Business Can Make.

Here are 7 tips to help you grow your Twitter followers (the right way):

  1. Post good content. It doesn’t have to be your content always (see below) but whatever you post it should be well written, meaningful to you and what you believe in, and of perceived value. It doesn’t always have to be serious and on topic, but don’t just post for the sake of posting. Ask yourself this question – Would I read this post?
  2. Follow people in your “space”. If you’re in the cloud computing space, then the majority of the people you follow should be somewhat related to cloud computing technology. This creates greater demand for your content due to the relevancy of your audience.
  3. Be social. While being social in social media might sound obvious, this is where you can really differentiate yourself. Thank people who retweet your posts or mention you. Take part in #FollowFriday. Retweet good content and praise people who post good content. Goodwill goes a long way in all social media outlets.
  4. Use #Hashtags to identify your posts. They help people find content that interests them and this in turn puts you on the radar for the people you want to interact with.
  5. Be smart in building your profile. Use keywords in your short bio that will help people search and find you. And be sure to use a good photo. Bonus points if you’re creative in designing a twitter homepage background image.
  6. Take advantage of Twitter directories. There are tons of directories out there, but there are two that we use with our clients almost exclusively – WeFollow and Twellow. Twellow has a little more functionality for searching and provides for a more robust profile.
  7. Advertise your Twitter handle. Make sure people you interact with know you’re on Twitter by having your Twitter handle in places like your email signature, your Facebook profile, on your website, and other profile locations around the web.

It can take time to build a good following on Twitter, but if you think long term and execute short term (a saying my old boss used to drill into my head) then you’ll be rewarded in time with a strong network with which to interact.

Have fun!