As the saying goes, it’s quality not quantity that matters. But on the noisiest network there is, how can you expect anyone, let alone a quality audience, to find your great content? Luckily, Twitter is a perfect place to experiment, network, analyze, learn and repeat. And there is more than one way to attract a quality audience.
Here are 10 tips and tricks that will help you increase your follower count in a thoughtful way.
1. Include Social Icons Everywhere
The easiest way to get followers on Twitter that matter is to remind your existing customer base that you are on Twitter. This means including a clickable social icon on your homepage, newsletter and blog. Advertise your username wherever it makes sense, like on a business card or in an email signature.
Include a social sharing widget on each blog post so existing readers can easily distribute your latest posts to their networks and draw further attention to your Twitter account. Depending on which social sharing widget you use, be sure to edit the settings so that your account is tagged in each Tweet. It should read something like, “[article headline] [article link] via [@yourusername]” each time it’s shared.
2. Deliver What You Promise
On Twitter the fastest way a user decides whether or not to follow you is by checking out your bio. Your bio is a 160-character promise to your current and future followers on what kind of content you will be sharing. Make sure it clearly states what your brand stands for, what your interests are and your area of expertise.
After checking out your bio, a user might peruse the last five or 10 Tweets in your feed. Does the content you share meet their expectations? While it’s okay to stray from your strategy every so often with an out-of-the-ordinary message, make sure you get back on track with the next Tweet. You don’t want to confuse your followers or scare away any potential new ones.
The best way to ensure that your customers are always seeing relevant content is to have a “pinned Tweet” at the top of your feed that perfectly represents your brand or shares the most recent news with your customers. It could be a product release, a recent article that featured your business or a general advertisement-like post that sends visitors to your website. To pin a Tweet, click the “more” icon (three dots) and choose “Pin to your profile page.”
3. Don’t Just Tweet About Yourself
As with any social network, your content should be a mix of self-promotion and information sharing—and keep the self-promotion to a minimum. Many follow the 80/20 rule, with 20% or less of self promotion. The good news is that information sharing can help your cause in the long run. Not only will you get more followers and keep the ones you have, but you’ll also establish yourself as an expert in your industry.
4. Share Content Every Day, Multiple Times a Day
Twitter is just about the only network where you can share, and then share some more and then share even more. If your feed hasn’t been updated even within just a few days, users may be less obliged to follow you.
While Twitter is all about living in the moment and sharing what’s hot right now, it doesn’t mean that all of your content has to be sent live. Sprout Social can help you queue up content in advance so you can rest assured knowing that something will be Tweeted out every day. Scheduling content is also a great way to ensure that quality, well thought-out content is shared as opposed to a rushed, last-minute Tweet.
5. Don’t Ignore Everyone Else
Twitter is not a broadcast, it’s a conversation. Your content can’t be completely one-sided. Factor in time to respond to any Retweets, Direct Messages and mentions each day. Be sure to incorporate open-ended questions to your following.
Your Twitter content strategy should also involve Retweets from other relevant presences. It’s not only good Twitter etiquette but it also shows that you’re up-to-date on the latest news in your industry. Plus, if you share content from others, they may share content from you in the future.
A quick way to get involved in a conversation is by joining a Twitter chat in your industry. You’ll find tons of relevant content to Retweet. If your contributions are clever, you’ll get plenty of Retweets as well.
6. Analyze Your Current Following
Sprout Social’s Discovery feature shows your followers as well as the people who you’ve conversed with and the people who’ve mentioned you under “Suggestions.” Are these the kind of followers and conversations that you envisioned? Analyze whether or not your content is attracting the right people.
Look under “Cleanup” for those accounts that you follow, but that don’t follow you back. Why don’t these people follow you back? Do you wish they did? What could you do to attract these kind of followers? Take what you’ve learned here and incorporate it into your Twitter strategy.
7. Analyze Who You Follow
When was the last time you assessed who you were following? While you want every follower to matter, you also want everyone you are following to matter. The goal is to equalize these two numbers. You don’t want to be following 10,000 people if you only have 1,000 followers.
Take a look and unfollow the accounts that don’t make sense anymore. Sprout Social makes this easy under “Discovery” then “Cleanup.” Find silent accounts—those who aren’t Tweeting anymore—as well and unfollow them.
Now check “Your Followers” under “Suggestions” in Sprout Social’s dashboard to see which of your followers you are not following back. If they’re an influencer, give them a follow and strike up a conversation. You may be able to reach some of their audience if you get a Retweet or strike up a partnership.
8. Explore New Hashtags & Conversations
Stay up to date on conversations in your industry by searching for keywords or hashtags. Then see what other keywords and hashtags are being associated with those conversations. When you find something relevant, incorporate it into your strategy.
Sprout Social’s Smart Search lets you search by keyword within a five-mile radius of a location, and you can save your searches. This is great for businesses who are looking to attract local clients or network within their area. Start up a conversation with anyone you find here or latch on to an existing one. Follow them, and you might not only get a new follower but also a great career connection too.
9. Check Your Stats
Your Twitter analytics dashboard can fill you in on your highest-performing Tweets. There are a couple of different things you can do with this information. For example, you can re-share the same Tweet. If it was popular once, it will probably be popular again. It is unlikely that the exact same followers who saw your Tweet last time will see it again. You can also pay attention to what topics and hashtags helped this post perform well and then incorporate that into your Twitter strategy.
10. Use Images
Tweets are defined by their 140-character limit, but don’t forget about corresponding images. Images help your content stand out in a busy stream of Tweets and can even improve your chances of getting a Retweet.
A few lines of code can make your Tweets look better and perform better. This feature is called Twitter Cards and once you’ve added the code to your website, it improves the content you Tweet from that website. The next link you Tweet will include a rich photo or auto-play video, headline and a teaser of the content instead of just a URL. We recently published a guide to Twitter Cards here.
Go ahead and test out these 10 tips and see which ones give you the best results. As mentioned, because Twitter is such a noisy network, it’s a great place to experiment, learn and repeat.
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