Silver N
Twitter is a great way to promote your business because it is here that people get updates. With just 140 characters, you can show everyone your new product or update them about your new blogpost. In other words, the more followers you have, the more that your business or blog gets exposure through Twitter.
“So, like, how many Twitter followers do you have?”
This question is a tempting one for brands to brush off, isn’t it?
Here’s the thing, though: you can’t dismiss your follower count on Twitter as a total vanity metric.
Not only does a higher follower count mean more influence in your industry, but also signals that your audience, leads and customers are interested in your content.
According to social media statistics, nearly half of all marketers cite Twitter as their go-to network for engaging with customers. Fast-moving and so simple to use, however, it is not easy to grow your Twitter followers—especially if you are not as well-known as celebrities today. Unlike these celebrities who do not have to do anything much just to gain followers, you have to work your way into building an initial following. To ethically build handful of interactive followers on Twitter, you will have to do more than create a few lines of code, click the ‘Follow’ button a couple thousand times, or retweeting various stuff in the internet. You will need more than that in order to be followed by multiple audiences. With us, you will find out how to increase your Twitter following in just 8 easy ways.
- Tweet frequently
Versus the likes of Facebook or Instagram, Twitter requires a more aggressive content strategy.
According to data, the “sweet spot” is anywhere between three and seven tweets per day to maximize engagement. Some brands tweet as often as 15 or 20 times per day, though, so context and competitive analysis are important here.
If you want people to follow you and share what you publish, you must create relevant and valuable content. Spams are a no-no, as people prefer to read content that are worth reading and will give them information that is helpful in their life. Depending on your niche, think what readers would like to know about your niche. If you have a blog post about that, share it and write a small description about it in your tweet.
- Follow the right people or those related to your niche.
If you want more followers — you should start following other people first. You can wait for others to follow you first, but that requires a lot of time and patience.
While we said to follow people, we recommend that you follow people who are related to your niche. In this way, people will feel that they have found someone who are interested in their interests and hobbies. Most of the time, people follow users who they feel they can relate too. They also feel that they will expect more updates and posts about the niches when they follow you. So, do not hesitate to follow them because they might even follow you back.
- Post More Visual Content
As you probably know, tweets containing visual content receive more likes, shares and retweets than those without them.
As such, brands should strive to couple their tweets with some sort of accompanying image. Although there’s nothing inherently wrong with solely text-based tweets, images are better poised to stop serial scrollers and encourage them to take a look at your post.
Coupling your tweets with GIFs or memes has become common practice, as used by influencers and other brands. Whether you’re looking to inform or entertain your audience (or both), filling your feed with visual content can help bring new followers into the fold.
- Use hastags
Hashtags are great to use when promoting branded content, but they are even better when you use them to promote content and blog posts. Using trending hashtags will make more people see your post and possibly check your account. In order to gain more followers you must join niche-related conversations and connect with influencers through hashtags. “Hashtags aggregate similar tweets on one page, so users can search for tweets about a particular trend, discount, news event, etc. and easily see what others are saying”. It is best to come up with hastag strategies where you will designate certain hashtags every time you post, apart from the one related to your tweet. You should also come up with hashtags that people can use when they plan to retweet or share your posts.
Remember, hastags are public. So anytime someone searches #cosplay or #BBnaija in the search bar, there is the possibility that your tweet will come out. Then they will check your profile to see what you tweet or blog about. Once they feel that you are someone worth following, they will click that follow button. It is one of the ways to make your Twitter profile known to everyone.
- Comment and retweet on relevant content.
When you comment or retweet on relevant content, people will see that you are not just an ordinary Twitter user. You care about what other users are tweeting and make an effort to make or join the conversation. This is especially good if you are engaging in a conversation related to your niches. You need to get in the trenches with your followers, customers and industry leaders alike. Regularly engaging with other users via tagging, retweeting, commenting and replying immediately lets new followers that you’re human and gets more eyes on your brand.
Top secret! To grow faster, be a savage in your comments or replies.
- Optimize Your Profile for New Followers
If you fill up your bio about yourself and blog, and put a clear profile picture that embodies yourself, people will know that you are legitimate. Most users follow a Twitter user based on their first impressions of the account. Thus, they will follow you because they want to learn more about what you blog and updates on what you do. Here are some of the things that you should remember when writing your bio and putting up your new profile picture:
*A clean profile photo. According to the psychology of social photos, an unobstructed facial photo is ideal if you aren’t using a high-res brand logo.
* Relevant tags, industry keywords and location information. In short, your profile should be “complete” through describing what you do, your title, what companies you work with and where you operate.
*A taste of your personality. Giving your followers a sense of who you are is always a plus.
- Promote your username online and offline.
Even if Twitter is known online, you can also promote your profile offline. For online, promote it in your blog, share your tweets in Facebook, share it in forums, or just tell your friends to follow you in Twitter. In terms of promoting Twitter offline, you should put your Twitter handle on your business cards. When you are going to blogger events, make sure to give you Twitter username together with your other social media sites. You may never know; you can get at least 3 followers offline and even more when you promote online.
If you are committed to becoming social and keep at it, your followers will eventually increase as result of all your efforts. Do not be afraid to tweak your messaging if one works over the others, try new things, be patient, and be consistent in everything that you do, and you will eventually reap the rewards of your efforts. After all, the ability to connect with targeted audience at almost real-time speed allows you to expand your audience so the trick is to offer valuable information as opposed to simply wanting to promote your products or services.
