1. Follow others.
Unless you're a famous personality or have connections to people with a lot of followers who recommend their followers follow you, the best way to start out is to follow other people. Follow people/brands you have interest in or are similar to. Follow people who are your friends or who you know visit your business or use your services. Follow people who's posts you think are interesting. And, follow people who your friends recommend or if you like the ones Twitter recommend, add them.
Also, if you're just starting out and someone you don't know follows you, follow them back. Eventually your follower to following ratio will even out and if you're a brand, eventually it will exceed your following numbers.
But you have to start somewhere and that somewhere involves doing some legwork and following others first.
Don't hesitate to reply to tweets publicly. It allows people to see you and if they like what you're posting in reply, they may follow you. Or they may see what your other tweets are like, then follow you. The more you get your Twitter handle out there, the better.
3. Promote your Twitter handle everywhere.
Put it on your business cards, on your door for your business, on your promotional material and especially on your website. Add it to your signature for email (if it is appropriate to do so). As mentioned above, the more you get your Twitter handle out there, the better.
4. Add the follow button to your blog/website/where you can.
This is fairly easy to do. If you use Wordpress for your website, there are a number of different plugins that you can use to add the Follow Me button to your site. There is also code you can manually enter, depending on what your using to create your website.
Even though it doesn't add to your followers, it is a good idea to also add Tweet links for your site, that way people can easily share content from your website - kinda like there's the sharing options below this post, including the T for Twitter.
5. Tweet and Retweet quality, shareable content.
If someone you follow posts a Tweet that would be good to be Retweeted to your followers, retweet it. Some ideas for retweets are:
- Someone compliments/praises your brand in an @message to you. Retweet that message and say thanks.
- Someone #FF you. Retweet it, then be sure to reply to them and say thanks.
- Someone posts something that is relevant to what you, or your brand, is about, retweet it.
All of these are ways not only to get new followers, but to engage and encourage others to retweet you, getting your name out there.
I can't even begin to mention the number of people I have followed simply because they've retweeted my messages.
Hashtags are a great way to get new people to see your posts, which in turn gives them a chance to retweet and/or follow you.
Use appropriate hashtags about things related to you, or your brand, or what you're posting about in order to generate accurate ledes and a userbase of followers.
But do use common sense and don't use too many hashtags. Just because you can use more than one doesn't necessarily mean you should.
7. Use the promoted accounts option.
This is the paid option mentioned above and while I've hesitated using it, I'm starting to consider it more. Twitter is, like Facebook, a free service. But if you are using it to market your company, your restaurant or yourself, then you should invest money into it as part of your marketing budget and strategy.
Promoted accounts have posts seen by people who are not followers and give them an opportunity to be able to follow you - something they may not have seen or done if you hadn't spent money to be a promoted handle.
With those things in mind, if you're looking to get more followers, try some of these tips and see if they help.
Tuesday Tips are a series of tips released on Tuesday each week regarding a hint or tip to help you manage and market your Facebook presence better. You can find all the Tuesday Tips by clicking on the Tuesday Tips tag below.
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