How to get followers on Twitter: 20 essential tips
Getting good results on social media should be any business’s priority, and Twitter continues to be a very useful channel for brands.
Simon Zaku, Twitter Marketing Specialist, helps users and brands answer common questions like “why can’t I get Twitter followers?” and “what tactics or tools are really effective in growing a fanbase?”.
At the base of everything, there is a very simple rule: to get followers on Twitter you need to invest time in applying some strategies. The expert has therefore compiled a truly comprehensive guide, which includes 68 useful tricks for the purpose.
We have selected twenty for you: the most effective and performing. Here they are!
1. Follow back
Follow who follows you. A good percentage of Twitter users will follow you to gain a further following. About 20-25% of the users you follow will follow you even without tweeting or interacting. The first thing every brand should remember when trying to expand its follower base, especially at the start of marketing activities, is to follow all (real) users who follow their account. And unless you are Justin Bieber or Donald Trump, you should never forget to follow those who follow you.
2. Double the number of Tweets you send
The more people you can reach, the more chances you have of being followed. Several studies show that the number of followers earned is directly proportional to the number of tweets sent.
If you normally send five tweets a day (with an average of a thousand total impressions) you should double the number of your tweets per day. This way you will get a boost that will give you an increased organic reach (and therefore more views). Without forgetting that visits to your site can also increase by 20/25%.
3. Optimize the profile
A curated and professional profile has a decidedly different appeal from one with incomplete or confusing information. The people and brands who decide to follow you will also do so for how you present yourself on social networks.
It is not enough to simply insert a profile picture, a cover, and a bio that reflects us. The profile image, for example, must be such as to bring users closer, it must allow them to think about interacting with a real person, rather than with a company.
Also, don’t forget to explain in the bio who you are, what you do, what you want to do in the future and how you can help others (including social proof).
4. Find small brands to follow
One of the fastest ways to gain Twitter followers is to act as a sounding board for other brands. To accomplish this simple strategy, you need to spend some time researching truly valuable content.
Sharing good content from small brands (not big brands and not big influencers) helps you connect more with your audience and attract new ones. Do this: tag authors, reply to mentions, never forget a single comment. If applied consistently, this method is great for an overall consistent flow of new followers, which originate from the brands whose content you share.
5. Quote who inspires you
The quotes are not the best news, we know. But they are known to perform better as a post type. In this period, however, a more strategic and intentional approach to quotes is needed. For example, if you are into social media / digital marketing and target small business owners, you can take back the words of experts.
Humans feel flattered to be taken as virtuous examples (and when you quote their words) and some won’t mind following you! Middle-class influencers are the perfect target (mostly ranging from 10k to 300k followers).
6. have a beautiful blog post written (as a guest of excellence)
Find a topic that is still little discussed and look for authoritative people who can give their vision on the subject. The more experts you involve, the greater the results and interactions. A great blog post, written in an original way and with truly remarkable points of view will help you gain followers quickly.
Do this: share the post on Twitter, tag co-authors, make the sharing buttons visible on the article, include short clicks-to-tweets that will make the post even more shareable. Your Twitter account will thus be exposed to an incredibly large audience.
7. Let your colleagues, family and friends follow you
This method, simple to implement, leverages a basic concept: these followers really know you. They are not following someone who happened to cross paths on social media and have never seen them before.
Do this: start with some brainstorming and compile a list of your friends who know your business, people you’ve talked to about your brand. They can include your dad, siblings, best friends, coworkers, boss, employees, partners, etc.
Send them a short text (or email) from your brand’s new Twitter account. Give them an idea of the content that will be treated. They will be thrilled to follow you and retweet to show you their closeness and support.
8. Use Highlights and Moments
The Moments of Twitter are experiencing a moment of strong popularity. The very tempting aspect of this feature is that you don’t need to follow someone before seeing their “moments”. Unlike Instagram Stories, Twitter Highlights not only show the updates posted by the user you follow, but they also inform you of topics that may interest you.
Spend some time with these suggested tweets and follow users your followers have recently followed. Use your recent tweets to create interesting Moments for your highlights: if users interact with your “moments”, then you will be suggested to other similar profiles as well.
9. Use keywords
By using certain keywords, you can let Twitter know what your brand is about. Just when you create an account you enter keywords (e.g. blogging, social media, web marketing). To get started go to twitter.com/i/start.
10. Do cross-promoting
Cross-promoting one social channel to another might help you grow and get more Twitter followers, but it can have some drawbacks when you start linking these platforms together.
Each social media platform is built with its own unique features that require specific tactics to be able to grow rapidly. A Facebook post can contain 500 words while a tweet only reaches 250 maximum!
So how do you go about promoting your Twitter account on other social channels? You can include a link to your Twitter page on Instagram Stories (“swipe up” feature). You can also manually type the link to your Twitter page on a Snapchat story or in a Facebook status. You can upload a screen print of your profile to Instagram. Be creative and think about the best ways to promote the brand.
11. Follow whoever mentions you
Leveraging brands mentioned on Twitter (or any social media platform) is one of the most effective ways to grow your account fast. While this might be a little more useful for big brands that get tons of social media mentions, it can also be used effectively by small and medium-sized businesses.
Smaller brands can keep track of certain influencers or competitors. For example, if you have a tech blog that specializes in gadgets, you can track and follow users who mention keywords like “Mashable”, “Mashable blog” “Techcrunch”, “Engadget”, “Gizmodo” etc. This is particularly easy with the help of monitoring tools such as Brand24.
12. Strategically embed tweets in your article
Embedding your Twitter feed on your website (blog post, guest post, citations, etc.) is a great strategy for getting more tweet views and therefore followers. For example, when writing a guest post you can embed some (clickable) tweets to add more value or clarify something you are talking about making your point of view even more understandable and clear.
13. Be the first
The first, in this case, to reply to tweets from famous accounts. This is a useful tactic that works very well and quickly and also helps to introduce you to targeted accounts who are interested in your type of product, service, or content.
Users who first enter the discussions of famous people are also involved by other users, creating a lot of engagement. Do this: Find 3-5 influencers who have a large fanbase (500k and up). Follow and activate their profile notifications so you are notified when they tweet. Submit your response quickly (and wisely!). You may plan to buy retweets on Twitter to get some instant replies. Reply to anyone who replies to your reply, then follow who likes or retweets your reply.
14. Build relationships (which bring new connections)
Making connections with followers is the most genuine way to bring more friends, fans, and acquaintances. Building a relationship with a user can go beyond replies, retweets, mentions, and sequences. It can extend to private messages.
How Does Direct Messages (DMs) Help Grow Your Twitter Account? By building relationships with Twitter accounts that know someone you would like to know. These groups of people have built huge communities, so they have a strong connection in your area of interest.
Do this: follow your experts and influencers and start building connections. Tweet their articles. Share testimonials (or quotes) and mention them. Interact with their tweets. Take note of the influencers who retweet and interact with these tweets and then send your presentation via DM.
15. Use hashtags that deal with specific moments
Using hashtags like #MondayMotivation and #WednesdayThoughts can be really effective for getting followers and engagement. Most of these discussions are recurring because these hashtags are popular and widely used.
16. Use giveaways
Giveaways are an often overlooked but extremely useful strategy that allows you to gain more visibility and thus increase the fanbase. If you are an SEO agency, for example, you shouldn’t include items like an iPhone, tablet, etc. in your give-away. because it all boils down to creating connections with non-targeted users. Instead, think about giving away an SEO course or a free ticket to an event.
17. Include your Twitter profile in presentations
If you are a speaker or frequently deal with presentations and slides, consider including your account in the contact slide (at the beginning and end of the presentation). Don’t be afraid to ask your audience to follow you and connect with you on Twitter. A good number will gladly do it. Make sure you let them know that the following will be reciprocated.
18. Thank you personally
Send a personal thank you to anyone who likes, comments or retweets. This is one of the most powerful and effective methods of creating true and lasting bonds. GIFs are perfect for this: they are a direct and “human” way of creating discussions. Users will perceive the people behind the brand and this will positively affect their trust in you.
19. Speak when others listen
A tweet of value becomes also and above all depending on how many people can intercept it. Keep track of the moments and times when your followers are most online (and active). In this way, the probability of involving them increases and so does the organic reach. The more people see your tweets the more followers you will attract to your account.
Free tools like Tweriod help analyze your account to find out when followers interact most with your tweets.
20. Give time to time
Last tip: remember that time plays a very important role. The more time you spend building solid relationships with followers, the more connections you will create outside your circle. If you still find difficulties to reach your goal, you may try to buy Twitter followers to achieve faster growth. Ready to get started?
