Growing your network on Twitter is not just great for social proof, it’s great for website traffic, too. New followers are likely to check out your bio and visit your link to learn more before they decide to follow along with your tweets.
This is why, you may have noticed, I have a specific page for Twitter visitors to land on when they click over to my site. If you know they’re comin’, you should give them the kind of welcome they’re looking for.
But before you can get more website traffic, you gotta get more followers. Let’s start with the obvious. Twitter is not a get-rich-quick scheme. You have to put time, energy and care into you profile if you want people to respect you and decide you are worth their reading time. Check out this list of things you should be doing every day to have a great Twitter presence that will make followers flock to your profile.
1. Share information in your niche
A large majority of people on Twitter rely on it for news and information, in addition to building relationships. Make sure whatever expectations you set in the bio of your profile actually happen in your tweets. Share whatever information you find useful that your audience would as well, and do it often. If you can be a hub for education, people will latch on quickly.
2. Follow relevant tweeters
It’s obvious for you to follow the big names in your industry. All for the betterment of your own knowledge. But you should also be looking into who is following or tweeting those names. Why? Because when you follow people who are already interested in the same information that you share, they are likely to follow you back. It’s audience targeting at it’s simplest.
3. Thank any and every retweet you get
If people show their appreciation for your tweets by sharing them with their network, you better bust your little arse to show them your appreciation. People retweet because they want to, but being recognized for it is a really nice thing, too.
4. Follow back people who follow you
Following back the people that followed you first is a great way to show that you also care about what they have to say. That’s the beginning of some beautiful engagement, right there. You’ll notice that this is not something I do on my personal Twitter account because that’s where I try to stay focused on the people who I know in real life or admire professionally. But on the Savvy Sexy Social account, I want all of those followers to know I’m listening to them there and want to know what’s happening in their daily lives that I can help them achieve with social media.
5. Hangout
If you’re going to have a Twitter presence, you gotta tweet. Make sure you’re popping in to check your stream for conversations you can add value to. And if it’s hard for you to just check-in, maybe you should be scheduling time out of your day just for Twitter. Just make sure you’re present, because otherwise those tweeters will peace out. Retweets and replies go a long way, so many sure that is the bulk of your activity!
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Thanks !!! Once Again great advice!!
Awesome post :). It really helped me to get started.
@JustinPauloSolo Thanks Justin! So glad to have you as a part of the community.
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Please share with me your feelings on acknowledging people who follow you?? I have read many different opinions on it. I have received very few acknowledgements. What do you do??
@SexySaydie Do you mean tweeting new followers a "hello" of some sort? I don't think it's seen often because most people get followed so much that it might be a bit annoying for the followers. But if you really want to get to know every follower, you might want to tweet them to start the conversation. I usually don't tweet new followers, but I follow back people who I don't think are spambots so that when they tweet I might be able to see what they are saying and engage with them in the future.
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@schmittastic@SexySaydie NO, I do not tweet all new followers..like you said some are spambots, ...just the ones I want to engage. So, you are saying to just follow back. I am new to this, and trying to find out from a professional what your views are. Thanks!!
@schmittastic Thank you!! Any other advice will be appreciated!
@SexySaydie If you'd like to find out more about my advice, you should definitely look at some of my articles in the Twitter category. Here is a link: http://savvysexysocial.com/category/twitter/ There is a lot of info in there that can help get you started.
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This is all good information my lovely friend but the here is the problematic thing. To many people use twitter differently, people who do no understand conversation, RT, & it being virtually a promotional business tool. I had a fellow sign up just the other day, I'll use him as an example http://twitter.com/juggzilla108 , who just started using the twitter say, "I tweet to much." All he is there for is the "status updates". I've been on twitter since September 30, 2008 & right before the big explosion of it catching media attention. I do not have a million fans like Ashton Kutcher but I have modest following roughly 1800 I've built in almost three years. I also do not use the "list" feature. Found it to be something I had no interest in. Yet... I find myself the one feeling jilted when I hear someone say "I tweet to much" or I even "hashtag" to much. My plight be the same as many others or unique, I'm not sure yet.
@jonfun Jon I'm not sure if I read your comment correctly but if you're saying that people think that you tweet too much, then they probably aren't the people you want to engage with anyway. And it actually sounds like they don't have any idea what they are doing on Twitter. This isn't Facebook. The protocol is not the same and that's why both mediums are as successful as they are. They are different.
@schmittastic No I think that is part of the general problem, the medium is new & people don't really want to engage. Which can be one of the troublesome sticking points. Eventually, there is plenty of work around though.