Twitter has a lot of potential to help you grow your business, but only if people are paying attention. How do you get them to pay attention? First you need followers of course! Without an audience you may as well be shouting at the top of your lungs in an empty room.
It's kind of pointless if nobody can hear you. The real question is how do you increase your followers so that you're not yelling in an empty room? There are a few things you can do. Here are ten tips to get you started.
Complete Profile
Twitter gives you several option within your profile to help get you message across. Take advantage of them. Make sure you include a good professional photo of yourself.
If you're trying to promote a business and your Twitter photo is a picture of your night out on the town you probably won't have too much success.
If you want to be taken seriously you need to act the part. You can also include a header, your company website, and a short blurb about what you do.
Make sure you take advantage of each field otherwise you're wasting an opportunity. If you want to attract followers because of your expertise they need to believe you really are an expert.
Relevant Content Links etc.
This is of critical importance. If you're trying to use your Twitter account to promote your software development business but you consistently rant about how poorly your favorite football teams is doing.
You will probably have a tough time attracting followers that are interested in the service you're offering. The same applies to links.
If people are following you because you're an expert in the software field, chances are they'll expect sites you link to in your tweets to provide them valuable information in this field. They're not looking for the latest football odds. Stay on message and you will attract more followers.
Develop A Theme
If you're a celebrity you can post just about whatever you like on Twitter and people are going to follow you; for the rest of us it's not so easy. It helps if you can develop a theme which keeps people interested in what you're going to say next. If you provide daily reviews on the latest release in Apples Appstore there's a good chance you're going to develop a following.
If people are checking out your Tweets for apps that may interest them don't disappoint them. If you are consistent with your theme there's a very good chance you will develop a loyal following. We all like to look to the expert for a little guidance.
Follow Others In Your Niche
Do a search of Twitter accounts within your niche using keywords associated with that niche.
Normally you'll find hundreds, if not thousands of like-minded individuals that will probably be very willing to follow you back if you follow them.
Most people use Twitter to find others with ideas and information that appeal to them. Chances are if your profile indicates that you share similar interests with someone you've just followed they're going to follow you back.
Advertise Your Twitter Account
Make it easy for visitors to your website or blog to follow you on Twitter. Invite them to follow you by mentioning it in your posts and leave a direct link on your site for them to access Twitter and follow you. The easier you make it for them, the better chance there is they'll choose to follow you.
Be Social, Respond To Messages
A lot of Twitter users think of it as just a place where they can post their thoughts and their favorite links, but it's a social media site like Facebook and Google+.
If you want to get the most out of it you need to be social! If you ignore messages sent by others it won't be long until they decide to unfollow you. However, if you interact with others whenever possible you'll create a positive vibe which will attract other followers.
Use Facebook, Google+
Perhaps you already have a large following on Facebook but you're relatively new to Twitter, why not try and use these contacts to grow your Twitter following?
Obviously there's no guarantee that everyone you're friends with on Facebook will be on Twitter as well, but many of them will be. Getting people you already have a relationship with to follow you is a great place to start.
Tweet and Tweet Some More
Seems simple enough, but you'd be surprised how many people on Twitter hardly ever post Tweets of their own. If you're trying to present yourself as an expert but you don't provide any proof, you likely won't have too much success.
It's widely accepted that you need to post over a thousand tweets before you start to develop a real following and the numbers probably closer to ten thousand if you want to be a real success. If you want to be popular on Twitter you have to Tweet and Tweet some more!
See What's Trending
Twitter allows you to search for trending topics. Take advantage of this to find out what's trending on Twitter and how you can tie it into your niche. If you can ride the trending wave you'll gain a lot of followers that are interested in what you have to say.
Twitter Suggests Who To Follow
The folks at Twitter leave suggestions for who you may want to follow on your profile page. You'll notice a heading at the bottom of the page for folks that have similar interests to you. Take a look at the profiles of these individuals and follow them if they seem to have a lot in common with you.
Chances are their followers will also have an interest in your area of expertise, so you can search through their followers lists to find others you may want to follow. Many will follow you back, and you'll soon have a healthy following of your own.
The tips we've outlined above will help get you started on the road to Twitter success, but like anything else you need to keep at it. People on Twitter can be fickle; if you don't keep them interested it won't be long until they unfollow you. It would be really disheartening if you went to the trouble of following all the tips above, gained a large Twitter following, but then let things slide.
What a huge waste of time. If you're going to use social media successfully to grow your business you have to be consistent. If you're not, all the tips in the world won't help you succeed. Keep at it.
Hey I’m Shawn and I want to personally welcome you to my website. I have been obsessed with internet marketing ever since I received my first check back in 2010. After that I knew it was actually possible to make money online and I was hooked.