4 super-easy ways to build up your Twitter followers

So you’ve made the decision to set up a Twitter page for your business, and you’ve read up on some rules for avoiding Twitter mistakes. You’re sitting back waiting for everyone under the sun to start following you only … they aren’t. How do you get people to recognize your existence on a networking site that boasts 200 million active users? Following are four super-easy ways to build up your Twitter followers.

Who ... are ... you ...

First things first. You need to make sure that it’s clear from your username who you are. If your business is dry cleaning, your Twitter user name should reflect that: @mooresdrycleaning or @moores_cleaning make sense. What doesn’t make sense: @luvsdogs22 and @lakers4lyf may reflect your personal interests, but they don’t exactly tell your customers what you do.

Likewise, you need an appropriate profile picture, as this is will be what followers use to identify you in the vast sea of Tweets. Use your business logo if you can, or a good, professional-looking head shot of you – but only if you’re the one doing the Tweeting.

[caption id=”attachment_423” align=”alignright” width=”500”] Whole Foods uses its logo, which is instantly recognizable.[/caption]

Follow is as follow does

Now that you have your appropriate username and profile pic, it’s time to start following some folks. But who? Remember that Twitter is a networking tool, so you should start by identifying others in your field, or by targeting those who might benefit from your product. You can do this in a number of ways:

1. Search hashtags. You’ve seen this symbol before: #. It’s a way to search for trending topics on Twitter. Let’s say you sell bobblehead figures of dogs. To find people who might be interested in your product, you can search #dogs or #bobbleheads, and then follow those people talking about the subjects.

2. Follow an industry leader’s followers. Think of someone that’s huge in your industry. Follow them. Now, follow the people that follow them. These are the folks who likely have an interest in what you have to offer. If you find, after awhile, they really aren’t interested in what you have to offer, and aren’t following you back, you can easily unfollow them.

Note: Remember that you don’t want to immediately bombard with these people with sales pitches – no one will follow you if they think you’re just trying to sell to them. For now, just follow them and join in on the conversation if you have something thoughtful to add. If they think you do have something worthwhile going on, they’ll follow you in return.

Be, like, interesting

If your goal in being on Twitter is to set yourself up as an expert in your field, you should Tweet about things that are happening in your field. Makes sense, right? The more insightful or thoughtful you are, the more people will look to you as an authority, and will retweet or favorite your Tweets (more on this below). Don’t overthink it – not every Tweet has to be a literary masterpiece. Providing links to relevant articles you come across with a clearly written description/endorsement works, too: “This article taught me more about SEO techniques than anything I’ve read on the topic.”

Play it cool, hotshot

As indicated above, following people just to bombard them with links to your website is going to result in getting you blocked, or worse, reported for spam. You definitely don’t want that. The key with Twitter – heck, the key with life in general – is to do everything in moderation. Don’t follow 1000 people in a day, follow 100. Don’t reply to every single person you follow every time he or she says something just to get their attention. Reply when you genuinely have something worthwhile to say.

Retweeting a particularly relevant Tweet, or a link to a well-written article is a great way to participate. Likewise, favoriting a Tweet is a good way to let someone know you’re paying attention and appreciate what they’re saying – but don’t make it a habit to retweet or favorite everything everybody says, ever. It will be noticed, and you will be labeled a big weirdo or, again, Captain Spam-tastic.

If you follow these four super-easy tips, you will certainly see an increase in the number of your Twitter followers. And who knows – in a sea of 200 million users, you might even find someone who needs an entire collection of doggie bobbleheads.