Twitter has been around for many years now, and it’s still going strong in terms of being a tool for networking. This micro-blogging platform has continued to serve as a main venue for all sorts of industries and individuals. But, what do you do if your follower count is a measly number? You’ve gotten all your friends to follow you. You’ve even gotten your colleagues to tweet. What else can you do to gain more followers on Twitter?
Here is a nice collection of tips – both manual and automated – that can help you increase the number of your followers on Twitter. To make things clearer, let’s divide this article into two sections.
Manual Tips
Provide a meaty bio
More often than not, people forget to beef up their Twitter bio. Not everyone pays attention to this aspect and merely just jump into tweeting. You have to realize, however, that people will want to know more about you before clicking on the FOLLOW button. Give them something to work with by putting relevant information in your profile!
Give your Twitter profile some exposure
You need to get the word out that you have a Twitter account and that you are actively using it. While you will certainly get some exposure on Twitter, you also need to do a little active promotion on the outside. If you use other sites such as Facebook and your blog, put up a link to your Twitter profile. If you guest post on other blogs, put up the link as well. While you’re at it, include the link to your e-mail signature. As much as you can, let people you interact with know about your Twitter profile.
Encourage your followers to retweet your tweets
Retweeting is a great way to extend your reach. Each of your followers will definitely have a string of other followers that may not have heard about you. However, if your followers retweet your posts, then these people will be exposed to your tweets; hence the importance of retweeting. Of course, you might have to explain the concept of retweeting to your followers as not everyone may understand it.
Use #hash tags
Ever seen those tweets that have ‘#wordorphrase’ included? That’s a hash tag. Basically, people who tweet something related to the hash topic and include the tag will be ‘found’ by other peoples searching for the topic. Look for trending topics (http://search.twitter.com/) and pick out the topic you’d like to join. This will give you more of the exposure that you need.
Hold a ‘Follow Me’ contest
This is one sure fire way to gain more followers quickly. Set up a ‘Follow Me’ contest wherein you will be giving away prizes to your new followers. If you are a writer, for example, you can pick out a book or an e-book of yours that you will give to a lucky follower or two. You have to be clear about the rules and make sure that the prize you pick is something that will entice people to join.
Automated Software
You can always do a manual search and follow other people in the hopes of them following you back. This is always a trial and error thing, though, as not everyone you follow will follow you back. To make it more efficient, there are many tools online that can help you build your follower list on Twitter. Let’s take a look at some of the most effective pieces of software that can have your Twitter followers skyrocket without too much effort on your part.
AddNewFollowers
AddNewFollowers is a program that can help you manage your Twitter account – or accounts, for that matter – all on autopilot. If you’re worried about its compatibility with your machine, you’ll be glad to know it runs on Windows, Mac, or Linux, as it is web-based. Some features of AddNewFollowers:
- Auto Follower – you can automatically follow as many users as you want based on search terms that you specify.
- Auto Un-follower – allows you to automatically un-follow those users that do not follow you back.
- Direct Message Feature – in order to make your new followers welcome, this program automatically sends a Direct Message to them. Of course, you can set the contents of this message yourself.
- Schedule Tweets – you can schedule your tweets in the future so that you don’t have to spend much time on Twitter if you can’t afford it.
They have three pricing plans – Free Account, Finch ($3/month), and Sparrow ($5/month).
Social Snipe
Social Snipe is another tool that has similar features as the one preceding it in this list. It also makes use of keywords that you choose so that you can follow relevant users. More so, this program controls the number of follows done, so that your account does not get flagged by Twitter.
If you want more control, or simply to see what the program is doing, you can check out the Live Snipe Spy View. This will show you who are ‘sniping’ in real time, and you can also see what triggered it as well. Another important feature is geo targeting. If your business needs to target users within a specific area, the program will help you do just that.
You can try out this program for 7 days for only $4.97. If you like what you see, the regular membership fee is $27.97 a month.
Tweet Adder
Tweet Adder is one of the strongest programs out there. It has a host of filters, which you can use to select users to follow:
- keyword
- location
- recency
- language spoken
- ability to remove profiles with default picture
- ability to remove profiles with urls in tweets or biography
It also has other features such as auto un-follow, direct message, stats viewing, and more. For one Twitter account, you can purchase the program for $55. The cost is $74 for 5 profiles, $110 for 10 profiles, and $188 for unlimited profiles.