Learn/How-To-Get-More-Twitter-Followers

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This article is a work in progress. Have feedback or suggestions? Email me.

1. Write interesting tweets.

Make sure to add something to the conversation. Give people a feel for what your future tweets will be like so people know what to expect when they're deciding whether or not to follow you.

The more you write interesting tweets, the more likely people are to:

• retweet you. This means that your tweet will be re-broadcast to the followers of whoever retweets you.
• #FollowFriday (or #FF) you. On Fridays some people will post a tweet recommending a person or people they think their followers should check out and perhaps follow as well.

[Example of #FF tweet]

• find your tweets - and maybe follow you - when they search Twitter. When you're writing tweets, think about what keywords people may be searching for, and try to include them.

2. Start following people who know you.

After you've posted at least a few tweets, start following people.

Get a list of your customers, business partners, etc. and look for them on Twitter - then follow them. They'll hopefully notice that you've followed them, and then follow you in return.

3. Once you've followed people you know, interact with them.

Look at the stream of tweets (Home) from the people you're following, and respond to people - especially the ones who aren't following you yet. It's important to be a person on Twitter.

4. Include prominent links to your Twitter on your website.

5. Include a link to your Twitter page in your email signature.

This makes it so much easier for people you're already talking with.

I don't know about you, but I'm lazy. When I see a Twitter link in someone's email signature I'm much more likely to follow them. It's a reminder that I might want to follow them on Twitter, and it's much easier and faster than trying to search for them.

6. Include a link to your Twitter page in your email newsletters.

7. Include your Twitter handle on your business cards.

[Show example of mine.]

8. Follow people in your industry or who talk about things you care about.

Search Twitter for people and tweets about topics that you care about. Look for people to follow who you want to listen to, and who you think may want to follow you back if they look at your bio and recent tweets.

9. Ask your employees, friends and family to follow you.

These won't be very meaningful followers, but getting them to follow you can help you gain momentum and get a few more "real" followers if people notice that someone they know is now following you and decide they want to follow you too.

Don't:

• Buy Twitter followers. They will be very low value followers and it will likely a waste of your money.
• Have apps tweet for you, unless you think they'll be interesting for your followers. For example, many people tweet automatically every time they check in on Foursquare. Tweets like that get boring or annoying really fast, and some people (like me) are bound to unfollow you.

Do you have any tips for getting more meaningful followers on Twitter? Hit me up : @KristinaWeis.