It’s every Twitter user’s desire: to have more followers. Having lots of followers on Twitter not only gives you a broader and larger audience to communicate to, but, it also identifies you as a successful social media user and somebody who is looked upon as interesting. There are many ways you can increase the number of followers you have on Twitter. Feel free to skip to the points most relevant to you.
#1 Follow Everyone
A lot of people on Twitter have the tendency to follow back to users that follow them. As well as this, you may also get a public reply saying thank you for following somebody which will give you added exposure on Twitter. Following 1,000 can give you back as much as 900 followers! However, you need to remember that there is a limit to how many people you can follow. If you go over this limit Twitter set in a day, your account might get banned so don’t follow too many at once.
#2 Tweet, But Not Too Much
You need to make sure there is an incentive for others to follow you on Twitter. If you hardly tweet at all, people won’t follow you. Therefore, get into the habit of consistently tweeting around 3-5 times a day with at least 2 hour gaps between each tweet. Consistency is everything. If you tweet too much, you will be known as Twitter spam which is extremely unpopular amongst the Twittersphere.
#3 Retweet Lots
Remembering not to tweet too much, retweets are a great way to gain extra followers. However, when you retweet, make sure it is in the form ‘RT @username‘ so that it works out as a mention too. This will make others see that you read there tweet and like it enough to retweet it. Gaining friendships on Twitter will lead to follower success.
#4 Tweet About Trends
Trends are one of the number one ways to get your tweet viewed to the thousands even if you don’t have many followers. Therefore, make sure you include the words or hashtags from trends in your tweet. Whatever you were just about to tweet, make sure to try and link it with one of the trends and you are sure to gain much higher exposure on your tweets. In turn, this should increase your follower number.
#5 Don’t Tweet About Everything
82% of tweets on Twitter are classed as boring and just not worth reading. Make sure your tweets are not one of these. I have followed people that tweet the most pointless rubbish such as ‘Just woke up and eating breakfast now #yum‘. Why would we care? Why should I waste my time reading a tweet like that? Bare that in mind when writing your next tweet. If it comes across as boring and not worth reading, delete it. You want to make them few seconds of reading your tweet enjoyable for your followers.
#6 Have a Good Profile Picture
One of the first parts of your Twitter presence people may see is in fact your Twitter profile picture. Here are 5 Tips that your Twitter profile picture should contain. I have heard many stories about Twitter users gaining followers in the hundreds just because they have a good profile picture that others like. You won’t have thought it before but your profile picture tells others a lot about yourself. By making it good will sure enough increase followers in the long term.
#7 Make Sure Your Bio is Amazing
Again, this is another aspect of your account people will see first. What reasons should others follow you? The answer lays in your Twitter bio and it is all about getting the right balance. Having too long of a bio will bore people while having one too small won’t give people enough information about you. However, having shorter bios will encourage people to follow you so they can find more about you. Have a look at How to Write a Good Twitter Bio for more tips.
#8 Choose the Right Username
Like always, I have another useful article being The Key to Choosing your Twitter Username. You need to make sure your username is easy to remember because not everyone follows others from looking at their tweets just like not everyone comes to a website from search engines. Some people come directly. Therefore, you need to make sure your username is easy to remember. Another good tip is to never ever include underscores or numbers in your username. This makes clear that you didn’t get the username you wanted and have settled for second best.
#9 Interact with Your Followers
You will want to give your followers get a premium experience from following you. This makes sure that those that don’t follow you will follow you so they can get access to this ‘premium’ experience. This premium experience is simply interaction! Social media is based on communication. If you just tweet to your followers, your not communicating fully like a conversation would. As well as this, your not acknowledging your follower’s and their mentions much too. Therefore, make sure every now and then you do reply to a follower so all your followers know you are actually aware of them. Someone who does this is likely to be followed more than just a tweeter.
#10 Link Your Account Everywhere
As well as trying to gain Twitter followers through Twitter, you can gain them through other means other than Twitter. Make sure you link your Twitter account to Digg, Facebook, LinkedIn and even your email signature. The more people that can access your Twitter profile page, the more likely you are to get more followers. It’s all about exposing your account to the widest and largest audience.
#11 Tweet and Retweet Images
Images are becoming ever more popular on Twitter making them easier than ever to become viral. A good example of this is with @ScottFilmCritic who tweeted this:
If you only see one mismatched headline and photograph today, make it this one.
Even though with 6,000 followers (which usually isn’t enough to go viral), this tweet became one the most retweeted tweets of the day adding around 800 followers to Scott’s delight. Therefore, make sure you tweet pictures which will interest people and even better make them laugh!
#12 Create Contests For Followers
If the Twitter user can’t find the incentive to follow you, make sure you persuade them through the incentive of a competition. @Jason is one of the most famous user related to Twitter competitions. He said he would give away a Macbook Air if he became the most followed person on Twitter. This never happened but, he did gain around 100,000 followers from it. Therefore, competitions are a great way to attract attention and exposure to your account.
#13 Follow Friday
Each and every Friday that passes, thousands of Twitter users tweet the hashtag #FF or #FollowFriday with Twitter usernames they think should be followed and enjoy following. Although many of the accounts that tweet these hashtags are in fact spam, many are still legitimate making it a great way to increase followers. People on Friday are also happy because it is the start of the weekend. Therefore, their happy mood might involve following more people than normal…
#14 Promote Your Account Offline
Many people think the only way you can promote your Twitter account is through online resources. This is totally wrong. Whatever assets you have, make sure it has your Twitter name on it. Fliers, business cards, promotional items or even products, your Twitter name can appear on anything. Again, it’s all about exposure.
#15 Auto-responders are Not the Answer
Auto-responders are direct messages people get when they follow somebody. As much as you would like to thank somebody who follows you, it looks cheap to send an auto-responder to your new follower. As well as the fact that not many people use direct messages to communicate on Twitter, auto-responders get misinterpreted for spam very easily. This will annoy your followers increasing the chances of being un-followed.
#16 Be Generous
What comes around goes around. If you retweet and publicly reply generously, the same should happen back to you. You can’t gain followers without followers. Therefore, influence them. Share the love and make them act in the same way you act that is by being generally nice.
There you have it then. 16 ways you can increase your follower account. I hope I have given you enough tips so that you can use a few if not all to your benefit. If you feel kind too, you can also follow me @willGreeny.
