“So, like, how many Twitter followers do you have?”
Don’t write off your follower count on Twitter as a superficial measure.
The more followers you have, the more influential you are in your industry and the more interested people are in your content.
twitter is the best social media platform for engaging with your audience. fifty percent of people who use social media want brands to use twitter more, with thirty percent using the site daily.
Twitter is a fast moving social media platform that is easy to use and grow a following from scratch.
But how do you increase your number of followers?
How to get more followers on Twitter in 10 steps
This guide will show you how to get Twitter followers, whether you are struggling to grow an account or are starting from scratch.
No bots, no spammy tactics. Just 10 actionable steps you can take ASAP to build a meaningful following.
And with that, let’s dive in!
1. Identify The Audience You Want
Before you can successfully market your brand or business, you need to have a clear understanding of who your target audience is and what they are looking for. Once you know this, you can create a marketing strategy that will resonates with them and convince them to become customers or clients. What are the characteristics of your potential customers? What’s your niche?
For example, let’s say you sell college athletic gear. When developing a social media strategy for a college sports team, it’s important to interact with other sports teams, accounts run by alumni, and influencers in the college or sports industry. This will help you gain exposure and reach your target audience.
You can find similar information to what is found in Buzzsumo by using other tools. It allows you to find accounts with high levels of influence and large numbers of followers in a particular industry.
Twitter’s Advanced Search feature can help you identify your target audience.
Some marketers may be unaware of the range of tools available to them. If you use these tools in your Twitter marketing strategy, you’ll be more successful on the platform.
When you come across Twitter profiles that relate to your niche, take some time to check out who they follow, what hashtags they’re using, and so on. This way, you can join in on the conversation.
It’s important to remember to target people who are active and engaged, and have a profile picture. Say “no” to the “default eggs.”
Find people on Twitter that match your interests and add them to a private list. This technique allows you to remember which accounts to follow up with in the future, making it easy to engage their followers. Which brings me to my next point…
2. Utilize Twitter Lists
There are many ways to get your target audience to follow you once you have identified them.
One way is by effectively leveraging Twitter lists. We will discuss how to create a Twitter list, but first, let’s take a look.
- First, you’ll need to head over to the lists page by clicking on the drop down icon on your profile and selecting “Lists.” You can also do this by visiting your profile and clicking on the “Lists” tab.
- Next, click on the “Create new list” button. You’ll need to enter a name for your list and a description of your choice. Choose whether to make the list public or private.
- Once you’ve filled in the details and are happy with it, go ahead and save the list.
Adding and removing users:
- Visit the user’s profile and click on the drop down icon.
- Once clicked, you’ll see the option to “add or remove from lists.” Selecting this will then enable you to add or remove the user from your list.
Lists are a great way to get your target audience to find your profile.
If you add someone to your public list, they will get a notification saying they were added to your list. Here’s what this looks like.
The user receives a notification that there is a list available, and they may be interested enough to click on it.
The result of this could be that someone who views your tweets also clicks on your profile. download the appIf someone likes your content on TikTok, they may follow you.
Remember that you need to come up with a catchy and meaningful title for the list to make this strategy work best.
I have a list called “People to listen to” which is for professionals, industry experts and influencers. I want to connect with and build relationships with all of them.
If a user notices they’ve been added to the list, they may tweet the creator, which can then lead to a conversation and the beginning of a relationship.
3. Following Your Target Audience
Don’t be shy. If you want to attract a specific group of people, be the first to follow them.
It is very likely that if you have pinpointed your target audience and interacted with them, they have already noticed you and replied with a tweet. Now it’s finally time to follow them.
Unfortunately, doing that within Twitter can be quite time-consuming! Good news: Many tools can help speed up the process.
Tweepi
Tweepi is a great tool for Twitter management.
We use Twitter to build a targeted following for our clients and our own account.
The tool allows you to find new users and follow them. These are:
- Follow Followers – Follow new users that follow a specific account
- Follow Friends – Follow users that a specific account follows
- List Members – Follow users off a Twitter list
- Paste & Analyze – Copy/paste a comma separated list of Twitter users and analyze them
- Tweet Search – Follow users who just tweeted about a certain topic
- User Search – Search for users by their bio, interest, full name, company name, location or other criteria
I would recommend finding industry leaders on Twitter and following them.
There, you’ll be able to set-up some criteria. I would recommend using the following:
Friend or follower > “Neither”
This means you will follow people who are not already following you.
If you are a premium member of Tweepi, you should consider clicking the option that allows you to hide people you have previously followed or unfollowed. This way, you won’t accidentally follow someone again.
When you have decided on the criteria, go ahead and follow the accounts that are shown.
4. When in doubt, Tweet more often
Compared to Facebook or Instagram, Twitter typically requires a more active content strategy.
The top 25% of Twitter users who perform the best post around 12 times per week, according to research from RivalIQ. That’s roughly twice per day.
It is better to err on the side of posting more content rather than being reserved. It is important to promote yourself and to vary the types of content you publish.
There are many ways to fill up your content calendar.
Tweets from your followers. Relevant industry articles. Buzzworthy stats. Breaking news. Personal updates.
And that only scratches the surface. If you publish content on Twitter frequently, you will be more likely to appear higher in the Twitter algorithm. This is especially true if you vary the types of content you publish.
The takeaway? If you want people to follow you on Twitter, it is important to have fresh content on your feed. This will show potential followers that you are active and engaging, and therefore worth following.
There is social scheduling software that allows you to queue up content so that you don’t have to Tweet in real-time constantly. This means that you can constantly get new followers.
5. Prioritize visual content whenever possible
Visual content in tweets receive more engagement than those without visual content.
It is advisable for brands to include images with their Tweets. Text-based Tweets are not inherently bad, but images are more likely to catch the eye of someone scrolling through their feed, and persuade them to take a look at your post.
As you’re brainstorming posts and types of content to publish, consider:
- Adapt text-based posts into images using editing tools like Canva, Adobe Spark or Venngage.
- Creating infographics (fact: infographics saw a 67% rise in 2020 and represent some of the most-shared content on Twitter).
- Videos (think: how-tos, greetings, snippets from long-form content).
- .GIFs, memes and image macros (when appropriate).
If you want to attract new Twitter followers, posting visual content is a good way to do it, whether your goal is to entertain or inform your audience (or both).
If you’re regularly posting links to Twitter, make sure your content previews include an image that’s not just a random screenshot.
6. Harness the power of hashtags
Hashtags are like a search engine optimization tool for your Twitter account- they make your posts searchable so that people can find them more easily.
Hashtags are commonly used on social media platforms, such as Twitter, as a way to categorize content or make a statement. Tweets that feature a hashtag tend to receive more engagement than those without one.
Adding a couple hashtags to any tweet will increase the chances of new followers finding your account. It only takes a couple seconds to do, and there are plenty of hashtags to choose from. For example, you can:
- Supplement posts with industry hashtags (such as #SEO or #ContentMarketing) which are great for your professional content.
- Inject some personality into your feed by using popular community hashtags (think: #MidweekMotivation)
- Piggyback on event-based hashtags as well (think: hashtags awards shows, sporting events and anything else topical)
The only disadvantage to using hashtags is if you use too many of them. If a post has too many hashtags, it looks like spam and is distracting. The best number of topics to focus on is one or two. More than three topics is too much.
In addition, when you know which of your hashtags gain the most followers, you can use them in a targeted way. Twitter analytics can help you see which tags are performing well for your brand.
7. Engage with Twitter communities in your industry
This is a great way to get more followers on Twitter by using hashtags.
Social media platforms like Twitter have created opportunities for like-minded people to connect with each other. For example, there are many different Twitter communities that are organized around specific hashtags, such as #DTCfam, #MarketingTwitter, and #PRTwitter.
Some of these communities are organized by specific members, while others are for general industries and tips. If you want to gain new followers, a good way to do it is to participate with communities and share your advice or experiences.
Hashtag analytics can help you to identify online communities which are relevant to your business. Have a look at the bios of well-known people in your field to see which hashtags they are using.
8. Master the arts of tagging, Retweeting & replying
There are a few simple things you can do to increase the number of followers you have on Twitter without spending a lot of time on the platform. Just follow these simple tips and you’ll see your follower count go up in no time.
Scheduling tweets is a great way to optimize engagement. You want your Twitter account to look like it’s run by a human, not a bot.
You need to be close to your followers, customers and industry leaders. If you want to get more eyes on your brand, make sure to regularly engage with other users by tagging them, Retweeting their posts, and replying to their posts immediately. This will let new followers know that you’re a real person and not just a brand. Here are some tips:
- When replying to accounts, keep in mind that a detailed, thoughtful response will score you more potential followers than a brief one-word reply.
- Shout out other brands whenever possible. Tagging (@mentioning) other brands as a compliment is a popular tactic to show some love to others in your industry.
- Retweet your fans and followers. Despite only taking a few seconds, doing so shows that you value engagement and are actively participating on the platform.
The small details of your engagement strategy are part of a bigger plan to attract followers.
Have you figured out how to get followers on Twitter?
Growing your Twitter following doesn’t happen by accident. There are a few things you can do to attract new followers on social media. Planning your content, engaging with other users, and optimizing your profile are all key.
If you are having difficulty gaining more Twitter followers, begin with these steps. Many of the strategies for marketing your business only require a small amount of time, but can make a big difference in terms of new leads, customers, and exposure for your brand.
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