Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging (sending of tiny messages) service that allows users to send and read text-based messages of up to 140 characters (in length) known as tweets. Tweets can say many things, they could describe what you are doing at a present moment in time, be an opinion or comment, be news or an announcement, be part of a conversation or be a link to send people for further reading.
Twitter was launched in 2006 and although virtually everyone these days has heard of it not everyone is using Twitter (YET). I myself am relatively new to Twitter and although I did know of it long before now, it was only in 2012 that I actively started to use the service. Nowadays I am a Twitter-holic regularly searching and scanning tweets for new information to consume and interesting people to follow. It’s addictive to say the least!
At Allstate NI, we want to ensure that we engage with our audience and add enough value to our content to make us worth following. To help me better understand Twitter and achieve objectives I read numerous blog posts and books from subject matter experts including Jeff Bullas, Mark Schaefer and Joel Comm.
Needless to say the Allstate Northern Ireland Twitter page is now active and our followers are continually growing. Our work is never done and we will always have something valuable to say whether that be news and announcements, job vacancies, or knowledge sharing. If you have an interest in following Northern Ireland's largest IT company on Twitter please search Twitter for: @AllstateNI.
In the remainder of this blog post I will now share some bullet point ideas and tips that if followed should help increase the number of followers you have on Twitter.
Tips to grow your Twitter follower count:
1. Identify experts, gain their friendship and respect and turn them into followers.
- Search for industry experts you know of by name.
- Look for twitter accounts that have mentioned your topic of interest in their tweets and then filter out those accounts that appear to belong to influence makers and experts. Look for accounts that possess the following:
- Profiles with a picture.
- Frequent posts and tweets.
- Have a large number of followers.
- Best anecdotes (most outgoing personalities, good with small talk).
- Recently updated profiles.
- Sets topics, directs conversation and build groups around themselves.
- Appearance of the terms “guide”, “expert” or “author” in their profiles.
2. Use experts to gain visibility. Turn experts into advocates and get them to retweet your messages.
- Stand out in the timeline of the expert you are communicating with and be seen by their followers as someone interesting worth following.
- Reply to an expert with valuable information.
- Tell the expert something they don’t know, recommend useful resources and links.
- Win the appreciation, trust and friendship of an expert.
3. Look for people you already know.
- People that know you personally are more likely to follow you and retweet what you say because you already have an existing personal relationship with them.
- Search for these people by email address. Import your email address contact lists.
- Search for these people by any names and or usernames you know them by.
4. Tweet your blog.
- Direct followers to a website where they can find out more about you and read posts longer than 140 characters.
- Educate followers and in return build a closer connection with them, turning them into evangelists on your behalf.
5. Use Twitter widgets.
- Placing a twitter widget on other websites (e.g. your blog, facebook page, your own company website etc) promotes your Twitter account and your Tweets.
- Gives visitors a quick snippet of what you are about.
6. The right way to tell users to follow you.
- I’m on Twiiter (CTR: 4.7%).
- Follow me on twitter (CTR: 7.31%).
- You should follow me on twitter (CTR: 10.09%).
- You should follow me on twitter here (CTR: 12.81%).
- Note: Last 3 points, capitalizing the first letter of twitter reduced the CTR by 6%.
7. Incentivize people to follow you.
- Give away freebies and create goodwill.
- Reward followers with discounts and special offers.
- Be entertaining – occasionally give them something to laugh at.
- Show the human side to the tweets and company.
- Help others with a cause if they need it, by retweeting.
- Provide valuable content and be seen as an influence maker.
8. Organize Tweetups.
- Organize an event where people who Twitter come together.
- Provides you with the ability to network face to face and build personal relationships.
- Allows you to provide a great social media experience.
- Allows you to utilize your network to drum up support, help and ideas.
- Get support for events by using the collective wisdom and contacts of your followers.
- Create a unique hashtag (#) around the event or an objective. Monitor and engage in associated conversations, allowing you to further demonstrate your knowledge and influence.
9. Promote your Twitter username.
- Display on business cards and relevant stationary.
- Append it to your email signatures.
- Display on presentations and documents you publish.
- Display it within your profile details on other websites (e.g. facebook, linkedin, blog, your own website etc).
- Display it on any articles or content that you publish online and or offline.
10. Integrate all your social networks.
- Different social media websites offer different features, so share the audience between each website and deepen relationships with your visitors.
- Use apps like woobox for Twitter to show tweets from your profile, for certain hashtags or search terms on your facebook page.
11. Respond to requests.
- Get involved – start and join conversations and show off your expertise.
- Jump into a conversation, provide a really good answer and you look like a bigger expert than the original Twitterer.
- People will see the activity, wonder who you are and stop by your Twitter page to find out more.
- Participate in trending topic conversations to get your account exposed. Do not post unrelated tweets to trends in an attempt to gain exposure. It looks spammy and your account may get suspended.
12. Participate in Follow Fidays
- International event that takes place every Friday on Twitter.
- Game where people suggest who to follow.
- Add hashtag #followfriday or #ff to tweet so people can find it.
- Do not pack a tweet with many followers as this appears cheap and can be off putting.
- Devote an entire tweet to something you want to flag as a reason to follow someone. For example: Follow @AllstateNI because they offer the best IT jobs in Northern Ireland. #followfriday #ff.
So there we have it, some ideas that if followed should help you increase the number of followers you have on Twitter. Please feel feel to share your thoughts by commenting on this post using the ‘Leave a Reply’ textbox below. I am also on Twitter if you want to connect with me there.
Thanks and happy tweeting.
Mark
