Are you envious over people who have thousands and thousands of Twitter followers? Me too.
But as smart social media enthusiasts know, it’s not quantity of followers that matters, it’s quality. It’s so much better to have 100 awesome Twitter followers that talk to you, share your articles, and promote your services than to have 20,000 followers that don’t do anything at all for you.
So sure, you could buy followers or mass follow people hoping they’ll follow back.
But here are seven seriously ways to attract people that will make up a quality Twitter tribe!
1. Have a Profile Picture
Obvious, but for some reason, still needs to be said.
Without having a picture of your company logo or a nice headset as your twitter avatar, you’re stuck with a boring egg picture. Not only is it boring, but it signals to everyone else that you’re not really invested in your Twitter account. It will also raise a flag that you might be a spam bot.
Many people recommend that you pay for a professional headshot.
But if you’re strapped for cash, asking a friend to snap a picture with a camera is more than acceptable.
2. Fully Flesh out your Bio
Make sure that your bio contains your job and your interests.
If you work for a certain company or run some kind of startup, put their Twitter handle in your bio, too. Having a completed profile gives potential followers a nice snapshot idea of who you are and what you’re tweeting. People want to follow similar people!
While you’re at it, make sure that you upload a fun cover photo to show off even more of your personality and put in a link to your website.
Stay away from tagging every single thing in your bio. Hashtags can be helpful for finding people in relevant industries, #but #this #makes #others #want #to #die.
3. Display Your Twitter Account Prominently
Make sure that your customers, readers, etc. can easily find your Twitter account from your website or blog articles.
Add a Twitter icon among your social buttons (or use the Twitter follow button) and put a link to your Twitter account in your author bio. If people dig what you have to say, they’ll probably follow you. But if you don’t give them direction, they won’t take it.
This also goes for guest posts.
If you write an article for another audience, make one of the links in your profile to your Twitter profile.
4. Mention Individual Authors When Tweeting Posts
Find an awesome article on a multi-author blog or major publication?
When you share it on Twitter, take an extra step and find the handle of the author and tag them in the tweet. Everyone likes a little recognition for their work.
And since they know you took the extra time to mention them, it positions you as someone worth knowing.
5. Retweet and Reply to Others
In reality, the “secret” to gaining Twitter followers is engaging with people on the platform. If you’re just broadcasting your blog posts or posting pictures of your lunch, you’re not using Twitter to its full advantage.
See what the people you’re following are tweeting out. Is it relevant to your interests or the interests of your followers? Then hit the retweet button or reply to the user. Not only will it give your followers some new opinions, but it will put you on the radar of the person you interacted with. Taking the time to interact with others definitely makes you a person that others want to follow.
But, on the other hand…
6. Don’t Just Retweet Others
Retweeting others is a great way to get someone’s attention. But when all you do is retweet, it gives off the impression that you don’t have any opinions of your own. If people are considering following you, they want to see that you have something to add to their Twitter stream.
Give your tweets some variety. In addition to retweets, share articles, pose questions, and feel free to throw in a few tweets about what’s happening in your day. A personal touch can go a long way.
7. Do Not Ask Someone to Follow You
Blatantly asking someone “Can you please follow me back??” comes off as desperate and a little uncouth. Twitter is not like Facebook – a connection does not have to come from both sides. People choose to follow you because they like what you have to say, not because they feel guilty or demanded to do it.
Giving them the option to follow you by placing a link on your blog or in your bio is one thing. Asking them outright is quite another. In fact, asking someone to follow you almost ensures that they won’t follow you.
Not too hard, right? Once you’ve started doing these things you can work on refining your tweets to attract even more mentions and engagement.
Are you doing these seven things already? Anything you want to add?
Mandy is a content developer for Quality Logo Products. By day she writes product descriptions and blogs over at their promo products and marketing blog. A self-professed nerd, her interests include video games, sitcoms, superhero movies, and shockingly, writing.
"You’re such a smart boy!" were his first accolades heard. So, it’s no wonder that this phrase became the title of his business, Smart Boy Designs.