How to Build Your Twitter Followers? Part 1 (of Many!)




I've battled with this long enough.."How to Grow Your Twitter Followers", "I don't have enough of them", "They are not engaged", and the saga goes on and on...


Image source: http://slate.me/1w9F1eq

So, is it really important to have an army of Twitter followers..what would you rather have.. a small band of committed, dedicated followers, who value and appreciate your content, or else are you happy having a couple of thousands? Okay, that was overkill,  you'd be happy, as long as they are legit.

So, what can a marketer nursing a nascent brand on Twitter tell you? That is me, btw.

It will be useful to mention here a framework that I came across, Content, Engagement, and Rewards.

Content:

First, as a Twitter newborn you will take the first 100 or so tweets to find your "editorial voice". If you are already in the business, you might take less or much lesser, but getting past that barrier when you are most comfortable in tweeting is crucial. As a marketer, you need to find your sweet spot: humour, drama, empathy, sarcasm (?!)....choose your voice.

Identify content hotspots: Tweet around live events, real-time conversations, news, and other stories that you feel are relevant for your users. Controversies provide a window for conversations. Find which stories are of interest to your TG and what matters to them most.

You can post your Twitter handle on every digital real estate you own (email, LinkedIn and other platforms). Discoverability is crucial, and missed eyeballs are lost eyeballs. Remain visible and remain reachable.

Engagement

You tweet, and you wait, there is no engagement. And then, well, you wait some more. What I have learnt is that if your Tweet incorporates current trends, crises, your fellow marketers, influencers, there is a slightly higher chance of discoverability and engagement. Most articles have a tweet button, which incorporates the Twitter handle of the author, retweet liberally and acknowledge generously. You will start getting traction, and will be noticed.

And while on Twitter, how can you ignore hashtags? Even creating hastags that generate conversations is an art. Read more about the science of hastags here http://linkd.in/1DdiKSK. Plenty of content online extolls the virtue of a hashtag; do hash, but dont over do it. Learn more about hastag hygiene at these wonderful articles http://linkd.in/18aBN2g, http://linkd.in/1L5QiDU and http://linkd.in/1yc0MY4.

Rewards
Thought of doing contests, campaigns over Twitter? Why not? Given the stock-ticker nature of the platform, it can generate extremely high engagement (leading to rewards, read coupons, free subscriptions, give-aways for your target group). Reward their browsing your blog through an incentive and request them to tweet about their discovering your blog. Build Twitter into your incentivization programs.

So, worry not, your followers may be few, and you will take time to grow this small band of followers into a meaningful audience. Though small consolation, some things do take time, and building Twitter followers, is one of them.

Source:

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/21-twitter-top-tips-grow-your-community-engagement-dan-purvis
http://www.forbes.com/sites/dorieclark/2013/09/24/how-to-dramatically-increase-your-twitter-following/
http://thenextweb.com/twitter/2014/01/06/9-ways-grow-twitter-following-ethically/
http://blog.gleam.io/twitter-followers/

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