Twitter is a great social media outlet you can use to publish links to your content marketing materials. But does your target audience even use Twitter? When is your target audience “listening” to tweets? What are the best ways to reach the people who would benefit from your services or products? This article gives you 10 important tips for helping you increase your Twitter follower numbers.
The Details:
1. Shorten your tweets. Although the maximum number of allowed characters in a tweet is 140, people are generally impatient. Most people have so much to read (email, news, work, posts) that they do not take the time to read entire articles or even tweets.
2. Self-promotion is one of the main keys to getting more followers. If you create a wide-open presence on the Net, people will find you and follow you. Promote with links to Twitter on other social networking sites and on your own website.
3. Do not tweet late at night. Nobody will be listening. Instead tweet from 8 am – 7pm ET. Since tweeting is fast and easy, it is easily accomplished in a workplace without any disruption (or without bosses noticing).
4. Make use of retweeting. Retweeting tweets from your followers and people you follow is a great way to inspire them to retweet your tweets too. In fact, it will encourage your followers to retweet. This is a great way to reach friends of friends and beyond in a very short amount of time.
5. If people follow you, you should return the favor. People who are being followed on Twitter often feel like they are being acknowledged.
6. Be sure to allow people to know who you really are. In other words, be yourself. Put a picture on your Twitter profile. Tweet “real” posts about your life and your experience. Make your presence real to people and they will trust you more. Write a bio that is descriptive and interesting to people in your target audience. You don’t have to write a book, but if you know who your target audience is, you will have a good idea what to emphasize.
7. Start conversations on Twitter by putting a question out. When people feel that you are interested in their opinions and not just interested in selling them a product, they are ultimately more likely to be interested in what you have to offer. Make your questions interesting.
8. Use hashtags on subjects that are important to your target audience. Don’t be afraid to promote other sites and other hashtags.
9. Thank your customers, thank everyone who helps you succeed, and throw a Twitter party or get-together for everyone who helps move your website and business forward.
10. Don’t tweet links one right after another. There is such a thing as overwhelming your followers. Space out your tweeted information and tweets so that your followers have time to absorb the information and click through to the links.
The Bottom Line
In order to maintain the number of followers you have accrued using these tips, you will have to maintain the quality and frequency of your links. Nothing turns away followers more than stale links and intermittent posts. Your tweets need to be interesting, enticing and engaging. Followers tend to expect fresh posts from the accounts they like the most. In fact, if your content is valuable to your potential customers—if it offers some useful information or tips they could use—they will look forward to your next new post. That kind of behavior is what you are ultimately aiming for on Twitter.
