How to Build a Solid Following on Twitter
The benefits of having a solid Twitter following are clear. You can share your expertise and market your brand to a larger audience. The more retweets your posts earn, the higher the possibility of being noticed by a bigger community of Twitter users, and adding more names to your follower count.
Of course, the number of followers isn’t everything; a quality following is more desirable simply because these are the people or businesses who have a genuine interest in your product and what you have to say.
Twitter views brands with an active, engaged follower base as influencers. As an influencer, you can feature on the top of search results for relevant hashtags, amongst the popular tweets curated and pinned at the top. This, in turn, can increase your visibility among users searching for that particular hashtag.
Review your existing profile
Your Twitter header image is an excellent opportunity to showcase your current product, event, podcast or marketing campaign. Use it to promote your latest work or a key milestone. By communicating your achievements or initiatives, you will continue retaining the trust, interest and advocacy of existing followers, while also encouraging other Twitter users to start following you.
Is your Twitter bio generic and boring? Does it sound a lot like what you’ve seen competitors and companies in your niche use? Distinguish yourself with a bio that doesn’t state ‘what’ your brand is but what you ‘can do’. Add keywords to make your brand more discoverable and steer clear of buzzwords that don’t really say anything significant.
Pin your most popular or most relevant tweet on top of your profile for greater exposure and more retweets, which can help you gain more followers. Other types of tweets you can consider retweeting include : a recent top-performing tweet, an upcoming conference, a time-sensitive campaign or an awe-inspiring photo (relevant to what you do).
Post engaging content
People will stick around only if your content helps them in some way. Regardless of whether you’re a B2C or B2B company, it is important that you demonstrate the value you bring to customers/clients. It can be stated through case studies of your product/service, social proof or sales numbers. Has your ecommerce store starting stocking merchandise from a top fashion house, or have you set-up an office in a new city? These are all markers of good business health and/or reputation.
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You can also deliver value through knowledge sharing, and this is particularly true for B2B companies. Expect potential clients to judge the quality of your offerings by the quality of the content you publish on your blog and social media. If it isn’t impressive, it could dissuade them from learning more about your company, and following you online. If your content positions you as an authority, it can translate into more followers, website traffic, downloads and calls.
Check out this article on what constitutes a good tweet, and how to position yourself as a thought leader on social media.
Cannot afford to spend a few hours each week on content creation and posting? A content curation app will find relevant third-party content to share to your audience. Also consider a social media management tool to schedule tweets during the best times or tweet an important message multiple times a week.
There is no substitute for active engagement
Curation and management tools add efficiency to the social engagement process. But you also need to show the face behind the brand by responding to comments, asking questions, retweeting content you like, and connecting with people who retweet your content. By engaging intimately and considerately on a one-on-one basis, you can grow brand trust and attract more followers.
1. Create Twitter Lists to group followers by category. This is an efficient way of making sense of all the tweets your timeline receives each day and planning responses by priority, with greater clarity.
2. Given that a majority of Twitter users are accessing the site from their mobile devices, you have only so much time to answer their questions or address their feedback. A Twitter monitoring tool will help you monitor brand mentions and respond in a timely manner.
2. Follow users who’re actively participating in conversations around an industry news or major campaign. One tactic is to create a relevant hashtag, which can lead you to an active community. By making a meaningful contribution to the conversation(s), you can earn retweets and followers.
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4. Use Twitter’s advanced search to find potential followers. This option allows you to search by exact phrase and sentiment (positive, negative, question). You could find users who’re currently facing a challenge that your product can solve, and build individual connections. Though quite time-consuming, it is worth your while to be proactive and gain genuine followers who can benefit from your offerings.
Network with micro-influencers
Micro-influencers are knowledgeable sources that followers rely on for authentic, reliable information on specific topics or products. A whopping 82% of consumers are most likely to follow micro-influencers’ recommendations. Additionally, their community can be a rich source of potential, high-quality, engaged followers. Read this article on what micro-influencers can do for your follower count, visibility and sales.
Image credit : Pixabay
