Often people ask “How do we get more followers on Twitter?”
Blindly following junk Twitter account holders can damage your reputation. Remember one thing that other Twitterers not only will be able to see how many people follows you, but also how many you follow and who they are. Reputed Twitter users will often check your account just to see whom you follow, before they decide to follow you. If you’re too much loaded with junk, they’ll simply avoid you.
Also there are tools to check how many fake/inactive followers you have, like this one from Social Bakers.
A much easier and a better way to increase your fan following count on Twitter is through sincere actions—no spamming, no bulk-following, by presenting yourself a real human entity.
In this post I will share 20 easy and simple tips that will help you attract more followers. But before you dive in make sure you are familiar with the Twitter Rules.
#1: Pick a Short Username
Get a short and memorable twitter username. The shorter the better. Twitter is all about 140 characters and many people still use the classic style retweets (RT @yourusername your tweet). So having a shorter username can help you to get more retweets and reach more people.
#2: Put Up Your Face
Don’t stick with the egg. When active Twitter users see an egg in their feed, it’s a clear sign that the account is created for blindly tweeting links otherwise spamming. So, upload a photo showing your face. It can result to follow you many followers.
#3: Mention Your Area of Expertise
If you want more Twitter followers, you need to give people a reason as to why they should follow you. You need a theme, such as an area of expertise or interest.
#4: Tweet on Relevant Topic
You can and should go active on topics from time to time to make your followers believe that you’re a real person. Also participate in trending topics to gain more exposure than it normally would.
#5: Add a City Name
You should name your city or region in your profile. In this way, if you discuss businesses, local issues, or events, people know where you are. This is important for your complete business website.
#6: Strategically Follow New People Through Hashtags
You should always be careful to add hashtags in your account. You should follow tweets with relevant hashtags. When you find people you like, follow them. But be careful not to go overboard. And do not follow anyone who doesn’t tweet relevantly. When you start filling up your Twitter following list with duds, it weakens both your overall Twitter experience and your reputation. . Many of these people will follow you back, especially if they can see from your profile and history of tweets that you share an interest.
#7: Strategically Follow New People Through Searches
Another way to find relevant content, and therefore relevant people to follow, is to search more generally without getting into hashtags. You should enter words which relate to your theme in the search bar at the top of Twitter. You need to comb through the resulting tweets and follow people who seem relevant. This will result in people to follow you back.
#8: Relevant Use of Theme Hashtags
One way of the new way to gain Twitter followers might result to find you is by searching for a term or hashtag. Hashtags are the “pound” (#) symbols that precede a word or string of words in Twitter. If your theme is marketing, then don’t forget to include “#marketing” in some of your tweets and if anyone is searching for that term they will see your posts. Whatever are the keywords do not forget to relate to your theme, and also turn them into hashtags. Avoid using a hashtag each single time you tweet. You should reserve the hashtags for your best content (say, top 10 to 25 percent) of the 80 percent of tweets that are on topic. For multi-word terms, erase the spaces.
#9: Be Transparent, Interesting & Provocative
You should share intimate news about your life. If you can cook a good story, you might get readers who are addicted to the daily dramas of your everyday life.
#10. Follow Influencers in Your Industry
Be sure you follow experts and brands that have a solid position in your niche. One of the best way to find experts in your industry is through Followerwonk.
Search for keywords in your niche or you can compare your competitors’ followers. Sort the resulting users by Social Authority. Find those that have the highest @response rate and engage with them!
#11. Share Quality Content
Deliver quality content and you’ll get more retweets and more people following you.
When someone follows you they are essentially subscribing to your tweets: so make them worth reading!
Share only the best quality you find and you’ll have the best chance for more followers.
#12. Don’t Auto-Follow People
Don’t use scripts or softwares to automatically follow people without having a quick look at their profile.
Auto-Follow actually increases the risk of following spam accounts, this might hurt the credibility and authenticity of your twitter profile.
#13. Follow Back Your Best Followers
It’s always good to have a large twitter following but at the same time it is also important to follow those who follow you.
No, you don’t have to follow back everyone but at least those who interacts with you on twitter the most and have a large following.
#14. Leverage Other Social Media Networks
Link to your Twitter account from your other social media profiles.
On your Facebook page install Twitter Feed for Pages app.
On YouTube channel link to your Twitter profile in the bio, and also in the description section for every video you upload. It’s a great way to mention your Twitter username in your videos via YouTube annotations. Make sure you create an active hyperlink and not just a text.
#15. Add To Your Email Signature
Linking to your Twitter account in your email signature doesn’t seem remarkable, right? True, but it is an easy & powerful way to expose your profile to the people with whom you interact via email.
You can use WiseStamp to design your email signature and include a twitter icon or you can simply use a text link that simply says “you should follow me on Twitter here.”
#16. Link To Your Author Bio
One of the easy way to get more followers is to add a link to your Twitter profile in your author bio. You should consider this tactic when you’re guest posting to other famous blogs in your industry.
#17. Tweet During Peak Times
Tweet during peak twitter traffic times, when your followers are online.
Followerwonk can help you to know the best time to tweet and this will increase your reach. More reach can lead to more retweets and which might bring some new followers.
#18. Add An Unique Header Image
Adding a header image is a great way to make your Twitter profile stand out in twittersphere. You can get someone on Fiverr to design it for you or you can create your own using a tools like Canva. If you are designing the cover all by yourself just make sure it should be 1500×500 pixels.
#19. Create a Custom Twitter Background
Even though mobile web is on the rise but most people still surf of Twitter on their desktop or PC, which means they will see your background when visiting to your individual tweets. Create a custom Twitter background to stand out from the crowd, and if you are running a twitter account for your business then this post might help you.
#20. Add a Twitter Follow Button
The official Twitter follow button makes it easier for your visitors to follow you directly from your website/blog. One great thing about this button is that it doesn’t drives people away from your website.
Adding twitter follow button is easy, just paste this piece of code in your sidebar
<a href="http://twitter.com/webaholicindia" class="twitter-follow-button" data-show-count="true">Follow @webaholicindia</a>
Don’t forget to change the twitter username here.
Folks at MarketMeSuite have created this helpful visual guide to help you gain more right twitter followers. Be sure to check this out.
Finally, don’t get too hungry for the numbers. Don’t underestimate the power of incremental growth over time.
What other techniques do you follow to get more twitter followers? Share your valuable inputs in the comments section below.
December 1, 2014
All great points. I never thought about using a short username before, but that makes total sense! I personally do not follow any eggs, although I used to. But, it became apparent that anyone not willing to put some effort into their twitter profile was only there to try to get traffic as opposed to offer any kind of value.
December 2, 2014
Thanks Bellaisa! Glad you found this article helpful 🙂
And you nailed it right, tweeting without putting some effort doesn’t provide any value and often times leads to spamming.