How to Get More Followers on Twitter

Have you been wondering how to get more followers on Twitter? At least one person has said the number of followers doesn’t matter. What matters, they say, is quality.

When I joined Twitter in 2007, I only used it a little bit. Over the years, I’ve used it more to follow conferences, share information, meet others in my field, discuss ideas, and live tweet presentations I attend. I’ve enjoyed being a Twitter chat guest and tweet about getting started with SEO—which I will write more about later.

By accident, I started to get more followers. This was exciting to me since I am social person and am extremely curious about other people. For me, Twitter is a way to meet people I’d never have the opportunity to meet otherwise.

Below are some of the ways I’ve found useful for developing a list of followers whose tweets interest me.

Speak to Groups and Attend Tweetups: Take your online life offline and speak to a group of real, live breathing humans. Audience members will often retweet your comments, especially if you can speak in sound bites. When they do, their followers will follow you if they find your comments interesting. At Tweetups (meetings organized on Twitter that take place in real life) I find people exchange Twitter handles more than they exchange business cards.
Use a Real Profile Photo: A photograph of yourself personalizes your Twitter feed. If you can, use this same photo across your various social media profiles (Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn). Doing so will help people connect the different profiles. Although I do follow Twitter feeds with logos—especially if the company indicates the Twitter handles of the actual people tweeting in their bio—I prefer a photograph. Believe it or not, people will often recognize you from your Twitter photograph and come up and speak to you at conferences about items you’ve discussed on Twitter.
Give More Than You Get: Be sure to provide useful and relevant information to your followers. When I choose whom to follow, I run in the other direction if I see a feed that only promotes a product or tweets the exact same message multiple times. When someone only tries to sell their product or only sends one-way communications (tweeting press releases, for example) I’m not going to be interested.
Converse and Engage with Others by Retweeting: Social media is a conversation. Use this medium to converse with people who have similar interests and who work in your field.
Chat Away on Twitter: Chats provide an ideal way to learn, meet people in your field, find service providers, or get questions on a specific subject answered. If you say wise things during chats, people will retweet you. Then, you’ll get more followers. This Twitter Chat Schedule [opens Google doc] lists chats on a variety of topics. Find a chat that interests you and participate. Sometimes, chats have guidelines. For instance, some chat leaders allow people to drop in a link to their website or blog during the chat. However, other chat leaders may shun self-promotional tweets. As with any community—online or offline—attempt to understand the culture’s rules before you charge ahead.
Consider Your Brand: When I joined Twitter, I signed on as “ClickWisdom” because I wasn’t sure how “out there” I wanted to be on that then-new medium. Luckily, ClickWisdom turned out to be a brand I want to cultivate. Do you prefer to use your real name like Lee Odden or a brand name like BatchBlue? Which one will work better for your personal or business goals?
Vary Your Twitter Stream: If you walked around saying the same thing all the time, you would bore people. The online world is no different. Offer a variety of content for your followers. Retweet other people, ask questions, make statements, share articles, live tweet a juicy conference presentation, and discuss ideas to keep your Twitter feed lively.
Use Hashtags: Hashtags consist of “#” and some words to indicate a subject. #blogchat and #wgbiz are two examples of hashtags. This first is used to discuss various subjects relating to blogging, and the second relates to the Women Grow Business blog.
Search for People: A third-party tool such as Hootsuite or TweetDeck can automate searching for certain hashtags or subjects. Then, you can find more people to follow. Often, people will follow you back if you follow them or engage with them in a positive way.