Shawn's Blog

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Tips for gaining a following on Twitter

Posted on | June 16, 2009 | No Comments

A recent PC Magazine report came out stating that 60% of Twitter users stop using the service the month after signing up.  Until recently, I was part of that statistic. Last year, I signed up, and admittedly, I never “got it“.  After attending the Atlantic Internet Marketing Conference earlier this year, I started to see what all the buzz was about, and am now using the service every day.

Unlike Facebook, Twitter is geared towards people networking with people you may not know.  I tend to think of it as a global MSN client, where you can potentially talk to anyone using the service.

To get the most out of Twitter, here are my tips to help build your Twitter following:

  1. Add a profile picture to your account. 
    This sounds obvious, but it is common to see accounts using the default Twitter profile picture.  Use a picture of yourself if this is a personal account, or a company logo for promoting a brand.  The default picture shows you are not interested enough in Twitter, so most people will skip over you.

  2. Fill out your location & bio. 
    Again, this sounds pretty obvious, but many people don’t do it.  Help people find you, tell them what you are interested in, be as specific as possible within the 160 character limit.  If you want to add more information for people to see, create a customized Twitter background. There are many of these available, Google them.
  3. Add yourself to Twitter directories.
    WeFollow & Twellow are great, and there are others available.  Add yourself to those directories, and also browse through them to find people with interests similar to yourself.
  4. Twubble
    Twubble is a service that scans the people you are following, and makes suggestions on who they are following that you may be interested in.  I have found this service invaluable adding quality people to my list.  In addition, I get a high amount of those people following me back.
  5. Interact. 
    Get into current conversations by using the currently trending list, or the search feature.  Post interesting information.  For best results, ensure your post can be re-tweeted by others easily.  To do this, ensure the re-tweet information and your post can be re-tweeted easily within the 140 character limit.  For me, I need to keep posts to under 126 characters, which is determined by taking the re-tweet syntax “RT @schallner:”, 14 characters, and subtracting that from the 140 character limit.

    Getting your posts re-tweeted helps to increase your exposure on Twitter. 

The key to twitter is to start following people with similar interests, and interacting with them.  By signing up and not contributing anything, you will become part of the 60% of the Twitter population who never come back.

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Category: Social Media
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