As a leading social site, Twitter is a great way to grow your brand, but if you don’t have followers (or even know how to get them), it’s going to be an uphill battle. Here are eight tips to get your Twitter game on:
- Ramp up your tweeting frequency. The best way to get followers is to post often – not so much as to be annoying, but often enough to become part of your followers’ regular tweeting experience. How often is that, you ask? A study from SocialBakers claims three tweets a day is the sweet spot. To get a better number of followers, follow your competition and see how often they tweet (and how many followers they have).
- Post regularly. As with any type of content marketing effort, from blogs to Facebook posts to tweets and more, consistency is key. Once you begin tweeting, keep it up. You want to train followers to look for your posts and to begin to associate the valuable content you’re tweeting with your brand.
- Be an informer, not a “meformer.” A study from Rutgers University found people who tweet primarily about their own lives and activities have far fewer followers than those who post more informational tweets. This goes for a business, as well! Of course, if your last name is Kardashian or Bieber, it’s a different story. But for the rest of us, being less egocentric in our posts helps others identify us as follow-worthy.
- Take time to #Discover. Next time you’re on Twitter, take a moment to click on the #Discover icon at the top of your page. You’ll find suggestions of other people to follow (likely people/companies in your industry). Start participating in their chats, retweet them, engage them with a question, and you could wind up on #Discover yourself someday.
- Create a great bio. Sure, it’s important to have lots of followers, but it’s also important have followers who may actually convert to customers. To attract those folks, you need to make sure you create a bio that’s interesting and that reflects your brand. You’ve only got 160 characters so they need to count! Check out these tips in this article by AdWeek to make the most of your bio.
- Time your tweets. There’s no use tweeting while your followers – or potential followers – are asleep. Instead, think like your audience and tweet during commuting hours, at the start of the business day, at lunch, between 2 p.m. and 3 p.m., and again around 6 p.m. to capture people when they’re most likely to be catching up on social posts. If you’re trying to appeal to people from coast to coast, that many tweets can take a lot of time. Our next tip might help.
- Stay on track with a tweet scheduler. Yep, it’s a thing. Some to consider: Twuffer, LaterBro, FutureTweets and HootSuite, and our favorite SproutSocial.
- Keep your followers following. Finally, make sure to keep the followers you already have. How? A study of 1.2 million Twitter accounts found the top three reasons people “unfollow” are: You’re posting too many tweets in a short period; You’re sharing boring topics; You’re being a “meformer.”
Twitter is a crucial platform for digital marketing and branding, and while there’s no secret formula to gain thousands of followers, these tips can help get you on the right track to attracting new followers and keeping your current followers happy and interested. Now, get tweeting! (And don’t forget to follow SoMoLocal while you’re at it!)
