How To Attract Valuable Twitter Followers

By following relevant people, targeting your audience with engaging content, and cross-promoting your social media channels, marketers can develop a valuable Twitter following, says Social Media Examiner‘s Rich Brooks. “Having 20,000 followers who don’t respond to anything you share is equivalent to shouting from the top of the Empire State Building and claiming all of New York City as your audience,” he writes. 

To locate people to follow, Brooks suggests using Twitter directories such as Twellow, Tweepie, and WeFollow to search for users by location or industry. He also says to check out other people’s public lists or simply do a keyword search within Twitter. 

Once you get a solid following, tweet about topics that your following is interested in. If you’re a natural foods company, tweet organic recipes. To further engage your followers or find new ones, join in or start up a Twitter chat using hash tags, he says.

Another great tactic for gaining relevant followers is to promote your Twitter account in other places that your fans congregate. Put a link to your Twitter account in your newsletter, on Facebook, on your blogs, on LinkedIn. Brooks notes that it works best when the updates across the sites aren’t exactly the same — people will be enticed to follow you if you offer something different on each.

In addition to Brooks’ suggestions, try retweeting your followers. They will be more inclined to tweet your updates in the future to their friends, thus spreading the word for you. And of course, make sure you’re posting consistently.

Building up your Twitter following is important, but only when it’s done properly. Finding the right people to follow you should be the priority.

Image courtesy of Flickr, Charlie Trotter