Ready to grow your twitter?
Number of people that use Twitter? 310 Million according to Digital Trends
I have recently decided to put more concentration on growing my twitter following. As I seek advice, I thought I would pass it on to my fellow content creators who also want to grow on Twitter. I have rounded up some authority posts for you and have also reached out to MyBlogU and social media communities. I was not disappointed.
This post is packed full of actionable Top Twitter Tips! It may take a bit to implement all these tips, so be sure to bookmark and/or pin this post so you can refer to it whenever needed.
Grow Your Twitter Account!
Target YOUR Audience as a Content Creator
Ravi says,
“Twitter allows us to follow 1k people daily – if we follow targeted people who are interested in our niche and tweets, then plenty of those will follow us back. This is a cool way to grow our twitter following and since they are on-topic, the engagement rate will go up as well.”
You do not want to follow just anyone and everyone if you want to increase your engagement. But, how do you find targeted people and brands to follow?
I’m turning it over to Mashable: 10 Ways to Find People on Twitter
Another thing you can do is follow and engage with those on twitter that you mention and support in your blog posts.
“When you refer to an article or other resource in a blog post you’ve written, be sure to notify the author of the referred source. I typically do that by mentioning not only the article, but the author, then link to the author’s Twitter profile. That makes it handy for me to later Tweet to the person. It’s also good, where appropriate, to shout out to the source from a click-to-tweet.” Don Sturgill
Keep Twitter To Twitter
Each social media network is different and requires a different strategy and posting template.
Anita of Twirp Communications says,
“Never set your Facebook to autopost to Twitter. When you set your Facebook up to send info to Twitter your Twitter fans invariably only get half the message. We end up having to click a link to come back to Facebook to see the rest of the message, which is a data suck and keeps many people from doing it!
This also sets you up to share blank messages to your Twitter followers that contain only a link to Facebook. When you see that there’s no incentive to click on the link and the photo you’ve probably just uploaded to Facebook does not show on Twitter.Auto-linking your Facebook to Twitter is a BAD IDEA. Post on each network separately or learn to use a cross-posting program such as Hootsuite. But please do something different!”
Add An Image
“Adding a strong image to your Tweet will make it stand out in a sea of Tweets. There are several great tools available for this, but the one I always share first is Pablo by Buffer. This quick tool comes pre-loaded with social media template sizes, royalty free images, and motivational quotes. It’s also simple to upload an image of your own or add your own text. Create and download a text-on-image file in 30 seconds!
You don’t even need to log in to use Pablo. But if you do happen to log in, it’s easy to send the picture through your social media profiles or add it to your Buffer qeue right from within the dashboard.” Chris Well, Build Your Brand Academy
Check out the “Graphic Design” section of the Resources page for great sites to help you create rocking images to share on Twitter!
Adam, of AdamJoshuaClarke.com, is all about those hashtags!
He recommends using RiteTag,
“RiteTag.com is a great hashtag search for Twitter hashtags that lets you find similar tags to the suggested word you want to relate your tweet to. Simply enter in your most simple searches and find out hashtags that are most popular to choose for your tweet. This gets you way better hashtags and far more attention to your tweets on average. Enjoy!”
Also check out Joshua’s recent post: How To Use A Timeless Tweet To Promote Your Twitter Profile
Participate in Twitter Chats
What is a Twitter Chat?
Twitter chats are scheduled discussions that occur on twitter around a specific hashtag. It allows users to participate, discuss, and create new connections in real time. To join in, you just use the conversation hashtag at the designated time of the chat.
A great tip to see when Twitter Chats are happening in your niche is to type into Google” Twitter Chats for _______ .” Fill in the blank with what you are interested in.
If you are new to Twitter Chats and still confused, no worries. Sprout Social has your low down: The Ultimate Guide to Twitter Chats
Create a Networking Group
“Use Twitter for networking. You can send up to twelve identical DMs through http://tweetguru.net/multi/ . This is a great way to engage with a small number of mutually-agreed people (No, don’t use it to spam people!).
For instance, when you produce new content, you can share it with one another for mutual support. Or if you have regular sources of information for your blog, DM them all the same question. It’s can also be used to set up meetings or alert like-minded people to news on a topic of mutual interest.
The key is to have a small group of people who all agree to a set of rules for sharing content or asking questions.” David Leonhardt, The Happy Guy Writing Services
Schedule & Buffer
Figure out the best time to tweet for your audience and schedule your tweets then. You can also collect content from around the web that you and your audience are interested in.
I have a few methods of doing this….
- First, my Sprout Social publishing dashboard. You can choose a specific day and time for your tweet to go out, as I do for my Coffee With Hil videos, or you can add tweets to the Sprout Queue. The Queue will publish your content for you at the perfect time.
- The next tool I use is a combo of the Buffer App and ContentGems. When you sign up for Content Gems and set your relevant content, you will get a summary in your inbox of suggested pieces to share. If you have a Buffer account, you can just hit the buffer button on the items you want to share and choose twitter. They will go out at a later time strategically.
For more on this, check out my post: 3 Sites To Keep Your Social Media Feeds Topped Off
Saira suggests creating a twitter list of profiles you trust to automatically tweet from and using RoundTeam to do so.
Audience Response & Tracking
Now it is time to evaluate what is working and what is not. To understand how you are doing on Twitter, you need to participate in a bit of tracking and research. You can do this with conversations,
“There used to be a “conversation” link on Twitter that allowed you to see why someone was responding to you. Now, you need to know that you must click the time / date link to find the conversation.” Gail Gardner, GrowMap.com
Gail also has a post of Twitter Best Practices for you to check out.
And with your Metrics. You can do this in your Twitter Dashboard,
“Get started by visiting Twitter’s native analytics site and logging in with your Twitter username and password. Your dashboard is separated into three main areas: Tweets, Audiences and Events. If relevant, click on the “More” button for access to Twitter Cards, videos, app manager and conversion tracking.” Jennifer Beese, Sprout Social
Read the full post here: A Deeper Look at the Twitter Metrics You Should Be Tracking
In Conclusion…
Get ready to grow your twitter! I know this is a lot to take in, but if you go step by step, learning and implementing, you will likely see your following and engagement grow quickly. If you want to build a targeted and engaged fan base, it’s worth it!
Need more tips and tools? Check out: 16 Twitter Tools for Social Media Marketers, Social Media Examiner
Do you have an awesome Grow Your Twitter Tip for a content creator to add? Let’s hear it in the comments…
Awesome roundup! There are a few new-to-me programs listed that I will have to check out. Solid advice for everyone here.
Thanks Anita! I hope the new resources help you!
Good round-up of Twitter tips. One thing I want to caution people about is following too aggressively. If you use an automated tool or try to follow 1000 per day from a newer account it could end up getting suspended.That is safe to do on well-established accounts, but never do that on brand new accounts or accounts that haven’t been very active over a long period of time.
Start out only following a handful and gradually increase that number. If you do accidentally get suspended, if you have been active and sharing good content the odds are good that Twitter will give your account back.
I do hope your readers pop in and check out my Twitter Best Practices compilation you linked to in this post. You could even add the SlideShare if you wish. I can explain how to do that if you haven’t done it before. You use the code similar to adding a video. Send me a connection request on Skype (username growmap) if you would like assistance.
Thanks so much Gail! Fantastic points. I can go back in and add your SlideShare.