My twitter following has been growing at a steady, acceptable rate. And it has steadily grown because of powerful methods I use. In this article, I will teach you how to grow your twitter following.
Based on analytics, most of you found this article through Twitter. At the moment I have 16,507 followers. This isn’t a huge number in the twitterverse, but this number is noteworthy for two reasons.
I don’t pay for twitter advertising. I don’t ask people to follow me. These are fine methods for building a following and I have nothing against them. I have grown my account organically, without financial assistance.
The second reason I have a growing twitter following correlates strongly with the first reason. I’m currently following 526 people. My account is not a “follow back” account; I’m not going to “pay” for your twitter support by following you in return.
“Follow back” is a popular method for building a large following. This is when you follow an account with the hope that they follow back.These accounts follow as many people who follow them. There is nothing wrong with this tactic. However, if I used that tactic to grow my following, then my advice is useless.
This is a great article floating around about building your first 1000 twitter followers. I co-sign everything the author says. This is also a good article to read. Below are my stats for the month of Jan 2017 followed by July 2017. One year is powerful growth.
So, let’s get down to how you grow your twitter following. Here are some solid tips for making it happen.
You need a theme
You have to add value. There are millions of accounts online and billions of people in the world. Most of these accounts are just stupid opinions. If your twitter account focuses on a theme or issue, you give people value.
It doesn’t matter what the theme of your twitter account is. There are huge accounts for every group and interest. The theme of my twitter account is self-improvement and self-sufficiency. I express this primarily via tweets about boxing, math, and people. I also tweet about game, politics, and crime.
My tweets are aren’t idle complaints, observations or reflections on my feelings. My 140 characters stay on the theme.
Delete old tweets
This is a tactical idea that supports the strategy of the first tip. Your account needs to appear consistent. Delete off-topic tweets. After a day of no replies or retweets, delete it.
A consistent twitter is resource worth following. When people see that you don’t have thousands of tweets archived, your account looks ordered. Think of twitter as a showcase. Only the best stuff should be on display.
Authenticity is paramount
If you build a twitter account supporting Trump, you better be a huge Trump supporter. This is true if you build an account about social justice, white supremacy, sales, or art.
You don’t have to be public—two of the most authentic accounts I follow are anonymous. But you absolutely have to live the life you build your twitter theme around.
You can’t have an account about healthy eating if you’re a fat ass. You’d have more success with fat acceptance account. I’m not a fat acceptance guy but there are some huge (pun intended, slightly) accounts with that theme.
Whatever your theme is, you have to live it. Even if you’re anonymous, your tweets will show authenticity. Authenticity is attractive and powerful because, by definition, it is impossible to fake.
Always add value
Many fresh accounts make this mistake. They read a tweet or an article that they really like. I know they really like it because they retweet it. The end. This level of effort is unacceptable.
Anyone can retweet what they see. To inspire engagement, you need to add value to the things you retweet. I like to quote an important line or give a glowing recommendation when I retweet.
Some tweets stand alone and simply require a retweet. I regularly quotes the best line from the article before I share it. It works wonders for the article exposure. I’m always trying to help.
Make your bio great
I almost wrote “Good bio”, but this article is about growing your twitter following. A “good bio” is the twitter equivalent of a “nice guy.” No one likes a nice guy.
A “great bio” mentions extraordinary things about yourself. A great bio shows what makes you stand out. Get creative, keep it within the theme, and be exceptional. Be honest and authentic.
Your bio is great if you think it’d be a great tagline for a resume or a dating profile.
Become a better writer
Twitter is a platform that rewards writing skill. The only way to improve a skill is practice. There’s a reason why so many big accounts have blogs.
It’s not because blogging gives you great content to share. That helps, but the real benefit is that it forces you to exercise your writing muscle.
As long as you are getting better, your ability to put a message in 140 characters will improve. If you tweet high quality messages,more people will follow you.
Choose your battles wisely
Trolls can be an excellent source of followers. You won’t pick off many of their followers. However, your followers will see you battle on an issue they resonate with.
This is the benefit of trolls. Trolls make your followers more engaged. Engaged followers recruit more followers.
The bad part of trolls is that they force polarization. A polarized account isn’t a bad thing, but it will niche you down. My theme of self-improvement and self-sufficiency is great, but when I get into political spats I will divide.
Some people will agree with with my views on #blacklivesmatter or Donald Trump. Some won’t and will unfollow me. Generally speaking, polarization is a good thing.
Here my formula for engaging trolls. Less than 500 followers, I don’t even bother to respond. Less than 1000, I respond to the troll but won’t retweet. If they have more followers than this, I fully engage.
Well-chosen battles can net you quite a bit of followers. Poorly chosen battles will lose you quite a few. This is how to use social media instead of letting social media use you.
Be patient. Do the work.
When I started building my twitter following, I tried to pay someone to handle it for me. I didn’t pay him a high sum. I got a little over 1000 followers but I also ended up following 1200 people.
Many of these people were “follow back” accounts. That’s because he put my account on an automatic follower programs that randomly follows people. The hope is that some follow back.
After 2 weeks of my phone buzzing with notifications, I unfollowed all of those nonsense accounts, fired the guy, and started doing the work.
Realize this: unless you are a celebrity, building a following takes time. It takes effort. It’s like growing a garden. Each tweet is a seed with the potential to bear the delicious fruit known as a “follower”. You can’t rush the process.
Have something to say
You must have something worth saying. It doesn’t have to focus on how to be a better person. It could be about traveling, racism or cooking. No matter what, you need to add something worthwhile to the discussion.
Offer a unique perspective—whether through substance or style—on the theme you select. You can have a big account as a hater, but you need to be a unique brand of hater. Otherwise, you’re just a rip off. No one likes a copycat because copycats lack authenticity and they haven’t done the work.
If you follow these 9 rules, you will build a great following.
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