How to Grow a Targetted
Following on
Twitter
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When I first started using Twitter,
I made a big – yet common – mistake. I
followed only people who followed me. This
resulted in a stream full of spam and total
silence whenever I posed a question or
shared a link.
When I reached about 1,000 followers, I
decided to take a proactive approach to
Twitter. I began to seek and follow people
in my industry – people who care about the
same topics I care about. Once this
happened, I generated some great
opportunities through the social networking
platform.
Below are five ways you can develop a
targeted following on Twitter:
- Don’t overlook your
contacts – You can start
building a targeted following by
encouraging your contacts to engage with
you on Twitter. Include a link to your
Twitter account in your email signature, on
your website, on your blog and in all your
other social media accounts.
- Conduct a
search – As Twitter grows,
it’s becoming easier to find people who are
tweeting about your hot topics. You can use
the Twitter search function, Twitter
directories or a third-party application
such as TweetAdder to search for people to
follow. Before you follow someone, just be
sure to check the date of the person’s last
tweet. Since 73% of Twitter’s users are
inactive, you want to make sure you follow
active users.
- Use hashtags –
Many people think hashtags are just for
promoting events. However, you should add
them to as many of your tweets as possible.
People search for hashtags related to their
industries and will follow you if you’re
using their favourite hashtags.
- Engage in
conversations – The most
important thing you should do on Twitter is
engage in one-on-one conversations every
day. You can reply to someone’s tweet,
answer a question or give someone
information they might find valuable. Doing
this helps you build relationships and
establishes you as an expert in your
industry.
- Weed out
spammers – As your following
grows, you’ll find that spammers will
manage to sneak past you. I recently cut
over 10% of my followers using TwitSweeper,
a service that checks your account for
spammers and gives you the option to block
them. Weeding out spammers clears junk from
your stream and provides you with much more
relevant content – you won’t have to read
tweets about teeth-whitening products!
If you use these tactics, you’ll discover
you don’t need a large following to grow an
active and engaged community. I recently helped
a nonprofit organization build a presence on
Twitter and was careful to follow only people
who discussed their cause. Although the
organization’s new account had fewer than 200
followers, their following was very active. The
organization got responses to almost all their
tweets, and they reached their initial goal of
engaging people in conversation around their
cause on Twitter.
This article was originally published on
The Social CMO at http://www.thesocialcmo.com/blog/2010/04/how-to-grow-a-targeted-following-on-twitter/
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