Twitter Marketing – The Real Secret to Amassing Twitter Followers

Mon, Jan 11, 2010

In a previous article on Twitter marketing, I passed along a few general tips on how to gain Twitter followers. Today, I want to delve deeper into the process of gaining more twitter followers. I hope that by doing so you will understand the secret behind why so many people are able to easily amass thousands of followers and how you can use this information to increase the size of your Twitter following.

Rock on Twitter Rock Star!

The Real Secret to Twitter Rock Stardom

Marketers who sell Twitter programs that claim to increase your Twitter following emphasize the need for you to be a good Tweeter. Even in my previous articles, I talked about the dos and don’ts of being a good Twitter community member. However, through my time on Twitter I’ve come to understand that being a good tweeter is only a small part of the equation.

If you look at any top ten Twitter list, you will notice that most people on the list are famous for other things besides being a Twitter celebrity. In fact, their fame came long before they decided to join the social networking community. A good example of this is Oprah. The day she signed up for a Twitter account, she had tens of thousands of people following her and she hadn’t even written her first tweet! Those people followed her to Twitter because of her stardom and not because of anything she did on Twitter.

Now you don’t have to be a mega superstar to get the Twitter followers you want. But you do have to understand that having a popular Twitter profile is less about posting tweets at the right place and the right time and more about raising your visibility and selling yourself as someone worth following on Twitter.

The Twitter Two Step

Getting more followers on Twitter is a two part process. The first part involves getting found on Twitter. After all, people can’t subscribe to your feed if they don’t know about you. The second step entails convincing people you are awesome and that following you would bring about world peace. Okay, that’s exaggerating things a bit but you get the picture.

Tips for Getting Found on Twitter

Market your Twitter Profile – In addition to putting your Twitter profile link in as many places as you can (on your website, in your email signature, other social networking profiles), use other conventional marketing tactics to raise your visibility on Twitter. Organizing a contest or offering free premium content to Twitter subscribers are both great ways of getting people to notice you.

Hashtag Your Tweets – Hashtags are Twitter’s tagging system that aggregates all the tweets marked by a specific keyword. They are called Hashtags because of the hash mark (#) used to turn a keyword into a clickable link that pulls up other content similarly marked. Research hashtags that your target audience follows and tag your tweets with them whenever possible.

Use Keywords – People also use Twitter’s search function to find tweets on topics of interest. Research regular keywords you think people in your target audience would use to find information on Twitter and sprinkle your tweets with them.

Participate in Memes – The Twitter community has a number of hashtag memes going on at any one time with the most popular one being FollowFriday. Observing the trending topics is a fantastic way to find these memes.

Talk to People – Put your party face on and strike up a conversation with your fellow tweeters. Showing interest in others is a sure way to gain Twitter followers.

Tips for Selling Yourself to Visitors

Build a Good Brand – Your overall presence on the internet will greatly influence whether or not people follow you. So you want to work on building a strong and consistent brand in the online community as a whole.

Your Bio – Don’t leave your bio space empty. Fill it with something interesting that hooks visitors’ attention and makes them want to get to know you better. Tell them about your business and your quirky interests.

Personalize Your Profile – Use a custom background that includes a picture of you (or a representative avatar) and your contact information. Use Twitbacks to design a background that reflects your tastes and personality.

Post Quality Content – Last but not least, make sure you have quality content that people will want to follow you for.

Gaining more Twitter followers is a challenge anyone can tackle as long as you have the right moves. I have been effectively using Twitter to promote my home based business. To learn about other marketing tactics that will take your business to the next level, visit RockYourBusinessOnline.com.