Posts Tagged ‘Follower’

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging tool. It doesn’t have an identity and it doesn’t have a personality. However, there is a prevailing set of norms that govern Twitter use. They’re created by the expectations of the user base.

If you’re just getting started with Twitter, it can be tough to develop a sense of the best way to use your newfound Tweeting power. There is a dominance Twitter culture and a “way of doing things”. Getting into the flow and learning the rhythm of the site isn’t always easy.

Here’s one way around the problem: Follow a few people with big follower bases and watch them for awhile. Learn how they use Twitter and recognize the techniques they use to be a real voice in the conversation.

If you watch a few of the “big boys” doing their thing, you’ll soon figure out how you might be able to use the site effectively in order to meet your online goals.

Learning from the best isn’t a new idea. It works, though. And it works very well when applied to learning the lay of the Twitter land.

Your Twitter reach is defined, in large measure, by the number of followers you have. That means you want people to seek you out and to follow you whenever they have interests that overlap with your own.

Unfortunately, many people are unwittingly decreasing their follower counts. Here are two ways people are limiting their Twitter effectiveness.

No photo. If you don’t upload a photo, Twitter gives you that default avatar. You know who else ends up with that default avatar? Lousy spammers. Most robot accounts and spamming accounts feature that image because the folks behind them were too lazy to upload a picture. If you don’t have a picture, people will assume the worst about you.

Bad username. If your username is bad, you won’t get as many followers. There are two main instances of bad usernames that I see regularly. First, there are those with the long number sequence in the name. These are also the kind of handles that spammers end up with, so when I see one, I sort of assume that the owner is a spammer. If your handle is Bob199938, be prepared to be unpopular.

The other “bad name” is the one that makes it perfectly clear to the reader that you’re not very serious. This includes the profane usernames an silly ones like “ILuvMyKittyCats”. Get a good username.

Once you have a decent name, add a picture. These two “little things” can make a huge difference.

If you want people to see your Tweets on Twitter, you gotta have followers. Obviously, that can drive a person to commit himself or herself to building up the biggest follower base possible as quickly as possible.

One of the most popular techniques to get those followers in place is to start following others. There’s a tendency out there in Twitterland for those who’ve been followed to follow in return. That generous reciprocity can make it easy to build a follower list that will really turn heads.

That’s why following as many people as you can without setting off the “you’re probably a spammer or a bot” alarm is such a popular technique for new Twitter marketers.

There’s a problem with that strategy, though. It doesn’t work very well.

Yes, you get the followers. The problem is that you get a bunch of followers who aren’t really interested in anything you’re saying. They followed out of kindness, ignorance or because they’re not really a human being an they’re programmed to follow when followed.

When it comes time to market to that motley crew, you can guess just how effective it is. It’s like cold-calling the first set of numbers in the phone book or emailing random addresses. It’s not targeted and It doesn’t convert.

You best bet is to focus on building a truly interested and targeted social network. The results will be a lot better than what you get with the “big follow” technique.

There are different ways to get Twitter followers. You can follow everyone and their house pets yourself, hoping that enough of them will reciprocate to boost your follower total through the stratosphere.
You can make a concerted effort to promote your Twitter URL at every turn, hoping to find new followers from the population that visits your website or blog.

There is another way to do it, however. The third route, by the way, is the one that works the best.

If you Tweet quality, you’ll get followers. Good followers. The kind who want to listen to what you say and who are willing to follow your advice.

When you’re Tweeting the “good stuff”, people notice. They re-Tweet you. They recommend you. They respond to you. And every time one those things happens, more people become aware of you and the fact that you’re doing something special on Twitter.

Want to get a nice big collection of rabid followers who can actually produce results? Start bringing your “A” game to the Twittersphere. When you’re dropping great Tweets, people will find you. There’s a magnetic thing about quality that makes it happen. Every time.