Posts Tagged ‘Followers’

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.

Twitter marketing is gaining in popularity.  That makes sense.  Twitter is huge, growing and provides a fantastic way of getting in touch with a lot of people quickly and easily.

Not everyone is doing it the right way, however.  In fact, some people seem to be bending over backwards to make sure they don’t make a dime via Twitter.  Here are three of their “methods” that anyone who’s interesting in turning a buck should ignore.

The automatic “thanks for following” message with an affiliate link strategy is a complete disaster.  Those automatic direct messages are one of the most hated aspects of Twitter and only a handful of users will even bother to click on them.

The people who think that following a billion people is the best way to go because it can get them a ton of reciprocal followers just don’t get it.  The magic of Twitter is its ability to help you find a targeted audience.  The scattershot approach doesn’t pay off worth a hoot.

Pounding your followers with your links every ten minutes like clockwork?  I bet you’re not too happy with your sales, are you?   You have to understand the mindset of Twitter users and why that technique can’t get the best results.

Those are just three of the ways people are wasting time and not making money.  There are others.  If you don’t know what works and what fails, you need to learn more about Twitter.

Do you ever follow those people on Twitter who don’t have photos? I’ll be honest: Unless I know the individual associated with the profile personally, I don’t.

That’s not because I hate that little default graphic Twitter supplies (although I do). It’s mainly because experience has shown me that 99% of the accounts that don’t have a picture belong to spammers and robot accounts–not the kind of “people” I need in my social network.

So, if you don’t have a picture for your Twitter profile, I’m not following you. And I’m not alone.

You look suspicious. You don’t appear to be invested in participating. You bear a strange resemblance to a spambot. That’s not your best look.

If you don’t have a picture up yet, get one there now. If, for some reason, you don’t have a little picture of yourself, find a stock photo of a cottonwood tree on a summer day or a cute puppy or something. Just put something in that space.

Let us know that you’re a real person. Please.

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.