Thought I would scribble down a post about Twitter before I sign off for the night. I recently had a student and fellow tweeter send me a message asking me how I gained so many followers (which, let’s be honest, is nothing compared to others, but I’m perfectly okay with that). He’s looking to increase his Twitter influence, and I wanted him to know that influence doesn’t always mean that you have a high follower count.
So I want to share a few things I’ve personally learned since my Twitter start. Take what you will:
1. Engagement is key. Work hard to engage who you’re talking to on Twitter. After all, we’re using it to communicate with each other. Engagement means participating in ongoing conversations, tweeting to people using @username, and using hashtags (the #topic). These are just a few things you can do the next time you sign on.
2. Seek people out. Looking to find people with your same interests? Search under “Find People” on Twitter, or visit WeFollow.com for a comprehensive list of every interest you can think of, and add yourself under that interest. You don’t have to stay in this interest when you’re tweeting, but you’ll be more likely to tweet about things you’re interested in than not, right? The same goes for companies and brands looking for consumers. People are less likely to find you if you’re just starting out on Twitter – you’ll have less tweets and less followers. Go out and make it happen.
3. Don’t “blind tweet”. I just coined this term right now, but it seems to coincide with what I want to say. Don’t retweet (or repeat what other people are saying on Twitter) without genuinely being interested. My personal guideline for my Twitter is if I don’t find it worthy of bringing up around friends or family, then I don’t retweet it. Twitter followers want to see your personality and interests, not someone that is recycling everyone else’s tweets.
This is just a tiny beginner’s guide, but I’ll make sure to include more posts about Twitter in the future. So stay tuned!
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This is great, Sam. Number one is critical. Without engaging, followers most likely won’t stick around for long, unless what the person is tweeting is that influential.
The third one is important as well. We all have a reputation, as well as a brand to build, so we all need to be careful that what we tweet and retweet has meaning to us.
Hey Rich,
Appreciate your comment. Definitely think there’s got to be a mix between retweeting, personal tweets, and responses to other tweeters. I think for some people it can be overwhelming, but one you get the hang of it, it’s a no brainer.
Thanks once again!
Excellent post Sam!
I agree with your points, and its more or less the same way I built my Twitter following. However, what ive come to learn is: people seem to be building their twitter community in different ways, it all depends on what audience your trying to target and what your goals of using the service happens to be. I know of some users that only use it to subscribe to their favourite sites rss feed through the twitter interface, but there are others like ourselves, who try to mix it up a bit and connect with others.
In conclusion, I don’t think there is a certain way to gain influence other than being yourself and trying to use it in the way you think your community or audience is using it. I’m starting to get a bit bored of those users who just retweet constantly, don’t get me wrong its useful but should maybe try adding and sharing content they have came across themselves.
Keep up the great work Sam
Hey Craig,
Thanks for stopping by my blog, always great to gather some expert insights!
I am with you there when you talk about how everyone’s intentions are different. I think from my experience, I’ve gained so much value by actually connecting with people. Sometimes I’m surprised to see people use Twitter other ways than that, but if it’s to their benefit, then I guess why not?
Also mass RT’ing is probably my biggest pet peeve on Twitter, so I definitely agree with you. If you’re a brand, to gain attention and influence you must interact with your consumer. There’s no other way around it. If it’s your personal account, you might be able to get away with it more – but who wants to follow someone who is only retweeting?
Appreciate your comment, and hope to hear more of your input in the future!
I believe that growing a high quality Twitter following is about balancing three things: putting out valuable information in your niche, interacting with others, and adding a sprinkle of your own personality. Adding personality makes your Twitter REAL, people do business with people not with brands, right? Also, CARE about your conversations! It’s so obvious if you are just tweeting because you heard you were supposed to, or if you have an auto-tweeter putting out links- ew!
If I’m looking to talk to people about a specific topic, I rely on search.twitter.com to start conversing and following.
Lastly, ALWAYS give more than you receive on Twitter. Make sure 9 out of 10 of your Tweets aren’t promoting your blog posts, new products/services, or needs.
Damn Samantha, I look at your comments and it’s like a who’s who of hot bloggers. Way to keep the comments blogroll elite (except for me, FIWK is maybe not quite there yet). But whatever Rich says take it with a grain of salt… haha jk, just causing trouble =P
Totally agree that Twitter is basically all about engagement. I also absolutely LOVE when it’s used to throw up links to interesting reads – whether it’s to a blog you wrote yourself, or something else that’s really interesting out there. To me it’s the best sharing tool we have right now.
Ultimately I don’t find Twitter to be the best way to have a full-on conversation, but it’s good to initiate contact and find people for sure.
Samantha,
I would also add the following
Search: Use the search function in Twitter to find out what people are saying right now about your niche our product and respond to them.
That’s the best thing about twitter. It’s a real time search engine. You can immediately respond to what people are saying about your product or market niche.
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