Gaining Followers on Twitter

By Dan Birlew | Posted January 23, 2009 in Tech | 3 Comments »

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging website brought to you by the people who developed Blogger. Twitter asks the simple question, “What are you doing?” You can respond with a 140-character post, including links. Posts can be input via the Twitter website, or texted from your Blackberry or cellphone. Everyone who follows you will see your post. And you can see the posts of everyone you follow. It’s like Facebook status updates, but much simpler.

Twitter features some great apps and widgets. Updates can appear on your blog or Facebook page, so that everyone who visits your site can see that you are active on Twitter. There are several outside websites that make use of Twitter’s API stream, allowing users to auto-follow and auto-message new followers, and Twitter even includes its own keyword search engine. Groups can form by using hash tags in their posts, such as #politics or #tech.

I’ve been posting and interacting with some great folks on Twitter for more than six months now. This week, I gratefully surpassed the 1000 followers mark. I’m getting a lot of congrats from other Twitterers, and also a lot of questions regarding how I got so many people to care what I say on Twitter. After all, there are now more than 3 million Twitter accounts, so standing out can be tough.

Here’s some simple steps to get you going:

1. Sign-up for a Twitter account. Choose a username is that somewhat memorable or funny. Avoid a username that makes you sound like a spammer, such as “LVRealEstate1″ or “YourBestPornLinks”. The idea is to sound like an interesting person.
2. Fill out your profile. Give your general location and a link to your home page, if applicable. Write an accurate bio. Everyone and their dog is currently claiming to be a “Social Media Expert”. What the heck is that? If you have ever received an e-mail from a friend, then you are a social media expert. Avoid using this term. Also avoid claiming to be an “Entrepreneur,” an “SEO Expert,” or a “Marketing Guru.” Change all of these to more accurate terms, such as “Mashable CEO,” “Webmaster,” or “Freelance Copywriter.” The fact is, I don’t care if you’re a fry cook at Burger King, people will follow you as long as you’re honest. Or maybe you’re not about the job. Then you must be clever, and set your bio as something like “An unapologetic otaku, gamergirl, and generally geeky chic.” Failure to fill out your bio completely makes you look like you’re hiding something.
3. Add a picture, to be used as your icon for all your posts. A recent photo is best, since it reassures others that you’re a real person and helps distinguish you from company feeds like @SegaAmerica and @Capcom_Unity, which use logos. Choose or upload a distinctive background for your page.
4. Post something interesting. Think of the Seinfeld comedy formula: “What did you do today? That’s a show!” If you had coffee with breakfast, that’s not necessarily interesting. But if you burned yourself while drinking it, people will want to know: “Burned my upper lip. Might be time to switch to ice coffee.” See? Already, you’re more interesting.
5. Start following other users with similar interests. Click the “Search” link at the bottom of your twitter page, or type http://search.twitter.com in your browser. Enter keywords for things you tweet about, such as “coffee.” (You might start by following @Starbucks or @Peets_Tweets if coffee is your thing.)
6. Follow the conversation. Click on the “Settings” link at the top of your Twitter home page and click on the “Notices” tab. Change the @ Replies setting to Show me [all @ replies].  That way, you can see who the people you follow are talking to, and follow those people as well. Some of those people will see that you have similar interests, and follow you back. Follow new people daily, and your own followers list will grow.
7. Add something of interest to the conversation. Respond to the tweets of the people you follow by typing @username at the beginning of your post. Note that there’s also a reply icon on the right side of every tweet in your home view. Click it to put that person’s username with an @ at the begining of your post.

And you’re off. The general rule of thumb is be yourself. But be a polite, likable version of yourself. Limit your swear words and avoid linking to porn sites, and you’re less likely to get your account deactivated. Also note that Twitter limits the number of new people you can follow, but whether that limit is per day or per hour is a closely-guarded secret. Try to follow 100-200 new people every day, and your own list of followers will flourish. Follow too many per hour or per day, and Twitter will deactivate your account on the basis of “suspicious activity.”

Links can be copy-pasted to the end of your post, and Twitter automatically shortens them through tinyurl.com. If you can’t fit your link into your post due to the character limit, go to TinyUrl and shorten it manually. Use links wisely. Link to funny videos you like, sites that have valuable info you find interesting, etc. Avoid linking people to your new blog post every day, or they will begin to suspect that you’re only on Twitter to promote yourself. People want you to be a person, not an attention whore. If you prove yourself to be interesting enough through your posts, then people will naturally gravitate to your blog to see what else you have to offer. Besides, correctly promoting a blog has more to do with SEO and search-engine friendliness, which is a whole other bag of work you should do separately. Learn from my mistakes: I linked to my blog posts for a while, and lost followers. A better approach is to post “Whew! Finally updated my blog. Let that go for too long.” without a link. People will message you for a link if they’re interested.

Remember that you’re publishing. People are going to read what you post. Don’t post things that should remain private, such as “I’m taking a big crap on the toilet right now,” “John Smith just screwed me over on a big business deal, I’m going to sue!” or “My job sucks.”

The most important approach to Twitter is to be yourself. Even if you’re Twittering for a company, you must present yourself as a person who is accessible to other people. That’s what social media is all about. People want to feel safe to be themselves without being spammed to death by smarmy self-promotionists.

One very annoying approach that I’m currently encountering on Twitter is people who use outside websites to auto-follow and auto-message their new followers. Shortly thereafter, this person usually stops following you. I’ve started blocking such people, and I recommend you do it too. Otherwise, they’ll keep following you and un-following you, like Twitter is some kind of game they’re playing. Do not follow this practice. Be a real person that I might want to talk to!

There are some people that you’ll want to follow on Twitter even if they don’t follow you back. Examples include tech-gurus like @guykawasaki, @scobleizer, (actually, both of these great guys will follow you back, when they get around to it) or game companies like @infinity_ward. Or authors like @neilhimself and actors like @greggrunberg.  The reason is to get their updates, which may pertain to topics that concern you. Also, you have quick access to their extensive followers, which is basically a list of Twitter users with the same interests as yourself.

My username is @dudieboy. My wife’s is @lollieshopping (and she’s even better at Twitter than I am). We would both welcome you as followers on Twitter. See you there!

Tags: account, followers, sign-up, Twitter