By Andrés Uribe, Expedition PR
If a Tweet is published from an account with no followers, was it ever really published? Ok, I’m kidding of course, but if you’re reading this I’m sure you know how frustrating Twitter can be when you’re just starting off and have a small following. The fact of the matter is that #Winning like Charlie Sheen and making it to 900,000 Twitter followers in 24 hours just isn’t going to happen for the majority of us. If you’re a new company and just starting out on Twitter (or Saxophonist John Klemmer and been tweeting since 2009 on a verified account with only 166 followers to date), don’t be too down on yourself if it takes you over a month just to get to 900 followers.
While keeping in mind that there is a difference between simply getting your Twitter follower number up and having people actually interested in your product follow you; here are some techniques you can use to help put your account in front of people who will be interested in reading what you have to Tweet:
Competitors Followers – A good place to start with any new Twitter account is to look at your competitors’ Twitter accounts and follow the users who follow them. When you follow these users they will get a notification from Twitter and are usually happy to learn about a new product that is similar to something they are currently using. From here you can expand this strategy to accounts of products that your target customers might also use.
Targeted Follow Strategy – Use Twitter’s search feature to seek out people who would be interested in your brand and follow them. If you’re an East Village based lunch spot that just opened up, search for people Tweeting from the East Village around lunch time with keywords such as “hungry” or “lunch” and give them a follow. You might even gain some immediate lunch sales with this strategy.
Community Engagement, hashtags and @mentions – Use hashtags and @mentions to get in on the conversation with your target consumer group. Start by creating a profile of your ideal customer. If you already have some Twitter users in mind who fit this mold, plug their Twitter handles into Mentionmapp to get a map of things they are Tweeting about. Use this as a guide for things you should be talking about and commenting on..and make sure you use hashtags when you do this. Additionally, don’t forget to bring people into the conversation with @mentions. If you’re post mentions a person or brand, see if they have a Twitter profile and tag them before you send the Tweet. If you see something interesting that someone you followed posted, don’t just retweet it or favorite it, but send them a response with their twitter handle in it. Twitter is a great place to engage with others, and @mentions are a great way to do this.
Now since these strategies all incorporate following users who might not follow you back all the time, your following-to-follower ratio can get a little high at times. In order to keep your ratio at 1 or lower, use Tweeter Karma to easily identify those who never followed you back and unfollow them from within the app.
Follow these steps and you’ll have a solid Twitter following in no time.