“How many people follow you on Twitter?”
Do you think it’s just a plain metric or a harmless question? No, it can be on the mind of your clients, prospects and people who follow you on other social media platforms.
In fact, the number of your Twitter followers is often considered synonymous with your prestige online.
A high number of followers, reflects how influential you are in your industry. Your leads and prospects may also be interested in it.
Twitter is the go-to network for most of the people and brands to engage with customers and offer customer support.
How to Get More Twitter Traffic (Fast) – Viral Marketing Techniques
Here is a curated list of 105 valuable tips to increase engagement and number of followers on this important social media platform.
1) The key to social engagement on Twitter is networking. This also means rubbing shoulders with the industry leaders and to follow them. If you need more engagement you should not only network with the industry leaders but also interact with them and share their tweets. It will give your Twitter account a popularity boost.
2) Interacting with the industry leaders and influencers is the key to success as far as social engagement is concerned. When you follow an influencer, they are likely to follow you back. And if you are constantly in touch and already retweeting their tweets, they might as well retweet you to their followers. It will immensely help you grow your followers.
3) Be careful while following others and choose the people who are in the same business as yours. You can also follow Twitter’s “Who To Follow List”. Twitter flashes this list based on your activities and people you follow.
4) If someone follows you, don’t forget to follow them. It will boost their self-esteem and make them feel special and this in turn get you even more followers. However, since there is a restriction on Twitter on following new people if you don’t maintain a standard ratio between your followers and people you follow, you can choose to ignore spammy profiles and unrelated businesses.
5) Twitter is huge and many people on Twitter feel disengaged because it’s full of noise and everybody is busy promoting themselves. In this scenario, you can interact with your followers using @mentions. This way they are likely to remember you and your brand.
6) Twitter is a powerful search engine. You can use the Twitter search option to look for people with the same interest. Reaching out to such people and engaging with the content they are producing can increase your own traffic in multiple ways.
7) Everybody on Twitter has some business objectives and they must be seeking your attention. So, as soon as an influencer tweets, reply to it and provide your honest feedback. If you do it frequently, they are likely to notice you and follow you back.
8) Another way to delight your followers is to retweet your followers’ posts. It is a kind act that makes your followers feel special and cared for. You are a part of social media so you should occasionally do it.
9) Dry language and statements may put your followers off. Instead you can resort to telling stories. It is a better way to communicate and interact with your readers and audiences. Use generic language, so as to sound more engaging as compared to others.
10) Every social media platform follows certain etiquette. For example, if someone retweets your posts, don’t forget to thank them or acknowledge it. It will have a positive impact on your relationships and they are likely to engage with you in their future posts.
11) Don’t ignore your local community. As an active participant on Twitter, engage in relevant discussions with these communities. Follow the businesses that are relevant to you and interact with them.
12) As a part of marketing on Twitter, you shouldn’t ignore the big influencers. If you reach out to them, and frequently retweet their posts and engage with them by answering their tweets, you would likely capture their attention.
13) Go to your LinkedIn account and start following your LinkedIn connections on Twitter as well. It will also help increase your followers.
Now let’s discuss the aggressive promotion strategies that always work.
14) In order to take your Twitter account to more eyeballs, you can cross promote it on different social media sites. It will grab the attention of the audiences there and in turn attract even more followers to your account.
15) It is a good idea to use websites and blogs to promote your tweets. The website visitors are likely to notice and follow your Twitter account in case they like your tweets.
16) Another way to promote your Twitter account on a website is to embed your live Twitter feed on it.
17) Make sure that you have a Twitter “follow” button on your blog or website. Apart from that you can also add “tweet this” button to your blogs.
18) Embed your best tweets on your blog. If your target audience finds your best tweets with the embed code, they are likely to share it and engage with your Twitter account.
19) Another way to promote your Twitter account is to add your Twitter handle in your email signature. This is also a good way to communicate your Twitter handle to the people you are interacting with.
20) Use Twitter directories which people and businesses can access free of cost. These directories are an easy route to search and follow various Twitter accounts. “Wefollow” is such a directory, which you can use.
21) Logically, you should promote your Twitter account on all the marketing platforms available to you. You shouldn’t discriminate between the online platforms and off-line platforms and use them to promote your Twitter handle.
Various marketing collateral such as brochures and business cards can be used to @mention your Twitter handle.
22) Always have a follow button on your blog on website. It will help your followers access that particular tweet you have added to your blog.
23) Another place to @mention your Twitter account is your author bio, which is @mentioned below your guest posts published on third-party websites. Just include a link (“@YourTwitterID”) and that’s enough.
24) Sometimes better tweets sink in the debris of not so important tweets. In order to fix that, keep your best tweets to the top of your stream as a standard practice. This makes your visitors more likely to follow your Twitter account.
25) You can lure your email subscribers to follow your Twitter account by inspiring them through special invitation emails. Tell them about the topics and interesting discussions going on your account that can help them expand and grow their audiences.
26) Generosity and kindness is extremely powerful. Take a break from self-promotion and try to help others occasionally putting their needs ahead of yours. Such a gesture of kindness is likely to grow your followers exponentially.
27) You can @mention your Twitter profile in your other social media profiles such as Instagram, LinkedIn and Facebook. It will help you expose and promote your Twitter profile with the audiences of other social platforms.
28) Another way to attract audiences to your Twitter account is to keep track of your most popular tweets. Identify these tweets and do repeat posting at predefined intervals of time. It will boost engagement on your account.
29) Running contests is also a good idea to increase engagement on your Twitter account. These contests can be in different formats ranging from video contests to live chat contests and even essay contests.
30) You should be active on Twitter all through the year and keep on trying different engagement techniques on a regular basis. If there are fresh contests and activities on your account, your followers will develop a habit to check back your account at regular intervals and keep on sharing your tweets from time to time.
31) Announce rewards for your followers, who are regularly participating in your contests and discussions. Find different ways to reward your audiences such as giveaways, prizes, free trips, access to premium content etc.
32) You can choose festivals and events to declare prizes and contests to the masses and create buzz around it for better participation, interactions and @mentions.
33) Keep on checking the accessibility of your blog’s social sharing. Social sharing buttons are a great way to attract traffic to your blog via social media platforms. It also promotes followership of your Twitter account.
34) When you are on Twitter, you can promote the same post at different time intervals throughout the day.
In view of the enormous content being produced on social media channels, your tweets are likely to sink in the debris of the feed in case you post them only once.
You can use automation and social chatting tools such as Buffer, HootSuite and Co-Schedule etc. for that purpose.
35) Your webmaster may also add a Twitter widget on the homepage of your website. It will display the recent tweets on your Twitter account.
36) Apart from contests, you can also run Twitter polls. It is more engaging than normal posts. You can ask interesting and informative questions that may engage your audiences. Polls can also be used to get the feedback of your followers.
37) You can also use Twitter ads. Twitter ads will promote your tweets and increase your outreach to a bigger chunk of audiences.
38) It is important to make sure that you regularly and frequently tweet on Twitter. Because the attention span on this platform is quite short, a few tweets are not enough for engagement.
39) There is no prescribed time interval required for tweeting, however as a standard practice, you should tweet every three hours in a day.
40) Weekends are considered more beneficial for tweets. On weekdays, people are generally busy with their normal routine tasks and that is the reason brands get more engagement on the weekends, when people are comparatively free.
41) Consistency is another prerequisite for engagement as the Twitter algorithms focus on the accounts that tweet consistently and frequently. This way you get more visibility on Twitter feed.
42) If it is difficult for you to manually tweet so frequently, you can use a social media scheduling tool such as Buffer, HootSuite or CoSchedule. You can also useTwittimer.
43) It is a good idea to create and schedule calendar for the entire month and schedule your tweets using a scheduling tool.
44) If you are struggling with new content ideas, you can try different tools such as Blog Topic Generator, Canva, Creately, News sites, or Hemingway App, etc.
45) The afternoon hours especially 1 PM to 3 PM is considered the best time to tweet. However, it depends on your audience type to choose the right time to tweet.
46) It’s a good idea to tweet frequently but if a flood of posts is published at any given point of time, your audiences may not like it at all. Spamming is considered bad on Twitter and a big reason why people unfollow is because of streams of tweets they receive at short intervals of time.
47) As far as weekdays are concerned the best time to tweet is 5 PM to 6 PM. However the Twitter analytics can provide you a better and more suitable time for tweeting.
48) It is also helpful to use relevant hashtags in your tweets as they get more engagement. There are many people who search Twitter using hashtags and you might attract that traffic if you are using it.
49) It is important to remember that you shouldn’t use more than three hashtags on Twitter, at a time. Unlike other social media platforms such as Instagram, people don’t like many hashtags on Twitter. In that case it resembles a spamming account.
50) Trending hashtags are most fruitful. Look for different hashtags related to your business and start answering the tweets.
51) You can also retweet others if they are using the same hashtag. This way you will attract even more followers.
52) Using campaign specific hashtags is also a good way to attract traffic. When you use business specific hashtags or campaign specific hashtags, you ultimately create your own tweet community for better engagement.
For example, you can use the hashtag #SEOWEBChat, if you’re into the business of SEO and digital marketing.
It is a generic term and you can invite anyone with this hashtag to share their expertise around SEO. This is an excellent strategy to weave your own community on Twitter.
53) You can reach a large audience using generic hashtags. For example, if you use #SEO or #contentmarketing, you can extend your reach to millions of followers on Twitter interested in these topics.
54) It is also a good idea to search and follow people or accounts that use the same hashtags you use for your business. For example, if you are looking for people interested in artificial intelligence, you can perform a search with #AI. It will also return the accounts that have “AI” in their names or content.
55) As far as hashtags are concerned, you should try different hashtags. With these iterations, you will get enough data about hashtags. This will improve your overall posting strategy on Twitter.
56) Twitter chats are a great way to increase engagement and are quite popular with the masses. So the next time, try Twitter chats to promote your Twitter handle.
57) Twitter chat connects you with many people, who can follow you back. So when someone replies to your questions, follow them. You can in return get many followers.
58) To support your Twitter chat, create a summary or recap blog on your website and provide the details about that particular chat. Provide answers with the screenshots to your blog. While doing this, embed the tweets so the visitors can access that specific tweet easily.
59) Use your Twitter chat like a webinar. So make a list of questions or topics to be discussed in your chat and circulate it prior to the event. This is the best way to create a buzz and also to help people prepare some informative answers to these questions.
60) To promote the event, you can send reminder tweets about your chat event to your audiences on Twitter. You can also cross promote the event on other platforms like Facebook and Instagram.
61) These days, Twitter chat can be used in multiple ways. Apart from providing an opportunity to engage with your followers, it also can be used to encourage your followers and boost their morale. When they feel encouraged and empowered, the engage with your account with even higher intensity.
62) Ask your team members or the people who were taking care of your Twitter handle, to @mention at least a few new people every day on Twitter. This would dramatically increase the number of your Twitter followers.
63) @mention is a powerful feature which can be used to enhance your followership on Twitter if used judiciously and carefully. People love being @mentioned by their names. So in case you are replying to or interacting with other persons on this platform, try to @mention them by the name.
64) When you respond in public and share your personal experience and expertise, it eventually draws even more followers to you. Have you heard of Gary Vaynerchuk answering people’s queries in public?
He uses this technique frequently on his social platforms. And in case if you @mention the name of the person, who asked the question, it will create even more impact.
65) Also make it a practice to @mention influencers in your tweets and also in your conversations. It can draw their attention and make them retweet your tweets to your own audiences. It is a great way to increase the number of your followers.
66) If somebody @mentions you, ask them to share their own views about your post. It will not only increase the trust factor around your post, but also attract other users.
67) If somebody @mentions you, your brand or business, don’t forget to tweet about them. It is not only a part of Twitter etiquette but it is also a good tactical step to attract other users to your account.
68) At times, you have to use someone’s name in your posts. Try to convert it into a @mention. This way that person would also be able to see the post along with their followers.
69) It is also important to be active and attentive on Twitter and quickly respond to others whenever they tweet or answer your post or even @mention you. Don’t forget to @mention them in case they @mention you. It shows that you and your brand are caring and taking their feedback seriously.
70) It is extremely important on Twitter not to be silent. Participate in the conversations. Reply when someone tweets. If you feel that someone has posted an interesting tweet, add your views and compliment it. These are the smart ways to get noticed by others and get more followers.
71) Your Twitter bio is extremely important in order to attract new followers. People decide whether to follow your account or not just by having a look at your bio. So, while writing your bio, be specific and clearly @mention what your business is all about.
72) Adding keywords is also a good idea to write a search friendly bio on Twitter. However, make sure that the keywords used are natural and relevant. You shouldn’t stuff the keywords in order to make your bio search friendly. It can put off common users.
73) Try not to use your brand’s logo unless it’s extremely important. If you’re not a big brand, better use a headshot of the owner of the business. For smaller brands, it’s important to have a face. The brand comes afterwards.
74) It is a good idea to create an “About Us” page on your blog or website and link it to your Twitter handle. This is a good step because Twitter bio is limited to only 280 characters and it’s not possible to explain your business in such a small space.
75) If you want your Twitter account to attract more followers, don’t forget to add location to it. It’s important to disclose your location to help people find you. It establishes the credibility of your account.
76) The header image or the large picture used on top of your account should be properly designed and should relate with your brand.
77) Your Twitter profile should be complete before you make it live. Incomplete profiles look unprofessional and may even prevent the people from following you.
78) Informative posts are a norm on Twitter. In fact, there is 80:20 ratio between the informative posts about your line of business and posts related to your own brand. So, avoid self-promotional posts as much as you can.
79) Quotes are yet another tactic to attract people on Twitter. In fact, there is a crowd out there, which is hungry for knowledge and motivation amid their struggle for survival as humans and as businesses. So, quotes naturally get a lot of retweets.
According to a survey by famous motivational speaker Stephen R. Covey, inspirational and motivational quotes are great crowd pullers.
80) Originality breeds its own rewards. If you are just retweeting the tweets of others or sharing what others are already sharing, your tweets will not attract many people.
So, try to be original and share what you have experienced yourself or something that you think can help common folks. It will naturally attract followers. Don’t be a copycat.
81) If you are retweeting, add your own comments – something that’s valuable to your audiences. Otherwise, it will just sound like noise. Tell your followers how your retweet is relevant to their needs. Make sure that your followers feel cared for and not spammed or abused.
82) Since we are living in an age where visual media is liked and preferred more than plain text media, it’s recommended to add visual media i.e. images and videos to add weight to your tweets.
Several studies suggest that tweets with images are more impactful in terms of engagement as compared to plain text based tweets. On Twitter alone, more than 35% of the links shared have an attached image. It will add to engagement and inspire people to retweet and share. The visual appeal of your posts is likely to increase the number of followers.
83) Adding questions to your retweets is a good way to engage and add followers.
84) Similarly, you can also ask a question in your Tweet. It’s more impactful than a plain Tweet. So, if you have a simple message that you want to tweet, convert it into a question.
85) Sharing news is also a good way to engage and add followers. However, the news should be relevant to your niche and audiences.
86) Some words get more retweets than others and these words are “Twitter”, “retweet”, “buzz”, “revolutionary”, & “please”, “tips”, “tricks”, “hacks” etc. So, make use of them in your tweets.
87) Video content is getting popular across all the social platforms and Twitter is not an exception. So, post both short and long videos to add engagement.
88) Try creating your own video clips as most of the trainers and gurus do. Try live streaming to capture the attention of your audiences.
89) If your tweets are under 280 characters, the users can easily @mention someone else while sharing it. So, make sure that it’s within that limit.
90) Again it’s a proven fact that “call to action” works. Ask your audiences to “retweet” and they will do it. According to a survey, it leads to a retweet rate that is 23 times more than the tweets without a CTA.
91) The trick to succeed on Twitter is to be creative within the 280 characters limit. It can be a challenge, but here lies the success. Master this art to be creative and appealing within that limit.
92) Pick a catchy sentence or quote from your post while tweeting it. If it’s a headline, it should be able to capture the attention of your followers. Go one step further and add an element of curiosity to add value and to inspire people to retweet it.
93) Adding GIFs, memes and stickers is also a good idea to boost your tweets. Such tweets perform better on social media.
94) Like WhatsApp and Snapchat, use gifs and stickers to say thanks or while replying to a @mention.
95) Add a general call to action. For example, you can add a CTA at the end of your “tips” post like this—“Try these suggestions and let us know how it improved your results”.
96) Decrease complexity. Remove jargon. Keep your tweets, short, sweet and simple to understand.
97) Content can be endless. Discover new contexts and ways to present valuable content in your tweets. You can curate content from across the web that can resonate with your audiences. They are likely to share it. It can be breakthrough ideas, a quantum leap, a new practice, and a case study to focus on. It can also be a list that saves time, things that can help you and brand stories that inspire you.
98) Make sure that the information you share is reliable. @mention the sources that people trust. Your discussions and solutions should be reliable.
99) Make sure the tips you provide are practical and proven. For that, you can include the views of the experts and cite reliable sources. Provide some stats or case study to support your tips.
100) Again the best way to succeed on Twitter is to keep on experimenting. Try a new idea, a quote or a headline and see its results and response. Audit your tweets and make improvements accordingly.
101) Post your wishes to major influencers on their birthdays, anniversaries and important events. It can also be a product launch or milestone achieved etc. Congratulate them on an important achievement.
102) Ask for help. If you think you are struggling with an issue. Never hesitate to ask for help. Social is full of angels and helpful souls. But, do it in a manner that your authority or brand image is not compromised.
103) Be human. Be empathetic. Cut the crap and start meaningful conversations and be helpful to your audiences.
104) Always act in time. Late responses are as bad as being non-responsive.
105) Be patient. Don’t expect people to follow you in just one or two interactions. It takes time before people start trusting you.
Final thoughts
Growing your followers on Twitter doesn’t happen by accident. You need to implement a strategy for that.
It’s important to follow these tips and stick with it. These tips are curated from trusted sources from across the web. If you want to add some of your own, please mention those in the comments below.
