Staying connected with an audience has always been important, but Twitter makes it easier than ever. The platform offers individuals, organizations and brands a direct way to share their work, build relationships and develop influence.
Let’s be honest: The more positive influence you have, the more likely people are to support what you do.
Here are five things you should do and five things you should avoid while building a Twitter following.
Five Ways to Build a Better Twitter Following
1. Promote Your Twitter Account
Make sure people know you are on Twitter. Include your account on your website, email signature, newsletter, business cards, videos, printed materials and other social networks.
In other words, put it everywhere.
2. Be Personal
Having an administrator share content through your social media accounts is fine from time to time, but it should never replace your own voice.
Social media needs to be both media and social.
Be yourself. Let people see your personality. Share things you love, interesting articles, videos, projects and opinions. People enjoy feeling connected to your tastes, especially when they share them.
And when they do not, hopefully the rest of your work will make up for it.
3. Engage With People
Twitter is useful for sharing updates, but do not turn your account into a news ticker. Posting more frequently is not enough to build a meaningful following.
Interact with people. Answer questions, acknowledge thoughtful responses and thank people for their support. It makes followers feel appreciated and reflects well on you.
Engage with other people and organizations, too, including those you know and those you would like to know.
4. Favorite Tweets
Favoriting someone’s tweet is the digital equivalent of a high five. It also lets the person know you saw what they posted.
A personal reply is even better because you want to appear human rather than robotic. Still, favoriting a tweet is quick, easy and far better than ignoring someone altogether.
5. Give Things Away
None of us is likely to replace Oprah Winfrey, but giving away something valuable is a reliable way to get people excited.
You might reward the first person to reply, offer a prize after reaching a certain number of retweets or create another simple call to action. Giveaways provide an incentive for people to follow and engage with your account.
Five Twitter Mistakes to Avoid
1. Don’t Use Bots
Following thousands of people when no one could realistically keep up with all of their posts communicates one thing: “I’m not serious about this. I just want to inflate my numbers.”
It is a bad look.
Follow people you actually know, genuinely want to hear from or sincerely hope to engage. Stay away from bots and other automated methods designed to manipulate your statistics.
2. Don’t Spam People
Seriously, nobody likes spam.
You already know this because you hate opening your inbox or timeline and finding unwanted messages. Why do the same thing to someone else?
Even kindergartners understand this principle. They call it the Golden Rule, which is what Jesus taught in Matthew 7:12, though it has been repackaged to make it more palatable for public schools.
3. Don’t Be Narcissistic
We are all guilty of this, especially me. See what I did there?
Share content your audience will enjoy, but do not make every post about yourself. Do not take yourself too seriously, either.
A helpful rule is to share what you find interesting rather than providing constant updates about what you are doing. Your followers probably do not need to know every time you go to the gym, head to bed or choose an outfit.
4. Don’t Buy Followers
Buying followers is cheating, and it communicates more about you than successfully following any of these other tips can repair.
Engagement is one of the most useful ways to measure social media success. Someone may claim 800,000 followers but average two favorites and one retweet.
Something smells phishy.
5. Don’t Be Argumentative or Negative
Taking a dump on your Twitter followers might feel satisfying for half a second, but you will probably regret it immediately.
What you post online can last forever. Twitter is not a good place to air dirty laundry, spread negativity or attack people with cutting words.
That behavior creates confusion and conflict and, unsurprisingly, produces unfollowers.
Building a valuable Twitter following is not simply about increasing a number. It is about developing real connections with people who care about your work. Be visible, be generous, be human and give followers a reason to stay connected.