Twitter is all about growing your circle of influence, and yes, RELATIONSHIPS.
The better or closer your relationships are on Twitter, the more likely people are to retweet your stuff, visit your Facebook page and websites, join your lists and buy your products.
So how do you rapidly grow your Twitter following while wielding influence over your followers?
Here are 6 tips to get you thinking…
1. Be Yourself. Often folks think they’re somehow ‘not good enough as they are,’ and so pretend to be something they’re not. The problem with this, is most people can smell a phony a mile away. Don’t attempt to be Mr. I know everything or Ms. Perfect because nobody believes it and even if they did, they want to know REAL people with real lives, real challenges, and real things to say. Stay true to yourself because you are a one-of-a-kind original and just great as you are, if other’s don’t like that you, then tough!!!
2. Appreciate Your Followers. Re-tweet their best tweets (or the tweets most important to them.) Give them a #FF, which means you’re recommending others follow them. (I’ve linked to an excellent article on #FF here). Or even send them a direct message. In other words, don’t just interact – promote others and expect nothing in return. The more value you can give to others, the more they will like you, appreciate you, and want to reciprocate.
3. Connect With The Big Uns. Whatever your niche, find the influential people in your niche and engage them. Being seen with people in authority is one of the quickest ways to be seen as an authority yourself. Plus, their audience will also notice you, and you’ll soon gain followers who hold an avid interest in your particular niche. For instance I just set up a twitter feed for our local food bank and noticed our local MP was one of the first people to follow us, we’ve now got some of his followers following us 🙂
4. Engage Engage Engage. Answer everyone who engages with you, and see how many followers you can engage yourself. You never know who is going to become your next big client or customer – it could be that new guy with only 5 followers as easily as it could be the seasoned Twitter person with 50,000 or more followers.
5. Add a Heap of Pizzazz. I’ve already said you need to be yourself, and this is perhaps the best advice you’re gonna get, That said, it’s okay to take yourself up a notch. You are unique, so go ahead and amplify that uniqueness and be just a tad larger than life. Be friendlier than you are in real life, be a little bit more flamboyant, go ahead and have opinions (your REAL opinions, that is) and by all means, STICK OUT from the crowd. The last thing you want to do is be a wallflower, and the best thing is you don’t have to be on Twitter..
Even if you’re shy in real life, that’s okay. This is the Internet, and so it’s not like trying to be the life of the party in the real world – it’s more like portraying yourself in the best light, with the most fun, and the least inhibitions. There’s no better place for shy people than Twitter or social media full stop come to that. It’s a great way to meet tons of people with absolutely zero risk. After all, you don’t have to send a tweet until you’re certain it says exactly what you want it to say – so you can get it right every time.
6. Have fun. Need I say more? People like to hang out with people who are having fun, and Twitter is no different. So go ahead, have a blast, let the good time roll, and watch your follower numbers increase accordingly…
Here’s my twitter if you’d like to follow me #kimstanderline
Till next time..
