vishal

Twitter is a powerful tool for businesses when used correctly. It can help you generate leads, solidify your branding, and build connections with your prospects. The trouble is, if you have no followers, you can’t experience all these benefits.

Having an active following on Twitter isn’t just about prestige, and followers aren’t just numbers. Twitter followers hold real value for businesses; in fact, 36% of marketers say they have gained a customer by using Twitter.

This article will examine at 20 ways you can increase your Twitter followers, and take advantage of the many benefits of Twitter. The strategies below all fit into one of the following 4 categories:

• Tweeting content that’s so enticing and/or informative that it’s likely to be retweeted
• Following others so they’ll follow you back
• Tweeting content in a way that it actually gets seen
• Promoting your Twitter account effectively

Twitter has a great paid ads option which is very effective for acquiring followers, but in this article we’ll only consider free options (since the paid one is pretty obvious).

1. Follow more people. Research shows a correlation between the number of people followed and the number of followers.

2. Use a tool like Hootsuite or SproutSocial to schedule your tweets. Posting regularly will increase your engagement and visibility, thereby increasing your follower count.

3. Use Twiends to find new Twitter users you can connect with. Once you’re listed on the platform, other users with similar interests will also be able to find and follow you.

4. Optimise your Twitter bio. Users who want to find out more about you will inevitably visit your Twitter bio. Make sure it’s professional, complete and that it does a great job of representing you and your business.

5. Use links in your tweets. Tweets with links get more retweets than those without.

6. Use relevant keywords in your bio so you rank in Twitter search. Don’t forget to include your city or region name to attract local users.

7. Use relevant hashtags in your posts. Tweets with hashtags get at least 2x more engagement, and will help you attract new followers who are searching for those keywords.

8. Ask for retweets. Tweets that include “Please retweet” in their text get 4x more retweets.

9. Find people you know by uploading your email contacts to Twitter. They are likely to follow you back, especially since they know you in real life.

10. Include images with your tweets. Research suggests that tweets with images receive 18% more engagement than those without.

11. Promote your Twitter account on all your marketing materials. This includes your business cards, brochures, signs and of course, your website.

12. Use a headshot in your profile picture, not your logo. Nobody wants to follow a faceless brand. Show there’s a real person behind your brand by using a personal photo.

13. Use the Tweet This WordPress plugin to embed content boxes on your website or blog. These are great for getting your site visitors to tweet your content, expanding your reach and attracting new followers.

14. Promote your Twitter account on your other social media accounts. For best results, entice people by mentioning interesting discussions you’re engaged with on Twitter.

15. Tweet on the weekends. Dan Zarrella’s research indicates brands get 17% more engagement on the weekends than during the week.

16. Reference users in your tweets. When replying to or mentioning other users, be sure @mention them. People are much more likely to engage with your tweets when they’re mentioned by name.

17. Use a follow button on your website or blog. Why not make it as easy as possible for your website visitors to find you?

18. Tweet motivational or inspirational quotes. These are great for getting retweets.

19. Respond publically when your response would be useful to others. Instead of direct messaging responses to public questions, share your knowledge publically, @mentioning the person who asked.

20. Include a link to your @username (ex. @websquaresolutions) in the author bio of your guest posts.

If you’re serious about increasing your Twitter followers, the #1 piece of advice I can give you is this:

Regularly tweet a variety of helpful and relevant content. Following this simple maxim will be your best bet to getting the most clicks, re-tweets and followers. It’s not rocket science, and even small businesses with non-existent budgets can thrive by following this one rule.