Twitter is great for business!
Unlike Facebook, there's no pesky algorithm that limits your views to like three people. You hit the Tweet button and boom, your post is out there for the whole world to see.
So technically you could reach 304 million people!
Well, maybe you won't reach every single user on Twitter, but you get the idea. This social platform has the potential to connect you to the people who matter most – your audience.
But if your followers have come to a complete stand still then fear not!
I'm about to show you 8 ways that'll help you build your Twitter followers today...
#1. Specialize in SOMETHING
Twitter has a community for everything. Whether you specialize in selling chairs, art, design, software or tea bags, you'll find a community of people that eat, sleep and breathe your specialty.
So when it comes to growing your followers, what you need to do is become the leader of that industry. Every time you tweet, you need to make sure that the content focuses around your niche as this will help you build relevant followers.
For example, Volume Nine is a company that offers SEO as a service. On their Twitter feed they post useful content like this one below, that offers tips on how a blog can help improve their search rankings. They've also used hashtags for the keywords blogging and SEO, to help effectively target their audience.
Action points:
- Post content within your niche
- Use hashtags relevant to that niche
- Follow people within your niche
#2. Join a Twitter chat
Have you ever taken part in a Twitter chat?
A Twitter chat is a great way to build your followers and join a community full of people that want to talk about your niche.
They tend to be organized by influencers within that particular industry, and some of the best ones gain a lot of traction, so it's definitely worth seeing if there's one you could join.
Here at Wyzowl we love to take part in Buffer's chat and Content Marketing Institute's chat. They are both relevant to our audience and we've built a lot of followers by joining in with these awesome Twitter chats...
Action points:
- Join in with a chat and be engaging
- Host your own and put plenty of promotion behind it to get as many people as you can to join in
#3. Become a visual master
Did you know that Tweets with images receive 18% more clicks, 89% more favorites and 150% more retweets?
Including images or videos in your tweets can really help boost your reach across the entire platform! Sure, you may lose out on those much needed characters by uploading an image or video, but it'll help you stand apart from a text based Twitter feed.
This post from Aldi is a great example of the food chain brand trying to promote their products, in a humorous, shareable way...
And if you wanted to include a video then Twitter has made it really easy for you to shoot and upload yours right from within the app!
Related reading: check out this article I created for Social Media Examiner to find 4 ways that you can use Twitter video for your business.
Action points:
- Use images and videos in your posts
- Get creative, think about your audience
- Create custom illustrations that'll stand apart from stock photos
#4. Engage with people who engage with you
When people reply, favorite or follow you, it's really important that you acknowledge them. This will help build a great impression of your brand across the platform, and will help to grow your following further.
The reason being is because Twitter moves really fast. So, the more you engage, the more content you have out there, and the easier it'll be for people to find you. And, consumers like it when companies interact with them as it shows the human face behind the brand.
A brand that do well to engage with their followers is Tesco Mobile. As you can see from the Tweets and Replies below, they respond to every message (good or bad) that comes their way. This has helped them gain a lot of publicity and in turn, built a rather large following!
Action points:
- Stay connected to your replies, follows and favorites
- Follow people that follow you
- Show off the human side to your brand
#5. Write a guest post
I talk all the time about how a guest post can help direct valuable links back to your site, but you know what else it can do?
Yep you guessed it, a guest post can seriously increase your Twitter followers.
In fact, you've probably got a better chance of increasing your followers with a guest post, than you have getting people to click on the link within the post that directs them back to your site.
The reason for this is because when the blogger or influencer tweets about it, they will include your Twitter handle within their tweet. So you've got thousands of eyeballs on your handle, which is a sure fire way to encourage more follows!
Below is an example of Social Media Today posting our article from their site, and including the Wyzowl handle within their tweet.
We reguarly post content on this influential site as it helps boost our reach to the max!
Action points:
- Visit BuzzSumo to find influencers within your industry
- Ask them if they will let you write a guest post on their site
- Get them to include your twitter handle to help grow your following
#6. Interview an influencer
Interviewing an influencer within your industry is another great way to shine a ton of exposure to your Twitter feed - and your brand!
It has similar benefits to guest posting, but instead the interview can live on your site, and if you're lucky, the influencer will share a direct link to the interview.
For example, I interviewed Neil Patel which turned out to be a really worthwhile piece of content and perfect for our social feed. I picked up loads of valuable tips which not only helped our audience learn from the best, but also helped to grow our following.
Action points:
- Ask relevant influencers if you can interview them
- Create a blog post with the interview and the video of the interview
- Share it on social and ask the influencer if they will also share it
#7. Get involved with trends
Did you know that there's a 'national day' for basically everything now?
In case you're interested:
- National giraffe day: 21st June
- National telephone day: 25th April
- Super Mario Day: 10th March
Yep you name it, there's a day for it.
So I'm not saying that you should be celebrating every single day in the calendar, but there are some trends that are certainly worth jumping on the band wagon for because they're bound to get you tons of exposure!
For example, Tetley Tea created unique content to celebrate Glastonbury and used the trending hashtag that they knew would get them plenty of exposure:
And we recently celebrated international cat day because well, we just love those cats!
Action points:
- Research trending national and international days
- Create unique content that coincides with the event
- Include the hashtag with your tweet
#8. Post remarkable content
Remarkable content is the perfect way to build your following. Whether it's videos, ebooks, guides, infographics or blogs, there are many different types of content that you can post to keep things interesting! I'd really recommend creating content that's relevant to your niche, and that is highly valuable to your audience.
If you're struggling to understand the type of content that your audience wants to consume then check out forums and communities that your audience will visit, to find the questions that they are asking. When you find out the most common problems and objections that your audience has, you can use your content to provide the solution.
And creating remarkable content is not a one time thing either. Content marketing is known to build followers and drive leads, so the more you focus your efforts on creating valuable content for your social feeds, the more people you'll reach.
Related reading: Check out this post about how to use the 5:3:2 rule for social sharing your remarkable content.
Action points:
- Create content that's relevant to your niche
- Make sure it's valuable, shareable and teaches your audience something
- Post it when your audience is most engaged to gain more exposure
Takeaway
So there you have it, 8 ways that you can build more followers on Twitter! Understandably, your overall goal is be to become the go-to person within your industry, and Twitter can help you with that by tailoring your posts to your audience.
Don't forget to engage, show people that you are a human, and give your audience a reason to follow you – good luck!