Twitter Revisited: Part Three Followers

Yesterday we talked about how to set up a Twitter account. Hopefully you had some time to explore your account and get some of your profile updated and a profile pic uploaded. You may have even started to follow a few people. Today I would like to discuss how to gain more followers. The first place to start will be Twitter Search.

This is a pretty basic search. Type in some words and hit the Search button. The results will be shown as a listing of tweets with your keywords highlighted in bold. Remember the more vague your key words the more vague your results will be. Searching for "jewelry" or "vintage" will give you a list of tweets that may not be very helpful. Try to target your market here. Searching for "looking for handmade jewelry" or "I want a vintage vase" are better searches. Of course, there is an easier way to do that. Go advanced. Just click on the advanced search link under the area where you input your search.

As you can see you have a lot more parameters for your search now. This should help you to narrow down your search. After you have a list of tweets and or people. Follow the ones that seem like they could be a customer. They may be talking about your product or may be interested in the type of things you do. There is one exception. If you see a little padlock next to their name, do not try and follow them. They have set their tweets to private and most have done that so as not to get spam.

Another handy thing you can do with searches is find your competition. Once you have found them you can follow them or not but you can certainly follow their friends. Let you competition do the work. Ever wonder why you see a Burger King right across the street from McDonald's?  Burger King figured out a long time ago that if McDonald's has a store somewhere they had done a lot of research and they did not have to spend the money doing it.

After following several people, start looking in on their conversations and tweets. Start answering questions if they put them out there. Start talking to them. Start building relationships with them. Even if they are not following you, it is a great idea to start conversing with them. This will cause them to follow you back thus building your list of followers.

Don't be afraid to tell your followers what you do but do not spam them. The rule of thumb for commercial spammy tweets is ONE for ever TEN to FIFTEEN conversational tweets. No one wants to be bombarded by tweet after tweet inviting them to your shop. They want to get to know you.

That is all for today. Tomorrow I will talk about some advanced techniques for building more followers and share some tips that will help you on your way to building a Twitter marketing campaign. As always let me know if you have any questions.