Small Business Tips For Getting More Twitter Followers

Much like doing SEO correctly and thoroughly, social media is not a quick hit.  Building community (followers or fans), moderating that community, and ensuring that your community stays engaged is a full time job.

I am, by nature, an observer.  I enjoy listening, drawing conclusions, and gaining insights from things that others are doing, as well as reflecting upon my own efforts to determine what worked well and what should be abandoned.

I am not a full- time social media person, I am actually a full-time SEO person, but my background in psychology helps in many facets of my job.  That said, I have come up with a few valuable Twitter insights that will help you grow your Twitter followers and keep them engaged.

Don’t Just Hit The Retweet Link

When you find a Tweet that you like or want to broadcast to your community don’t just hit the Retweet Button. Take the time to visit the article being Tweeted.  Then add your own Tweet text around the link or copy the Tweet as is and add some of your own context to the Tweet that speaks to your community of followers.

If You Get A Link, Say Thank You

One of the things I do from an SEO standpoint is check Google Analytics each day or week for the websites sending me traffic.  I then find the twitter handle of the person who wrote the article, as well as the website or company’s Twitter name, and publicly thank them both for citing my article.

If you get Retweeted or Followed, Say Thank You

This is a simple one but speaks to social media etiquette. If an individual or business found enough value in what you had to say to take time out of their day to follow or RT you, then the least you should do is thank them.

• If they Retweeted, you make sure you thank them and mention the article they RT’ed.
• If they follow you, then you should thank them, and ask them if there is anything you can help them with.

Either of these circumstances gets your foot in the door to engage with someone who found value in you and the information you presented.

Each Article You Write Should Be Tweeted Several Times

I first observed this by Eric Enge (@stonetemple) from Stone Temple Consulting.  Eric interviews some of the top people in the online space and I noticed that he tweeted the same article multiple times but with a different lead in each time. He took parts (important hooks) from the article and used them as the tweet text along with a link back to the article.

This tweet-and-tweet-again technique gives each article you write, infographic you design, or video you produce an extended reach that speaks to multiple personas simply by altering the lead in text before the link.

For Example: If I had a post about Infogrpahic Insights I might tweet it 3 different times over the course of a day or so with different lead in text such as:

1. Want to create great infographics that wont be devalued by Google? Read this > [link] #tag #tag
2. These 8 infographic insights are the key to helping your infographic get shared > [link] #tag #tag
3. 8 Insights For creating awesome infographics that drive traffic > [link] #tag #tag

For #FF (Follower Friday) Don’t Just Add A List Of People

Follower Friday tweets are used to spotlight some of the people or companies you admire that you’d like to endorse.  Most people just do something like #FF @person1 @person2 @person3 @person4 @person5, I would suggest taking a different approach.

I first saw this different approach done by Ahna Hendrix. She took the time to identify 5 people that others in her community might like and then wrote up individual tweets about each (tagging each tweet with #FF) that highlighted why the person would be good to follow. I thought this was an amazing, personal, and valuable way of doing #FF.

Thank Them For Leaving A comment On Your Website

Did you get an awesome comment on an article you wrote?  Take the time, much like if someone links to an article you have written, to reach out to that person on Twitter and thank him/her for the well-thought-out comment.

I hope these insights are helpful.   As I said, I am not a social media wizard (yet) but I have found the above to be very useful when growing my followers,  gaining RTs, and increasing engagement with my content.