Twitter follower numbers are simply of themselves not a useful metric. It’s not important how many followers we have, particularly if they are all bots, affiliate marketers or auto generated follows. What we want is quality followers and by quality we mean those that are actually engaged. It’s quality not quantity that counts. So if we want quality followers how do we both target and attract them? Follow these easy steps.

1. 10 Tips to Build Better Twitter Followers
Twitter follower numbers are simply of themselves not a useful metric. It’s not important how many
followers we have, particularly if they are all bots, affiliate marketers or auto generated follows.
What we want is quality followers and by quality we mean those that are actually engaged. It’s
quality not quantity that counts.
So if we want quality followers how do we both target and attract them? Let’s start with attraction.
Try to follow these easy steps:
1) SMILE - Make sure your twitter page is ready to welcome potential followers. Do change
the default settings, change the avatar or picture- it shows you care. But content is king!
Make sure you include all the relevant information. Always mention your website if you have
one, and make the most of the 160 characters of your BIO: use keywords relevant for your
sector/area, to describe your company. Highlight its strengths and its main focus, its USP.
Followers may return to your profile rarely, but they will almost certainly visit your twitter
page at least once, and that will probably be the most important visit.
2) BE VISIBLE – Use hashtags and keywords in your tweets. Try to figure out what your
targeted audience would search for and use those words in your tweets. Find out how
people search for your website if you have one. What terms are they using? Hashtags are
good because they make your tweets more visible in twitter search, but don’t abuse them. If
your tweets look like a censored conversation (you know what I mean, RT # @# @# thx
##ff## @@####) chances are they will be totally ignored.
3) BE YOURSELF – If you keep hiding yourself behind other people’s links and RTs, the real
you won’t be seen. You need a voice and authenticity otherwise followers will lose interest
in you and your product/service.
4) DON'T SPAM - don’t mass follow, don’t use automated DMs for your new followers, don’t
do anything impersonal and automated. Don’t try to sell your products / services all the
time: it takes a click to unfollow you, even less than what it takes to bin spam email or to
shred advertising material just come through the post.
5) BE FRIENDLY – Make the most of some twitter “events” such as the #FollowFriday,
keeping in mind that you only get what you give. Spend those 5 minutes every Friday to
hashtag users you find interesting. Someone will eventually include you in their #ff.
6) LISTEN - Take your time and see who is already talking about your product/service on
twitter: what are they saying? By all means tweet your own content, but it really helps if you
understand the twitter dynamics for your specific sector/area.
7) BE INTERESTING – There is nothing more boring than a constant stream of tweets that
sing the praises only of your products and services. Interesting content that is not entirely
self-serving will build your reputation as an honest broker and worth listening to, and
perhaps most importantly generate retweets so making your name spread more widely.

2. Okay so what about targeting tweeple to follow and so raise your profile?
1) KEEP LISTENING - By doing this you will identify who are the most influential twitterers
among your targeted audience.. so follow them, follow who follows them, and pay extra
attention to the interactions going on. Try to engage them into conversations as much as
possible. If they communicate with you a lot, they will eventually mention you and you
should get some RELEVANT followers from them.
2) SEARCH – Use twitter ADVANCED SEARCH to find conversations about your niche,
services or products. Don’t be lazy and think that setting a series of one-word searches on
your Tweetdeck is enough, far from it. Search for combination of words, even whole
sentences that you think would be part of the conversation among your targeted customers.
3) CHECK DIRECTORIES - Use twitter directories like WeFollow, they may help with targeted
searches. You can also include yourself in them, in order to be found by other people.
Last but not least.. Be patient. It takes time and effort. A solid follower base can be a fabulously
valuable asset for your brand and it can only be built through QUALITY conversations.
Always remember you simply can’t buy customer loyalty.
twintangibles is a Glasgow based company that offers a range of Social Media services ranging
from strategic advice; guidance and training; reporting and analysis; to active outsourced help in
setting up and managing the Social Media Presence for many organisations.
Contact us at:
+44 7717 714595
twintangibles@twintangibles.co.uk
@twintangibles