Success on Twitter is about more than getting lots of followers. Who is following you is more important that how many people are following you. How do you get targeted followers? Today’s 30 Days of Social Media lesson is from Sarah Prout and explains just how to do that.
Twitter is about the quality of followers and not the quantity.
The truth is that a vast proportion of people that have thousands of followers have used automated systems that seek to get their numbers up quickly without regard for the type of followers they are attracting. It’s far more beneficial to have 2000 targeted followers than 20k filled with spammers, bots and random people from around the globe. When I wrote The Twitter Success Blueprint (ebook) I had experimented with dozens of techniques; from following everyone in the hope they’d follow me back – to adding everyone that was following high-profile people on Twitter. This did not work. It was only when I discovered the power of key words to program into my automation software that I started to get better results. I see this as a three-step process and an excellent habit to form early on to avoid having to clean up your tweet stream on a massive scale.
- Block all spam/bots without question. Any time you see a spammy fraudster pop up in your tweet stream you should click the block button. It shows support that Twitter is a platform for authentic communication only.
- Find and follow people within your niche. Use keywords and follow hashtags (#) that relate to your specific industry.
- Engage with as many people as possible. This might seem a little impossible, but try and take an interest in what other people are doing. Ask questions, compliment people and open the door to build a sense of community. The people that aren’t interested will naturally disappear.
I recently did some Twitter coaching for a small group of entrepreneurs.
They seemed amazed that I contradicted everything that they had been taught about social media so far. Sometimes I feel a slight sense of trepidation when I have to tell them that they’re going about things the wrong way and that hiding behind a company façade will not provide the results they desire.
I always manage to get them to see the importance of authentic connection on Twitter and how relationship building is the key. There is no way you can achieve this without adding a personal touch and showing the humanized aspect to the marketing model of social media.
When coaching, I like to use amazing examples of vibrant people on Twitter that have achieved awesome results. People like Gary Vaynerchuck (@garyvee) have created so much attention with social media just for being present and active. He’s a prime example of how to maximize active engagement. His fun and outgoing personality on Twitter and Facebook has cemented his corporate brand directly from his excellent personal branding. Too many people out there in the Twitterverse fantasize about tweeting out a link (sometimes repeatedly) and it converting into PayPal sales. The truth is that if there is no personal connection then there is no sale, web traffic or buzz surrounding your brand and business. Above all, Twitter is about engaging your followers and generating enough curiosity to build your reputation and drive traffic to your site. This packs more of a punch if your followers are targeted and you’ve actively maintained a level of quality. A friend of mine is about to release a service called Twit Cleaner. Twit Cleaner downloads your friends list, then analyses them all for sketchy behavior (spammers, bots, dead accounts..) And yes, the scan is completely free. Once they’ve found the dodgy users, @TheTwitCleaner will DM you a report so you can see who you’d like removed. For a small fee Twit Cleaner will automatically unfollow them, or you can do it manually. Of course, anyone you don’t want unfollowed, they’ll leave (shy friends, helpful bots etc). I personally think this service is amazing and very innovative. It supports and promotes authenticity and will be an invaluable resource to people that wish to clean up their tweet streams and generate genuine business connections once and for all.
TODAY’S TASK
Find and follow some people within your niche. Use keywords that relate to your industry as well as #hashtags to see what conversations are going on right now. Until tomorrrow, Suzi
