The hardest part on Twitter is getting the right start. You see, the way you start is very, very important. The most common mistake people make when starting on Twitter is to follow everybody they can find in the hope those will follow back. Bad strategy. When people see that you’re following 300 people or 800 or even 2.000, and only a handful follow you back and you’ve got about 30 updates or less, you’re a spammer. It doesn’t matter if you’re not, you’ll be perceived as one and noone will follow you back.
So how to find the “right†people to follow on Twitter and get them to follow you back? There are a few ways to do that.
1. Start by filling out your profile, with a real name, a real picture and stating what you do in your bio. Then write a few tweets (fill the first page, and not in ten minutes, but over a day or two) that reflect your thoughts and character (DO NOT post links to ten of your own blog posts, this should be trivial things, good resources, interesting stuff you’re reading and an occasional link to your own thing, if you just submitted something new.)
2. Then start finding people you really know who will immediately follow back and you can have a conversation with. The bigger names you know, the more followers those conversations will bring you.
3. Next you can find interesting big names who automatically follow back like @scobleizer, @guykawasaki, @JasonCalacanis, and even @barackobama. That means you’ll have equal number of follows and followers, including some of the big names.
4. Now you can start adding people who know people you know. The best time to do that is right after you’ve had a conversation with somebody. Check twitter.com/username/friends/ and add the people you might know or find interesting. When they see you know someone they do, they are much more likely to follow you back.
5. Twellow is a great resource of people you should follow. Remember that there are millions of people on Twitter now, so pick out those who are of value to you. If you’re into information security, that’s what you should look for on Twellow. If it’s body building, look for other body builders and fitness people. If it’s traveling, search for that. Find people in your field of interest and follow them. Some might follow you back right away if they find your profile interesting, others when you start participating in a conversation with them (not by sending them spam or links, but by adding value to what they are saying, proofing that what you say is worth listening to). Oh, and claim your username and adjust your profile so others can find you too on twellow.
6. Summize or Twitter search is another great place to find interesting conversation. Search for your “keywords†to find people who are writing about what you find interesting. If you find new conversations on the topic, you can participate. If they’re old, you can follow and see if they’ll continue to talk about the subject later on.
7. Add a link to your Twitter profile on your profile on LinkedIn, Facebook, Friendfeed, Digg, StumbleUpon and wherever you may have a profile.
8. Add a link to your Twitter profile in your email signature. When you correspond with new people, they can see where to find you on twitter if they’re there too.
9. Stream your tweets on your blog, let it update your status on Facebook and share elsewhere, where that’s an option.
10. When you comment on blog posts about Twitter or answer questions about Twitter on LinkedIn, Yahoo, forums or elsewhere, add your Twitter user name under your name.
Those tips should help you build quality followers. It may not seem much when you’re watching the counter, but 4-5 new followers a day bring you over a thousand in a few months. And remember, thousands of worthless followers has less value than one quality follower.
See you on Twitter.
Hjörtur
@hjortur
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