Jun
01
How To Get 8379 New Twitter Followers By Christmas
I assume that if you are reading this, you want to know how to get new Twitter followers.
I also assume — In order to sleep at night and to keep my Non-Asshole Marketing Commission membership card — that you’re not reading about how to get more Twitter followers because you are a jerk, but because you legitimately don’t get it.
I finally assume that you are sick and tired of hearing people tell you “social media isn’t about the numbers” and you feel that you are enough of a grownup to make up your mind about whether it is or is not about the numbers in your situation.
Having said all that, we’ll move on, shall we?
How To Get More Twitter Followers, Phase One
First, you have to look like a reasonably interesting person to follow. If you have not yet been active on Twitter, you’ll need to have about 25 recent tweets before it’s worth trying to follow anyone. Less than that and you look like you don’t know what the hell you’re doing, which is, of course, true. You’ll also want a bio that incorporates key areas of you (mine is here) and a photograph. This makes you look like a human being.
Over the course of not less than two days and not more than one week, tweet 25 times. Do this throughout the time, not all at once. A handful in the morning, some in the afternoon, whatever works.
About a quarter of these tweets should be retweeting something somebody else said. If you’re so lost that you don’t even know how to find what other people said, go to my Twitter page and retweet something I said. (This is not particularly self-serving since, yes, you’re retweeting me, but nobody’s reading you so it’s not like I’m being helped.) If you’re not remotely connected to my industry and know nobody in your own, find a celebrity and retweet them. (Find them by googling “[celebrity name] Twitter”.)
Another quarter or so should be responding to things other people are saying or asking. Again, if you can’t find anybody saying or asking anything, use me or a celebrity or someone else you dig online. Either answer a question or say something somewhat relevant. Don’t worry about this step. If they ask a question, they really want to know the answer. They’re not going to think you’re an idiot. (This is probably not the best place to wildly disagree with them. You’re trying to make friends here. Save the fighting for when you’re famous.)
Another quarter or so should be sharing cool stuff you found on the internet. Links to blog posts or the New York Times or something. You can either do this by simply giving the title of the post or article with a link (shorten the link by going to a url snipper like is.gd or tinyurl.com) or you can add a little commentary of your own. “Awesome!” or “Super neat!” or “I LOVE kittens!” is fine. Do not overthink this.
The last quarter should be stuff that comes from your own head. “Man, it’s hot. Who said June in Maine was going to be this much of a scorcher?” is fine. This is not rocket science. The purpose of these tweets are to show that you are a human being with thoughts and opinions.
Once you have done this, you should continue tweeting (ideally daily, but at least every weekday) between 10 and 20 times a day, following the same approximate ratio.
How To Get More Twitter Followers, Phase Two
By now, you have established yourself as someone who doesn’t totally suck to follow. Now you go get followers.
Step 1: Figure out what you’re on Twitter for.
You want to get a book deal? You have a book deal and want to sell more copies when your book comes out? You want to look like an expert? You want to feel like A Big Deal On The Internet at conferences? (Mine is the last one, by the way.)
There is no big, esoteric meaning behind me asking this question. It’s because when you know what your reason is, you’ll be less likely to quit when this process becomes eye-bleedingly boring come day 16.
Step 2: Figure out who in the world is likely to be interested in what you have to say.
Mothers of new babies? Small business owners? Fellow lovers of the Gilmore Girls? Knowing who they are makes it infinitely easier to find them.
Step 3: Hazard a guess at what these people would say to indicate who they are and what they’re into.
Lovers of Mustangs, for example, might say “Mustang”. New mothers might say “my baby”.
Step 4: Enter the word or phrase you have come up with in the Twitter search box. See who’s using your word.
This will lead you to a real time list of people using your exact phrase. As people type “my baby”, you’ll see it come up in a constantly updating timeline.
Step 5: Check out their profiles.
Are they really into your thing or is it a fluke of language? (In the “my baby” example, they could be referring to their Mustang or their MacBook Pro instead of their actual baby.) You also want to see if they’re active community members like you are. (You’re checking to see if they converse with other people, if they retweet, if they’re at least marginally interesting. The operating principle here is that if they retweet what Jim Bob says, they might retweet what you say. If they never retweet or talk to people, they won’t retweet or talk to you.)
Step 6: If they’re cool, follow them.
Probably 70% or so will follow you back.
Step 7: Do this 50 times a day until the end of the year.
After about a week of practice, it should take you about fifteen minutes a day. As you go, you’ll figure out other things to search for. (After looking for “my baby”, you might discover that people say “#babydust” when they’re trying to get pregnant tonight. Not recommended for the squeamish, by the way.) You’ll figure this out as you go.
Step 8: Every couple of weeks, purge.
Go to a service like Refollow that helps you filter your account by different criteria. You could find people who haven’t tweeted in a month and kick them out. You could find people who have sent you @replies but you’ve forgotten to follow them. You could find people who refuse to follow you back no matter how many times you engage with them, and so on. Do with this what you will.
Advanced Step 9: Stalk your power users.
This one is optional but very powerful. A lot of people choose not to get notified when someone follows them. (I’m one of them.) So if you follow me, I don’t know about it. If creating a relationship with a certain person is important to you, put them on a special list (private or public) that you check extra regularly. (I’m told there are Twitter application thingies that will pretty up this process for you, but I use the web interface for Twitter so I don’t know the details about this.) Make a point to engage extra regularly with those people. Eventually, if you consistently don’t suck, they’ll probably succumb.
8379 Twitter Followers: A note on the math
This number was roughly based by me figuring out last week how many days there were until Christmas, multiplying it by 50, and taking 70% of that. It’s also fairly common knowledge that as you get bigger, you get even bigger simply by being bigger in the first place. So I figured I’d add 10% to your median number (4000-ish) to account for people who follow you just because. Truthfully that number will probably be higher, but I don’t want to get into math wars in my comments.
We adore our subscribers. Seriously. We love them SO MUCH that we send stuff like this to them several times a week. If you want to be among the very loved, click here to subscribe to IttyBiz.
The nice thing about this method, as opposed to the standard “blitz everyone in sight and see who sticks” or “pay WeFollowSoUDontHaveTo.com $0.25 per follower” methods, is that you’re getting people who are actively interested in the same things you are. You’re probably also either joining a community of people who already know each other or in a position to form that community among unconnected people with similar interests.
In the interests of that last one, I have one more suggestion: get into the habit of incorporating the username of the person you’re replying to into the tweet, rather than just sticking it at the front. That is, rather than “@IttyBiz, I really agree because I too have exactly 8379 followers.”, tweet “I really agree, @IttyBiz – I too have exactly 8379 followers”. The idea here is that you’re getting names out into the open. Twitter removes replies to people you’re not following from your timeline, but only if their username is the first thing in the tweet, so moving the username to the middle of the tweet gives you an opportunity to stealthily spread the word about people worth following.
Fabulous post. Thanks! And, FYI, I might be stalking you now. :)
Thanks Naomi,
I look forward to your next post: “I’ve Got 8379 New Twitter Followers: Now What The *** Do I Do With Them?”
I LOVE kittens.
Naomi,
I appreciate your approach here, since too many people use just one strategy and then their Twitter feed looks like they aren’t human at all (like mine looks). I will admit that I am having trouble seeing the light when it comes to Twitter, since it appears to be such a time-sucker, but I have found that one can get a lot of Tweeting done while on the can, and that should be just considered free time.
However, I do see that light that Twitter naturally works as great way to get people to click on stuff, unlike Facebook, which isn’t as good of a marketing tool in that respect. You really hit the important point here, in that you have to act as if you are a human. That is something that a lot of business owners need to work on. I think I will crank up my Twittering efforts a bit this week. Thanks.
-Joshua Black.
This is great! Everyone makes it sound so complicated, and well, it is at first, but you’ve simplified the process. Thx! I’m now on the quest to find my peeps, that special audience who will benefit from what I have to say.
I love Twitter because it’s all in one place. I don’t have to go hunting for blogs, websites or FB pages. I forget to check my RSS feed dump now too, and well, it’s like email, so many things in there! I find it much lass of a time suck than any of these other things. Not to mention, people have to be brief and I can choose what I want to read and click on!
Finally somebody made a sane and useful howto for Twitter. Thanks.
Thank you, Naomi, for being more helpful than 3 hours of Googling. (FYI: “How not to be a jerk on Twitter” doesn’t bring up much. Except a story about some guy being a jerk about typesetting.)
I’m new to using Twitter and also excruciatingly shy. This resulted in lots of talking to myself (thank goodness I have Dissociative Identity Disorder, it makes that so much easier) and replying to people who didn’t completely terrify me. Now I have an actionable plan I can follow to eventually help sell my art and avoid looking like a narcissistic jerk who doesn’t know how to work Twitter. That makes my life a lot easier.
yes THANK YOU for writing an article on twitter that makes me feel like i might actually be able to use it effectively. this is a first. :)
hmmm…though i want people to follow me because of my ittybiz, when i check out a new follower’s page and see that they’ve followed me and 10+ other people all at once, i almost never follow them. it’s just a turn-off. i think this is an excellent technique, but maybe slower would feel more right to me.
This is how clueless I am about Twitter … when you said 25% of my tweets should be retweets and another 25% should be responses to others’ questions, I said, “Okay. Sounds reasonable. Crap, I have to learn how to do that.” I’m still trying to figure Twitter out, so this helps … a lot. (It also explains why and how random people follow me and then unfollow me.)
>> There is no big, esoteric meaning behind me asking this question. It’s because when you know what your reason is, you’ll be less likely to quit when this process becomes eye-bleedingly boring come day 16.
So I’m not the only one who thinks that Twitter is eye-bleedingly boring? Yay! :-)
What I like best isn’t in the post — it’s right at the end, where it says “We adore our subscribers.”
It’s a sad thing when you get so famous that you start referring to yourself in the third person. This type of illeism is ill-advised and illegal (in New Mexico). Unless you are actually some type of Canadian Royalty.
Yeah, Canada is a pretty strange place, I’ll grant you. But if it was now “Princess Naomi” I’m thinking we would have heard a post or two about it by now.
I know for a fact that you don’t adore ALL your subscribers; I personally subscribe to your list and the best I’ve ever done is 45%.
Remember, it’s us little people that you stepped on, on the way up. And we’ll be the ones ripping the flesh off your bloated corpse as you descend. As Marty would say.
For those who asked, this is my long-winded way of saying “I love you, Naomi.”
If Canada had any sense she’d be a princess already.
I would love to be a card-carrying member of the Non-Asshole
Marketing Commission–Good God-where do you come up with this juicy sh*t?
This was really useful–love the formula’s and structure for dealing with that godforsaken little blue bird.
Let the eye-gouging begin!
Hi Naomi,
Love this post! I needed to get serious about incorporting Twitter since my new site is launching this month. Now, I’m totally on it! I’ll let you know the results.
Thanks for your version of how to use Twitter. One of the more reasonable ways to go about doing it.
Not thanks for forcing me to click on the #Babydust hashtag link. Though it was not as bad as I’d anticipated, being that you warned the squeamish. Maybe I got out without seeing more than I could stand.
I love that you don’t mention a person’s own agenda until the last 25%! I’m so tired of people following me and being self promotion centric. I don’t mind the self promotion, but give me SOMETHING that applies to me occasionally. Your advice conveys this so eloquently!
I might add that the person starting needs to fill out a URL in addition to their bio. If I come across a bio that has no link, I don’t think the person has anything to offer. (Does anyone else think this?)
So good to see real advice on how to promote yourself on Twitter. Love it!
It’s simple. Simple is good. I like simple. I’m just over 1700 followers, and this could potentially get me around 10k. that’s my goal – 10k followers by the end of the year.
Hey, these strategies work because I used them on one blogger here who is now following me back!! :-).And I”m glad I’m not the only one who uses the simple Twitter web page. I can’t figure out those Hoot-y, seesmic, decky things.
Thanks so much for this post Naomi! From someone who has only been using Twitter to let her mum and brother updated, I thoroughly needed this tutorial on how it can be used for business.
I still don’t get the #thingys though – do you just make up your own or is there some central list of #thingys that people have somehow agreed to use. Jeez, I hate being f**king clueless at stuff but we all gotta start somewhere don’t we?
I will give it a go. I have about 2,000 followers but I have been wondering if quality isn’t better than quantity.
Dave
Great advice Naomi. I took bullets from your post and am incorporating them into my to-do list to get my Twitter account going.
When I’m looking through new followers, I pretty much look for what you’ve said- a balance between RT, @replies and own stuff.
One major major thing: bio. BIO! I follow people based on their bio a LOT. Everyone loves chocolate and travel. For me I want to see quirk and snark. Oh, and knitting. Knitting gets an automatic follow no matter what.
From me, I mean.
Naomi, I must say, this is probably the best “how to” for Twitter that I’ve seen. It’s so basic and easy to follow, it’s stupid. Wish I’d have thought of breaking it down so easily for my clients (will have to rethink my current process). Thanks.
Stay away from me with the #babydust! LOL! But #puppydust! Now we’re talking!
Wow. Thanks so much for these tips. As a new twitter user I have been slowly trying to figure it all out and this really laid it out in plain, and very comical, english!
Ok, thank you! I’m sure ‘thank you’ is the most common comment you have for this thread. I’m such a clueless twittermonkey that I created an account three months ago and then went… d’urrrr… and that was it.
I’ve been on Twitter a while now, but this is the best plan for using it I’ve ever read. Thank you, I’m going to try it out.
Thanks for the strategies. Took your advice this morning and one person is already following me back;it took just 5 minutes.
I had never thought of searching for “my” keywords but it makes sense to want to follow like-minded people.
Good stuff. Following the advice and already have 1 follower after a couple of hours.
I will have to re-think my current strategy.
Thanks
Ittybiz. I love it. Organically growing your followers is the best way. The whole point of Twitter is to converse and develop relationships. Relating is missing from many people who just want the numbers. Your approach is doable, likable and ensures that you are following interesting people. I like your recommendations for increasing engagement through twitter and will take your advice to make more time to reach out. Love your site!
Finally something that makes sense to me about Twitter. I’m so taking your suggestions for a spin. Many thanks!
Great work, an actual plan! Some of the ideas are not too disimilar from getting big hitting bloggers to mention you in their blogs by mentioning them enough to get on their radar when they check where their incoming links are coming from. But twitter makes it easier to do this multiple times a week (or day) and more reasonable to do so without seeming like a link-hungry stalker.
Some people say twitter is just for random banal thoughts (“I just saw a cat”) pointless links (“look at these pictures of cats…”) or crazy people (“I am a cat and we will one day rule the world”). I think you have shown here that it can be used more productively, but the balance must be struck between being human and just tweeting links to your own blog posts. As ever, having a specific goal about getting noticed by the right people, for the right reasons, in relation to something specific you want them to notice is important (like your new book release or latest training courses).
@ Chris Anthony – you make a useful point for beginners. If you put @Chris at the begining of your tweet, this is deemed a personal message/reply to Chris and only your followers who are also following Chris will see this (unless they actually visit your Twitter page, when they will see everything you say). Putting the @Chris in the middle is considered a mention, and will be visible to all your followers, and might be considered a more friendly way of spreading someone’s name around.
@ Mandie – #hashtags are unofficial “categories” or “keywords”. Although there are many which are becoming popular and common, essentially you can make one up simply by adding a hash (pound) sign in front of a key word in your tweet. Either do this as part of the flow of your text, or add tags at the end. They are all about discoverability – would people looking for #smallbiz find your tweet that might be really useful to them?
This article is a starting point and has some great links (and great haiku!)
http://help.twitter.com/entries/49309-what-are-hashtags-symbols
AdamV – you rock!
I had the courage to ask what I thought was a pretty clueless question, just hoping that someone would take pity on me and extend a helping hand to help “the twitter education of mandie”. And it was you! Thanks so much for the simple explanation and the link to further info.
I love EVERYTHING about this. For reals. I usually hate anything about getting more followers, but as usual, you are rockin’ out in a way that’s totally not scammy or recycled.
Thanks so much, Twitter now makes a little more sense to me!
Great article and I love that you mention finding people in your industry. So many articles are about getting tons of followers – but without a clear purpose, those followers are wasted (and your money is wasted if you use one of those paid services).
One thing…why no “Tweet This” link on the article?
Freakin’ awesome info for the flavor-of-the-month marketing channel.
This is a great no-nonsense article on Twitter. I’m an active tweeter, but mostly for social purposes. This makes perfect sense- much appreciated.
This is one of the best guides that I have seen on how to get follower. The others I have read are general and not as specific as yours. I enjoyed reading the post, great Job!
So, I get the hows of Twitter, but I still have a hard time figuring out how one can actually follow thousands of people on Twitter.
Thank you so much for this post! I’m going to give it a try.
One of the best Twitter for Dummies posts I’ve seen.
Crap. That means I’m actually going to have to do this stuff ;-)