Twice 4 Ways to Build Your Twitter Following

ByBecky McCray

Here are four ways that I am using Twitter itself to attract interesting and interested people on Twitter.

1. Live tweet from events. Include the event hashtag. (If there isn’t one, make one.)

2. Participate in tweet chats. Find one that interests you on this list of Twitter Chats on Google Docs.

3. Create lists of like minded people. She who convenes the network, reaps the benefits.

4. Follow lists of people you find interesting. Look on Listorious to find more good ones.

I wrote this because my friend Julien Smith says Twitter is useless to build a following. (note for the delicate in the crowd: Julien uses bad language.) Just for the record, I agree with Julien’s main point: “getting RT’ed doesn’t build audience if it doesn’t go to your content.”  


Now, I told you that story to tell you this one. 


Here are four ways outside of Twitter to build your following. 


1. Attend events and share you Twitter name. If you speak, put it on your beginning or ending presentation slide. (or, if you’re like me, on your handout)
2. Put it on your business cards. And anything else you hand out from your business. I’m pretty lax about this one, myself. 
3. Put it in your email signature. And on your website, and on everything else you do online. 
4. Recruit new people to Twitter. Do demonstrations. Offer to help. Do a bit of hand holding. I realize this doesn’t scale very well, but do what you can with your little corner of the world. 
What works for you? How do you attract interesting and interested followers? 

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  • About the Author
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Becky McCray wearing long braids and a professional outfit smiles as she stands on a rural downtown street with twinkling lights in the background.

Becky started Small Biz Survival in 2006 to share rural business and community building stories and ideas with other small town business people. She and her husband have a small cattle ranch and are lifelong entrepreneurs. Becky is an international speaker on small business and rural topics.

www.beckymccray.com

5 Comments

  1. Nice post, Becky. I think it’s also good to remember to build followers of the right people. Be consistent so they know why they are following you. In between conversations be sure you are sharing good content so if someone looks at your last set of tweets (15 or so most recent) on your profile they will be able to get a sense of what you tweet about and whether to follow you. Same for your profile, be sure you optimize your Twitter background and profile with the best keywords that describe your Twitter persona.

  2. Being on other people’s lists is important as it shows other people find you interesting. While you can’t control what lists you’re on, go through relevant industry lists and follow the people that create them. Everybody wins!

  3. Shannon, I completely agree that you want to find the right people. This is really about people.

    Marian, I’m a big believer in creating useful lists of your own, and I see how following list creators could get you listed. Just following them, though, is only the first step.

  4. All good tips. By big take away is the power of lists. Listorious is new to me and a visit got the creative juices flowing. I think it’s time to put some real effort into my lists. Thanks for the tips!

  5. Lauren, I rely on my lists now. And it’s such a great tool for introducing new people to Twitter, with a built in list of smart connections.

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