How To Get Twitter Followers (ethically)
One of the things we get asked the most is how to get Twitter followers. Over the years we’ve researched a number of ways to promote twitter accounts, and we want to share some of these ideas with you. Many users first start out by trying to buy Twitter followers, not realizing that this is against twitter’s rules. Buying followers is a zero sum game, as many of the operators that try and sell followers use unethical means to add followers to your account.
The good news is that there are a number of ways to promote your twitter account safely and ethically. Some are easy to do, some are little more complex, and some even give you ways to get more twitter followers for free. We’ve broken them up into methods you can use online, things you can do on Twitter itself, and real-world methods too.
Things you can do online
Advertise on Twitter
One of the most effective ways to promote yourself is on twitter itself. They offer solutions for promoting your profile, promoting your tweets, or promoting trends. Each method gives you a slightly different way to get your message across. This form of promotion is really powerful when used in combination with one of the other methods listed below, such as running a contest. Promoting your profile will help you grow your following directly, while promoting tweets and trends will allow you to drive other initiatives used to get exposure for yourself.
Run a contest
Running a contest is a great way to attract new followers. Offer a good prize and make sure you clearly communicate the rules of entry. If your prize is related to your brand then it can also help find targeted followers who are interested in your area of expertise.
Be creative! Try giving away an experience, a vacation, a meeting with a celebrity (maybe you?) Contests draw attention! Offer multiple prizes, including a grand prize, 3-5 mid-level prizes, and as many small prizes as you feel like. Set a hashtag for your contest like #mycontestisawesome or #winmystuff, and include it in every tweet about your contest.
Launch your contest through Twitter and any other mediums you are using. Blogs are great at driving contest traffic, because they can explain the prizes and rules in greater detail. Then just tweet about your contest as often as you feel like until you reach your milestone, and award prizes!
Directories - e.g. Twiends!
There are dozens of directories of Twitter users online, including Twiends, WeFollow, and Twellow. Add yourself to as many directories as you can find under the proper categories, and you will begin to see some users following you from these sites. When someone follows you through one of these directories you will receive a notification email from Twitter - if you have these turned on. In these notifications you can see which directory they followed you through.
Guest Blogging
Even if you don’t have a blog of your own, you can easily gain notoriety by writing posts for other blogs. Running a blog is hard work, and most people and companies welcome well written posts to give them a break. If you do score an opportunity to guest post, link to your blog if you like, but be sure to link to your Twitter account as well. Some people will follow you if they liked the post.
This strategy works very well if you can give readers an incentive to follow you. Will they hear about more posts like the one you wrote? Is it the only way to find all of your guest posts? Do you tweet the location of buried treasure on International Talk like a Pirate Day?
Give them a reason to follow you, and you will be amazed at how effective this strategy can be.
Blog about your Twitter account
On the same note, if you do have a blog, write a post about your Twitter account. Post about how you like Twitter, how you hate Twitter, different types of Twitter people and posts you like or dislike, who you follow… Anything, really. Make sure to mention your Twitter account (and suggest that people follow you) at least once in the article.
You can also write a post about what you would say with more than 140 characters to certain Twitter celebrities. Do you wish you could tell Shaq about your “random act of Shaqness”? Want to get @NotTinaFey to read your latest comedy script? Social media is all about being unique – find something that is memorable, and gently remind people that your tweets are memorable, too!
Do podcasts
Podcasting is a great way to get attention, it showcases your expertise, and helps gather an audience. A podcast is much like a blog, but it is recorded audio instead of written words.
Creating your own podcast is simple. All you have to do is download a program such as Audacity (or, if you’re on a Mac, GarageBand works well.) Record your audio, edit out long pauses or background noise, add in any music you like for an intro or outro, and at the very end, mention that people can follow you on Twitter “for more podcasts like these!” Now create an account at a podcast hosting service like PodStrike! or PodBlaze, upload your content, configure your settings, and you are good to go!
You can create your own podcast, or be featured or interviewed on a popular podcast. Either way, make sure you mention your Twitter account at least twice during your podcast – once right at the end – to get the most followers on Twitter from this method.
Add a Twitter Widget
Did you know that you can add a Twitter widget on LinkedIn that will display your recent tweets? How about on your blog? There are many places online that will allow you to display a list of your latest tweets, and these widgets are a great source of new followers!
Few people integrate their Twitter account with LinkedIn, but if you are well networked on LinkedIn, it can help you encourage colleagues and friends to follow you. Placing a link to Twitter on your blog is obvious, but actually listing your tweets is an even more effective way to gain new followers. You can even get a customized widget from Twitter itself that works on any site, from static HTML sites to Tumblr, Blogger, WordPress, and anywhere that will allow you to add custom code!
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