A lot of
people tell me they don’t understand Twitter and they certainly don’t know how
to get a sizeable following. Don’t worry, because that’s exactly where every
one of us started. The reality is that anybody can build a huge Twitter
following. And the good news is that you don’t have to be Lady Gaga to do it!
Let’s start
with a thought or two. Twitter is a bit like standing on the corner of a busy
street and having a conversation with yourself, expecting that people will stop
and listen. Well, there’s a problem. Because on Twitter, not only is no one
listening to you but they don’t actually know you are there! Yes, you are also
invisible on that street corner.
No one is
listening until they follow you. Even then, it’s like real life and they may be
listening but they’re not hearing you. In other words, your tweets may be in
their timeline but for one reason or another they aren’t reading them. You’ve
got to find a way to stand out from the noise that is literally flying past. A
way to make people want to listen to you every time you speak.
Most of us
think about what we are going to say before we say it. I always expect my mouth
to ask my permission before talking. It should be no different when you
“tweet”.
So what will you tweet?
When people
advise on ways to get Twitter followers, they almost never talk about one thing
that is crucial. Content. What are you going to tweet about?
Do you have
interesting things to say? Do people enjoy your funny one-liners? Do you know
lots of facts about some subject? Is there something about what you do that
other people would find fascinating?
If you don’t
think what you have to say is interesting, then neither will the tweeps.
Tweeting that you are going out for a coffee is just not interesting. Tweeting
about an amazing new coffee shop you have found may be interesting but only to
tweeps who live nearby. And if you are looking for a massive following, you
will want tweeps all over the world. And not all tweeps drink coffee!
But there is
still a way. The first thing to do is think about something that you want your
tweets to be known for. Here are some content themes:
• Life quotes
• Sports trivia
• Music videos
• Humor
• Photographs
• Business tips
• Fan base
• Motivational statements
• Paranormal activity
• Philosophy
• Travel diary
Really, the
list is endless and it is down to you to identify what makes you different.
What will make people want to read your tweets?
Now are you ready to tweet?
I found my
unique place by tweeting my own original content that was part humor and part
life-philosophy. Here are some examples:
The
afterlife is where people go after they have had a life. I don’t know where
losers go
My inner
critic hasn't achieved a single thing himself. All he can do is find faults
I love it
when people say you should learn from your mistakes. I've learned how to repeat
them perfectly
And that
brings me to another source of tweets – the people you follow. Find people
whose content is novel, humorous, original or interesting in some way. Follow
them and re-tweet their content. Here’s an example of a tweet I posted that was
re-tweeted to one million people – yes a million people:
Some people
don’t believe in ghosts. But for others, they live inside their heads and they
are real
Don’t ask me
why that tweet was so popular! You may never know why you get a terrific
response from a particular tweet. So, you should experiment with your tweets
and see what gets re-tweeted and by who.
Despite what
I said about coffee, I start everyday (no matter what time-zone I’m on) with a
tweet about that wonderful hot brown liquid. Here’s an example:
Coffee!
Coffee! Coffee! Give me coffee and I will observe the restraining order
That one was
re-tweeted to over 200,000 people. My followers look forward to my coffee
tweets because they signify that I am finally out of bed and more tweets are
about to follow.
Some people
advise that you should tweet about current trends. I don’t agree. If you tweet
about the X-Factor TV show, your tweets will be lost in the mass of other
tweets. No one will hear you, even if you have something amazingly insightful
to say.
And more things to think about
Once you
have found your unique content and are gaining followers who are engaged, there
are other things to think about:
1. Consistency – if you tweet 10 times a
day for a month and then go quiet for 3 days, your tweeps will think you have
died and unfollow you.
2. Frequency – you have to tweet multiple
times per day. Most of your tweets may not even be seen. I suggest tweeting a
minimum of 10 times a day.
3. Re-tweeting – RT often but only when it
is relevant. This will also get you attention from the original tweet author.
4. Attribution – always attribute a
retweet, quote or remark to its originator. Never tweet something, pretending
it is your own. Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do…
5. Profanity, Religion, Politics, Sex –
your choice depending on your audience but I stay away from anything too
controversial. Remember, you are looking for a large audience and being
partisan or using the f*bomb will lose you followers.
6. Repetition – save all your tweets in a
file. Some applications (like TweetAdder) can import tweets from a
line-delimited text file and automatically send them for you at pre-specified
intervals. But don’t use this as an excuse to loop through the same old tweets!
7. Recognition – if someone retweets you
regularly, thank them and reciprocate if they have relevant content.
8. Variety – create other sources of
content such as blogs, Facebook pages, Pinterest and Instagram. Followers who
really like you will want more content than the 140 characters of a tweet.
It takes
time. You didn’t build your entire network of personal friends in one night and
you won’t get 10,000 Twitter followers in a week. However, if things are moving
a bit too slowly for you, you can always:
• Follow
people you think will like your tweets (look at the followers of someone who is
like you). When they see you have followed them, they may look at your recent
tweets and if they like them they will follow you back. Don’t go crazy, though!
Twitter limits follows to 1,000 a day and they will suspend your account if you
regularly pursue another user’s followers at that sort of rate.
• Use a
service like Twiends. It’s a phenomenal way to build followers but they won’t
stay unless they immediately like your content.
• Always
follow-back. Just as you want to be followed, so do others. It will reduce the
unfollows. But watch out for the spammers, sex chat lines and other
undesirables.
So, either
way, you’ve got to find something interesting and unique to say. Otherwise I’m
afraid that no one will be listening to you, even though you are talking. We’re
all learning and sharing ideas. Some of us are just a bit ahead of the game,
that’s all. So I’ll leave you with one more of my tweets that was retweeted to
500,000 people:
It’s not the
blind leading the blind that we should worry about. It’s the blind leading
those of us who can see