Social media can be a powerful tool when used correctly. With a strong social media following, you can easily:
- Position yourself as an expert in your sector/industry
- Through sheer number of followers, you can heavily influence readers decisions
- Amplify your message to a huge following, driving event awareness, leads and sales
However a common problem the majority of people have, twitter in particular, is initially growing your following from the ground up. It doesn't matter how great the blog you’re linking to is, or how insightful the news article you found is, if you have very few followers, who’s going to see it?
Growing your following with relevant, targeted people should be your main priority once you've mastered the basics of twitter. In an ideal world, you’d be joining in with lots of different conversations, sharing loads of content and getting yourself known fast, however this can be difficult when you’re already maxed out.
Therefore these 3 easy (and most importantly quick) methods should help you grow your twitter following, allowing you to reach far more people than ever before:
1) Use topical hashtags
Using a hashtag on twitter allows you to actively contribute to an on-going conversation, where many hundreds (if not thousands) are already talking about it. Say your industry is manufacturing, for example; rather than posting a standard tweet, include a topical hashtag, such as #manufacturing.
Why do this? It massively increases visibility of your tweet. Rather than just sending a tweet to your following, everyone who is looking at the #manufacturing conversation on twitter can see your tweet too. If you’re tweet is interesting, they’ll either re-tweet or follow you!
2) Use wefollow.com
Wefollow.com allows you to search for prominent people within particular topics. For example, if you typed in “cloud” into the search function, it will pull up a list of influential people/newsletters and companies that have a strong social media presence. You can then follow these people, and if you’re tweets are interesting and relevant, they’ll likely follow you back
3) Post interesting tweets!
Nobody wants to follow someone who is only interested in self-promotion. Instead, think about what your followers are interested in, what do they want to know? Topical news, relevant articles online, relevant whitepapers, interesting replies to tweets, anything that is adding value to the end user.
So there you have it, 3 quick an easy ways you can grow your twitter following today, without giving up hours of your time!
4) BONUS TIP! Include Your Twitter Handle in Your Email Signature
Think about how many emails you send each day, both internal and external. By simply including your twitter handle in your email signature, you're increasing your visibility massively, especially if you're emailing a lot of external people, whether they be customers, prospects, or industry influencers themselves.
So there you have it, 3 (+1) quick and easy ways you can instantly grow your twitter following today, without giving up hours of your time.
Connect with me on LinkedIn: Johnny Roberts
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