20 things to do to get more twitter followers

When you join Twitter, everyone wants to get thousands of followers. So here are my 20 top tips on getting loads of followers:-

1. Add a good photo to your profile. It is the first thing that people will see.

2. Add a good to Bio to your profile. This should be keyword rich, so that people can find you, and tell us what you are an expert in, how you can help, and perhaps some personal stuff as well. It should not about selling, or get rich quick schemes.

3. Add your website URL to your profile, this seems obvious, but so many people leave it off.

4.Start tweeting, there is not much worse, than arriving at someones Twitter profile, only to find the obligatory ‘this is my first tweet’ message and that’s it. Why would anyone want to follow you, if you are not Tweeting any messages?

5.Do not automate your account, so that you are simply only picking up an RSS feed from your blog or website, and then pumping that out through your Twitter account.

6. Do not just have tweets, that are all about selling, selling, selling your products.

7. Do not have a stream of tweets that are simply retweets from others that you have found. This wont get you any followers. Now, there is nothing wrong with retweeting, but it must be mixed in with your own messages.

8. Don’t use foul language, most people will not follow anyone that swears all the time.

9. Don’t have updates that are just affiliate links to either your own products, or to others. Again there is nothing wrong with the occasional affiliate link, but it must be mixed in with your own messages.

10. Don’t overtweet, and don’t just tweet mundane and banal information. Unless you are mega famous, people will not be interested in you continually tweeting about how many coffee’s you have each and every day.

11. Make sure that you are continually adding value to other people. Provide them with links, resources, info, help. and support.

12. Engage with people as much as you can. Engaging with people does not mean sell to them.. It means join in conversations with people, and see how you can help or add value to that situation

13. Try and get your messages retweeted as much as possible.

14. Invite people to ask you questions, take polls from your followers, get great customer feedback.

15. Mention just about everywhere you can that you are on Twitter. Many people do not add any sort of Twitter badge to their blog or website.

16. Start to follow key people in your niche. But remember that only follow people based on your own personal criteria

17. Thank people that retweet your messages. This should be a direct message. It is a good thing to do to thank people, and will encourage them to retweet more of your messages

18. Retweet other people’s messages, but first make sure that the link works,and that your followers would benefit from  receiving that info as well. Also add a personal validation to the message.

19, Make sure that your tweets are a mixture of social chit chat, sharing of information, tools, resources,links, ideas,and tweet about your expertise, demonstrate your knowledge, and occasionally promote what you do.

20. Start to follow my @msrfr twitter account. There you will receive an endless stream of free business leads and referrals. By joining in you will be part of a tribe of likeminded people. As you refer, advocate and help others, others will refer, advocate and help you and also start to follow you..

And finally remember that all this takes time. Do not rush into things. It will take time, effort and energy to build up your Twitter following.