By Natasha McGarrell
It’s tough out there in the big, bad Twitter world. While 59% of people have discovered a new business on Twitter[1], it can be difficult to be seen over the sheer volume of activity on the platform. That’s why growing your follower base is so important. Here’s five simple ways to boost your followers.
Promote your handle everywhere
Step one to gaining Twitter followers is to make sure people know where to find you. Sharing your Twitter handle wherever you can will make you easily discoverable. Get involved with some shameless self-promotion and feature your handle on business cards, menus, marketing assets and emails. Integrating Twitter follow buttons on your website also encourages follower growth.
Share engaging content
When your followers interact with your content, that content is pushed into their followers’ feed. As your audience increases, so does your potential for new followers. So, it goes without saying that sharing content that drives interaction is essential to gaining new followers. Sharing visual content is a great start. Tweets with rich media get 313% more engagement and 52% more retweets[2]. You can also try sneak-peeks, informal polls, sharing blog posts and asking questions to drive interaction. Hashtags will also make your Tweets discoverable for users who aren’t already following you.
Test content regularly
Take the time to study your existing and potential follower base and develop a content strategy that serves your audience content they’re interested in. To do this, you’ll need to regularly test content to see what resonates with your audience and what attracts new followers.
Join the conversation
Twitter isn’t just about content marketing. Get involved with your community and discover what people in your industry are talking about. Search keywords and hashtags that are relevant to your business and engage with the people participating in these conversations by following, retweeting and liking. This will expand your network with people who have similar interests to your business.
Participating in global Twitter events is another great way to get involved. In 2015, The Guggenheim Museum received great results by participating in Twitter’s MuseumWeek, the platform’s first cultural, worldwide event. Across one week, 2,800 cultural institutions shared unique content using a daily topic hashtag. Topics ranged from architecture, museum secrets and selfies. Throughout the week, the Guggenheim’s Tweets gained 1,500 retweets and 1,530 likes. The page also saw a growth in followers.
Be responsive
Your customers want to chat to you. 90% of users have engaged in conversations with or about a business, and 88% have Tweeted a business directly[3]. It’s important to reply to customers when they engage with you as it shows authenticity and attention to the customer. Hiring a community manager is a great way to stay on top of user interactions.
[1] DBS & Twitter, “Customer Insight Study”, 2014
[2] Hootsuite, “Proven ways to get more followers”, 2016
[3] DBS & Twitter, “Customer Insight Study”, 2014