So you have your business all set and ready to go and have your social media channels made, but you’re new and have no followers. In this post we’re going to focus on how to get those precious followers on Twitter.
But first, why use Twitter? Twitter is up there in the ‘top 3’ social media platforms. As well as Facebook, with Twitter you have the opportunity to reach thousands of people each day with your posts. Twitter has one slight edge over Facebook for businesses. Many large businesses have a designated person managing the Twitter account all day whereas with Facebook it’s less of a priority. Generally it’s Facebook for promotion and Twitter for customer service. So there’s an expectation for businesses to be on Twitter, and it’s that expectation that gives it the edge.
In the tips we’re going to share on how to grow your followers, some will be quite obvious but bare with us.
Twitter has specific settings for images which you can see here. It is important to upload images in the correct size, this just makes you look more professional. So your profile picture should be uploaded as a square, ideally 400 x 400. once this is correct, you’re off to a good start.
Your profile itself is a huge factor in how potential customers perceive your business. So please for the love of God have no spelling mistakes! I know, that’s obvious but I can’t stress enough how often I see it and how much it turns people away.
This one requires a little research, but it’ll be worth it. When writing your bio, give it the SEO treatment. Research keywords for your niche and include them in your bio. This will bring users searching on Twitter for that particular word or phrase to you.
More optimizing of your profile includes
- Relevant header image
- Use a memorable profile picture – bright and eye catching if possible
- Sweep for grammar mistakes
- Use a relevant hashtag in your bio.
Once you have your profile sorted, you can think of sending people to it from outside of Twitter. How to do this? Place links back to your profile anywhere you can! Especially on your website. For example, Socially has links spread throughout the site but has a constant one in the footer.
Your website isn’t the only place to put a link. If your business sends newsletters, be sure to put links into each one. Another option is to add your Twitter handle on a list of ‘contact us’ options.
Do you have employees? well if you do, ask them to include the business Twitter handle in their own bio. Especially if they’re quite active on Twitter. What this does is it shows to each person visiting their profile your business. Free advertising! Plus it also shows that your business is worth working for and they want to share the fact they work there.
It’s all well and good having your Twitter account running, but you need to engage and have people engage with you. Otherwise your organic reach just won’t be worth it. To give yourself a little bit of a head start, in Twitter’s search bar, search for keywords from your niche. This will bring up other profiles and conversations that you can get yourself involved with. These engagements are so important to build your reputation with Twitter’s algorithm.
This may be another obvious one, but your content needs to be worth reading. Create eye catching images and use short, sharp text to get your users wanting to click that follow button. As we’re here, Socially has a great content creation package you can avail of.
Twitter ads. Be of the opinion of “you have to spend money to make money”. Unfortunately, it’s very unlikely that your growth will happen completely organically. Be ready to spend even just a small amount of money to get your name out there, target your audience, pick a post you think is follow worthy and throw some money at it.
Then if your ads aren’t enough you can always resort to bribery. Offer discount codes to your Twitter followers. It almost doesn’t matter what your product is, if there’s money off it, people will want it.
They’re synonymous with Twitter. Hashtags. These tie in with your keyword research a little, if you use the correct hashtags it could mean the difference between 10 people seeing your post and 10,000 people seeing it. If you want some help researching hashtags, click here.
Time your posts well. Why put out amazing content when there’s no one online to see it? Research the best time for your target audience. Generally between 12pm – 1pm is the best window to tweet. Saturdays and Sundays are the worst time to post, everyone is off enjoying the weekend and is too busy.
That’s it. They are our tips to grow your Twitter following. If you need any more tips, get in touch! Our dedicated social media management team will be on hand to help you and your business.