I’m going teach you an organic way of increasing your Twitter followers – no auto-follow techniques, no shortcuts.

When you start using automated tools to follow people, you don’t know who you’re following. They could be automated feeds/bots.

Be picky about who you follow. It’s NOT about the quanTITY, but the quaLITY.

These tips assume you know how to navigate well on Twitter and have advanced knowledge of the lingo and terminology. If you need some start-up help with Twitter, check out this link: http://mashable.com/guidebook/twitter/.

(1)    Follow more quality people.

You want quality followers? Quite simply, follow quality people.

• Check out my Twitter account http://twitter.com/MiaChambers. Take a look at who I follow. Sort through the list and follow people.
• Check out my Lists and follow more people.
• When you come across an interesting Twitter account, check out who they’re following – add some more people. Check out their Lists.
• Click on a favorite #hashtag and follow some more people.
• Lather. Rinse. Repeat.

After you’ve added a whole mess of people, go back and click on their profiles to make sure that the people you’re following are (a) active on Twitter and that they (b) actually engage with people – their account isn’t merely an automated feed.

(2)    How to get people to follow you back?

So you’ve followed all these people – now what? How are they going to follow you back?

Here are a few sure-fire ways to get people to follow you back.

• RT a few of their links to start appearing in their @stream.
• Add them to a List.
• Send them a direct @reply complimenting them on their website, work, picture, bio – pick something you like and make a mention of it.  Start a conversation.
• If all else fails, send them a @reply jumping up and down, waving your arms in the air like you just don’t care. It works.

EXTRAS:

Make sure you’re using a picture as an avatar. Show your face. This will increase your chances of actual people following you back. Logos don’t get the same action as a face does on Twitter (or any other social media platform, for that matter). Personalize your account by showing people you’re real.

Every once in a while I will check out http://friendorfollow.com/ and unfollow anybody who hasn’t followed back. (I get like that from time to time.)

Once a month, I’ll add 200 – 300 people and go through this very process of engaging with people on Twitter to increase my following. It works – it just takes time. Take your time. This isn’t a numbers game like so many people have made it out to be. It’s about connecting with one another and building relationships that are both personal and professional in nature.

Good luck.

Tags: followers, increase your Twitter followers, organic, Twitter

This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 31st, 2011 at 7:40 am and is filed under Twitter. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.