Twitter stock might be at an all time low and if you Google Twitter you will see there are rumors of them being bought out. There are also rumors of the 140 character limit being increased to 10,000. It doesn’t matter what happens: Twitter will still be a good way to market and sell online. It’s a social media network that all IMers will always want to have in their bag of tricks.
I hear a lot of people talk negatively about Twitter and they say that Twitter traffic doesn’t convert, but they all have the same problem: they aren’t targeting the right traffic. Listen, you can’t use a follow and un-follow bot, build up a huge following (of worthless users that only followed you because you followed them) and expect to make money.
Why is most Twitter traffic useless? Because it’s not real. Who cares if you have a Twitter account with 700,000 followers if you are also following 700,000 people. It’s an ego stroke and everyone is just stroking each other. There aren’t any releases if you know what I mean. And by that I mean sales you perverts!
If you have a website that sells video game cheat codes wouldn’t you rather have 3,000 followers that are avid gamers that want to hear about what you have to offer and possibly even spend money with you? Or do you want 700,000 followers so you “look cool” but don’t make a dime.
The SEO industry is funny on Twitter. All kinds of “SEO experts” follow each other and want to be followed back. Why? It’s an ego thing. Do I care if I have 3,000 SEO people following me? Not really, unless they are agency owners or managers and will be buying from SerpLogic. I don’t need any virtual hand jobs.
So, YES Twitter can be a great traffic source. The people that complain about it are doing it wrong. They expect a bot to build them a following of people that will buy from them. That is foolish.
Here are a handful of ways to increase your Twitter following with quality users without spending money. All you need is time, baby!
Use the “Click to Tweet” WordPress plugin.
If you are using WordPress then go install a click to tweet plugin. There are many free ones to pick from that let you highlight text in your posts that will be tweetable with a single click. This is a good way to make key points stand out. Since it’s so easy to tweet, a lot of your readers will do it and if you set it so it tweets your @handle also you can easily gain new followers.
Embed tweets in your blog posts.
Embedded tweets really stand out and if your blog receives a decent amount of traffic you can help expose those visitors to your Twitter account without being very aggressive. By embedded interested and relevant tweets in your blog posts you will get those that are really interested in hearing more from you to follow. These are the best kind of followers because they are actually interested in what you have to say. Don’t do this in every post, but if there is a good tweet/post match it won’t hurt to include it.
Include 2 – 3 #HASHTAGS in each tweet.
Don’t be the person that uses every available character to jam pack the tweet with hashtags. Too many will make you look pathetic and desperate, but just a few will help you attract new followers. Experiment with different ones. Be aware that some of the common ones will just attract fake engagement from bots and auto likers and re-tweeters (We’ve all seen it).
Tip: see what influencers are using for hashtags. They usually spend a lot of time to figure this out so just borrow their data!
Share 5 – 10 influencer tweets daily.
You should be following some key influencers in your niche so you can see what they are talking about. Not only this, but you should be @mentioning them back and re-tweeting some of their content often. This helps you become a familiar name to them and not only can it get you a follow, but it can also get them to re-tweet some of your stuff too. If they have a huge follower base a single re-tweet from them can mean automatic new followers for you. It only takes a few seconds to re-tweet them!
Give a “Why” in your bio.
Before someone decides to follow you they are going to look at your bio. If you are a SEO professional but you have that you like music and porn in your bio that’s not going to help attract followers. Not only do you need to keep it professional, but you also need to tell someone why they should follow you. Do you tweet breaking news? Exclusive content? Your bio is very important.
Bribe influencers to re-tweet you.
As I mentioned, a re-tweet from an influencer can lead to heaps of new followers. This is where a round up style blog post can help you explode your Twitter growth. Do a post on your blog that features a handful of influencers in your niche and then tweet out a link to the post when it is live. Then, email the link to that tweet to everyone you featured and ask them to re-tweet it. If you play it smart, you can do this every month and see nice steady REAL follower growth.
Market your Twitter handle in your email signature.
This is so simple, but so many people fail to do it. Think of how many emails you send every day. If you have a autoresponder on your email lists include it there as well. Put it in every email signature you can get your hands on. If someone takes the time to follow you after seeing that then you know they are a quality follower that will be clicking on the links you tweet.
Promote your Twitter account on your other social media profiles.
Send it to your email list, post it on Facebook and any other social media network you are connected to. If you have never done it, do it 3 times within a 5 day period. This will drive a lot of new followers. Then, after this do it once a month to get people that didn’t see it as well as new contacts and followers. It’s such an easy way to get real followers.
Include your Twitter handle in your blog post shares.
Most social sharing plugins have an option that allows you to include you @handle when the post is shared on social media. You will see that all of the big websites do this. It will say something like “via @handle” or “by @handle” at the end of each tweet. Now, if your content starts to get shared a lot and goes viral you will see a lot of new followers that are eager to read more from you.
Tweet 2 – 3 trending hashtags daily.
When you sign into Twitter you will see trends on the left column. You can change this to any location. I suggest that if you are in a small region that you change it to the US, UK or another large country. This will help you see the most trending hashtags. If you can make a good tweet and include a couple of these every day you will pick up some followers. Hashtags related to your niche are always best of course!
Ask for a RT
Experiment with including “Please RT” in your tweets. Some followers will see that and automatically hit the RT button like you asked. Some will not. There is no way to know if this strategy will work for you until you try it a few times. I’ve seen it work wonders for some niches, especially if you are targeting a younger crowd. If it is an older crowd it might not be as great for you. If your followers don’t react to it positively then simply stop doing it. You don’t want to piss them off and cause them to unfollow you.
Tweet gifs
Twitter now allows you to attach animated gifs. People love these. Throw one of these out daily and watch how many more re-tweets they will get over your regular tweets. This is a good way to attract new followers. Find funny gifs that are niche related for the best results.
Thank every person that @mentions you.
I suggest that you spend a lot of time in your notifications column. Every time someone @mentions you take 1 second to say thanks. Even if they are already following you it’s important for you to thank them. If they feel like you appreciate them then they are going to be more likely to re-tweet you in the future and continue to share your content. Over time this helps you attract more followers. A few times a day jump in and thank everyone.
Offer an incentive to RT you.
Tell your followers that you will release a special eBook or give a special discount if a tweet receives a specific number of re-tweets. This is a bribe, but people love them. If they know they are going to receive a 10% off coupon for re-tweeting they will take the 1 second to do it. Its such a simple request that you really don’t have to offer an outrageous gift. Keep it simple.
Tweet at all hours of the day and night.
Don’t be the person that sends a tweet at 9am, then at noon and again at 5pm. This is predictable and it means you aren’t going to every get in front of all your followers. Install the Twitter app on your phone and pull it out every hour you think of it and tweet. Even if you are feeling lazy or are in the middle of something you can at least re-tweet someone. You need to get your stream active, so tweet at all hours of the day and night.
Use a real bio picture.
Don’t use a company logo or some random object. I see some people with some weird images. Nobody is going to follow a Twitter account that has a cat as the profile image. Use a real picture of yourself and if you are really ugly use a editing app on your phone and find a filter that makes you easier on the eyes. Kidding of course! 😀
Jump into a Twitter chat weekly.
Almost every niche is going to have regular Twitter chats. I know there are several for SEO and PPC, and I see them for almost every niche you could imagine. SEMRush regularly invites me to ones on a Wednesday, they even send out their reps hunting for people to take part. Find out what ones are popular and participate. This is an easy way to get a lot of followers. The key is to answer with helpful responses and be friendly. Don’t come off as someone there just to get followers. That won’t work at all.
Hit your email list with your Twitter link.
If you share something really interesting on Twitter send out a link to the tweet to your email list and include something like “Make sure you are following me on Twitter so you don’t miss new like this” and watch your follower count increase. You don’t want to be annoying with this and lose email subscribers, so do this only when you have a very amazing tweet to share.
Ask interesting questions that leave the door open.
Look for people you want to follow you and tweet them questions. If they are active users they will reply and often times they will follow you back because you showed interest in them. Someone like that becomes a valuable follower because they interact and they follow you without a bribe. When they are interested in what you offer (based on what is in your bio) there is a better chance they develop into sales at some point in the future.
Don’t buy Fiverr followers.
This is a tip: do not buy fake followers. When you look at a Twitter profile that has 300,000 followers but none of their tweets have any likes or re-tweets it makes them look so bad. Some people say “Yeah but get some fake to start so you look popular” but I’m not a fan of that. Build your Twitter followers the right way and don’t focus on the number. That doesn’t matter. I’ll take 3,000 followers that are paying attention to what I have to say over 500,000 followers that are only following me in hope that I follow back.
Give it a try. You will never know if Twitter traffic is a potential goldmine for your business unless you give it a real effort, and I don’t mean fire up a bot and follow anyone you can find. Good things take time and work, don’t forget that.
If you haven’t already checked out my recent post about LinkedIn, go read that. I’m on a bit of a social media marketing kick now and I’m also working on posts around Instagram, YouTube and Facebook that I will be sharing soon as well.
Until next time, over and out!
