How to Get Followers on Twitter?

The other day I was talking to a client about Social Media and she asked me a classic open-ended question. “How do I get followers on Twitter?”  It’s a legitimate question and one that many newcomers still struggle with as they begin to include Social Media into their overall marketing mix.

Quality over Quantity

Before we get to the how-to part of this though, let me start by saying that the number of followers a person or business has on Twitter is less important than who the followers are. This is nothing new in marketing. It’s the age old issue of quality over quantity.  Remember direct mail lists, or even the more current email lists? Companies spent time and effort to build their lists so their messages got into the right hands, not just any hands.

The same principle applies on Twitter.  Let’s say you’re a local restaurant, does it matter that you have 4,000 followers, from all around the world or is it more important to have 500 followers who are local, enjoy eating out, and like to learn about food, types of cooking, and food and wine pairings?  The fact that you have something in common makes it  easier to make genuine connections. Very quickly we can see that the quality of the followers trumps the quantity.

Find Your Target Market

So how do you go about getting those quality followers? You have to find your target market. Who are the people you want to have as followers? What are their interests, where do they live geographically, what is their demographic? Once you have a firm idea of who you’d like to connect with, it’s much easier to find them on Twitter.

Here are just a few ways to go about finding them:

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5 Useful Twitter Search Tools

Finding what you’re looking for on Twitter can sometimes be a challenge. With millions of tweets out there, how do you uncover what you’re looking for? How do you discover interesting people to follow? How do you track certain topics? How do you locate other Twitterers in your local area?

That’s where Twitter search tools come in. Search tools let you extract the interesting bits of information from the tweet stream without having to drown in a torrent of tweets.

Here’s a few of my favorites that help me find, track and monitor the key players and conversations on Twitter.

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