In my
Marketing Consulting work I regularly suggest to my clients that they use some
methods of social networking to build up their internet presence. Of course,
after Penisula Shops, Facebook and LinkedIn, Twitter often comes up as one of the platforms a
person could use to socially network. After pondering what
platforms to use if Twitter is a choice, I'll get the question, "OK, I can
tweet, but how do I get people to follow me."
Here are six ways I can suggest right now that
aren't too difficult:
1. Add your
Twitter profile link to your email signature. People you email who use Twitter
will pick up on that and start following you.
2. Find people
(you don’t know) to follow by doing Twitter searches under certain topics,
e.g., banking. Zero in on some people and look at their tweet stream. Follow
the interesting people. When you follow people they often follow you back.
3. Find people
(you do know) to follow by asking friends, co-workers, associates, partners,
etc. if they tweet. If so, follow them. As in item 2, they’ll probably follow
you back.
4. Add your
Twitter profile link to your LinkedIn profile, blog, and other social
networking profiles. This is now a given if you're doing social networking. On
some sites you can even get a live stream of your tweets to show up on that
page. I have this on my blog, which I think is very cool.
5. Start
tweeting every day. You’ll find that people will just start following you
naturally. I get anywhere from 2 - 6 new followers each day this way. Some of
them are using automated programs to simply grab people to follow and those
people you may or may not want to follow back (subject for another blog).
Others are searching on certain terms, e.g., business coaching and will follow
anyone interesting who comes up - like you.
6. If you want
to really get serious, you could start commenting vigorously on other peoples’
blogs and instead of linking your name (as the commenter) to your website, link
it to your Twitter profile. If Twitter was your #1 means of communicating with
others on the net you would do this. Or, if you don’t have a website, blog or
Facebook fan page.
Note that I am not recommending you use an
automated software program to start following
gobs of people each day in the hopes of getting gobs of followers back. I
disagree with
this approach to Twitter and don't advocate it for any of my marketing
consulting clients.In case you're wondering how to connect with me on Twitter, you can find me at
@Michael_N