It’s never a good idea to buy your friends, and social media is no exception to this rule.
Nevertheless, it’s a common practice for businesses, brands and even celebrities to pay for Facebook likes, YouTube views, and Twitter followers in order to boost their prominence in the social media sphere.
If your followers come from Fiverr, put your hand up (as she slowly raises her hand in shame).
Although buying social proof is certainly an easy way to build buzz, there are more meaningful ways to bolster your brand without emptying your wallet.
Furthermore, the benefits of acquiring follows from your target audience far outweigh the benefits of thoughtless follows.
Below are six tips to growing your Twitter following sans Fiverr.
Complete Your Profile With Care
The first step in making a building a positive Twitter reputation is, well, creating a reputable Twitter profile. No one wants to follow a Twitter without a profile picture, bio, background or website link.
A bare Twitter page doesn’t inspire trust. By creating a detailed profile before you start following other accounts, you’ll boost your chances of getting a follow back.
Additionally, you need to complete your profile description with a clear, keyword-oriented message.
The character limitation will push you to be brief, but that’s a good thing — you want people to glance at your profile and immediately know what you do, why you do it, and how they can learn more.
Follow Your Target Audience
The next step in boosting your follower count is to find the people who are most likely to be interested in you and your brand.
There are several ways to go about doing this. For one, you could check out a similar business’s follow list and headhunt some of the accounts that they follow.
Or, you could simply use Twitter’s search function to find users who are talking about topics relevant to your brand. For example, let’s say that your business sells something cool like first edition books.
By searching the term “first edition books”, “rare books”, or “unique books” you could very well find someone in the market for one of your products.
Favoriting their tweet, following them, or simply extending a non-salesy greeting often goes a long way to building that initial relationship.
Tweet What Your Target Market Wants to See
This is probably a no-brainer, but one of the best ways to attract a Twitter following is to post things that people care to read. Sift through news articles, research studies, and funny or motivational photos to find what’s most relevant to your target audience.
PRO TIP: If you find a piece of content to be funny, relevant, interesting or noteworthy, chances are your target audience will too.
The good news is that if you’re successful in finding the pieces that entertain your niche, they will not only be inclined to follow you, but also to share your content with their followers.
If you’re tweeting on behalf of a business, giving behind-the-scenes looks at the company is something most customers love — build anticipation by sharing project updates and photos, highlight your team members to put a face to a name, and so on.
Hey! I Gots Me a Twitter!
Okay. It’s probably not the best idea to promote your new Twitter account that way, but I got your attention, didn’t I?
Once your Twitter is up and running, there’s no reason not to share it in every way that you can. Integrate Twitter into your blog author bio sections and update your LinkedIn profile, Facebook page, and business card to share your Twitter handle with as many interested parties as possible.
Some business owners are so bold as to create bumper stickers and other guerilla marketing-type materials that promote their account. To each his own, but the bottom line is not to be shy about sharing your slice of social media real estate.
Break Through the Noise
Text-based updates can be interesting, but sometimes the Twitter stream becomes a gigantic wall of text. To make your tweets stand out, spice them up every once in a while with an embedded picture.
The promise of a visual bonus will inspire even more clicks and can make a greater impression if the pictures are of good quality and drive home the point that your text-based tweet is making.
Speak Conversationally
It’s always Casual Friday on Twitter. In other words, there’s no need to be super formal when tweeting. In fact, Twitter is a great place to humanize your brand and create a conversation with your audience.
You can literally start up conversations with followers, answer their questions and even respond cheekily to their tweets in order to build a softer, friendlier reputation. Plus, more casual responses are more likely to garner laughs, as well as retweets.
It’s clear that all six of these strategies will require thought, but the amount of work required pales in comparison to the benefits of having an engaged and interested Twitter following. So, what are you waiting for? Time to entertain the masses via Twitter. Get going!