How to get 1000s of followers on Twitter

So just how to get 1000s of followers on Twitter.. quickly?

Well maybe you can’t – at least not in the way you are expecting or many spammers will have you believe is possible.

One of the ways that smaller (and big) business can attract customers is through social media. Twitter for a variety of reasons has become very popular.

A short lesson from history about twitter

In the past when we wanted to market we needed mailing lists of thousands or tens of thousands. The reason for this was simple, as people and researchers discovered the response or conversion rate was often around the 1% mark. So doing the maths it was easy to calculate the size of the data base one needed to achieve the planned business goal.

Understanding the difference in what Twitter brings

Those involved in marketing have taken each new technology as it has come along and used it in their existing models.
What many have overlooked however is that twitter and other social platforms have their own “norms” and methods.

It’s all in the twitter list

You see when you have a “list” many marketers will say that once they have trusted you to have their details they as potential customers are a warmer prospect – so they are more likely to buy from you – so for sake of argument let’s say that the percentage that responds changes from 1% to almost 10%. Now if that list contains only people that have bought from you before, or have significant experience of you to trust you – that response rate is higher.
Leaving the response rates alone for a moment (I will come back to that), have a think about referrals. For we know that both referrals and testimonials help in persuading potential customers into trusting us to make a purchase. Getting referrals however has often been difficult for many businesses.

The need to think differently about twitter & social media to win

Now imagine a way of having existing customers talk about your product or you as a provider on a daily basis – each time they tell many people they know. Also imaging that in time the conversion rate on that list becomes many times higher than the 10%.
Well welcome to twitter. If all you are thinking about is the number of followers you have- then I am afraid you have missed the point – and you may as well stop. Simply put, if you have 100 good quality followers, and each of them have 100 good quality followers then one great message has the opportunity of getting to 100,000 people – every day! Ok so realistically that wont happen, but then most people on twitter statistically have several hundred.
Many also say that it takes too much time – well the typical number of tweets from a user is just 10 a day.
The point here is to engage with your followers, not like other marketing channels where it is just about broadcasting.

Social media is all about influence & engagement

Many are starting to use Klout scores – if you think this is important – then it is easier to have a higher score with a smaller audience than a large audience. Better to have 500-1000 people that you talk to, they talk to you, and they retweet your message – for this is a form of referral!
Some points to note:

• 67% of users are more likely to buy products from brands they follow on Twitter. This compares favourably to the 51% who buy products from brands they follow on Facebook (HubSpot, Edison Research)
• Companies that use Twitter gain twice the number of leads each month than their non-Tweeting counterparts (HubSpot, Edison Research).
• Twitter users are more educated than the general population. Just 12% of users report a high school education or less (HubSpot Internet Marketing, Edison Research).
• Twitter users have higher incomes than the population at large with nearly half of Twitterers earning $50,000 USD or more annually. This compares to 33% of the general population (HubSpot, Edison Research).
• Many Twitter users are considered early adopters with 19% among the first to purchase new products upon launch compared to 10% of the general population (HubSpot, Edison Research).

Do we need 1000s of followers on twitter?

So while I started this article on how to get thousands of followers – you can, just with a few hundred – for the “followers” count is sheer vanity. There will be thousands of people that read your tweets that are not following you – and that is what you want. Build a reputation for great content, and good followers will find you, especially if you:

1. Tweet every day – just 5-10 times
2. Give useable/ valued information – not just promotions
3. Talk & engage with your followers – i.e. reply to them – help them, answer questions
4. Talk about things that are not about your company or product (show you are human)
5. Retweet other peoples messages
6. Give people links to sites other than your own

Twitter is not a quick win. It can take an account 9-12 months to be trusted. But when established the responses to things you put out can be very quick. If you are new to twitter and want quick responses then try another technology – if you are serious about engagement and growing your business then slow and steady wins the day

**sources:
http://www.sysomos.com/insidetwitter/#followersvstweet
http://www.socialtechnologyreview.com/articles/40-fascinating-twitter-facts

How to get 1000s of followers on Twitter…