If you’re promoting your products/services on Twitter to just one follower, is there really much point? There are currently 307 million active users on Twitter, but it can be difficult to gain a following, especially when there’s no one following you to retweet your message. How can you reach out to people?
Tweet Regularly
Twitter’s news feed is live, showing Tweets as they are posted. On average there are 6,000 tweets sent a minute, so it’s easy for yours to get lost in the constant onslaught.
The only way around this is to Tweet regularly and consistently. Post at different times throughout the day, to see which times work best for you, but be sure to post regularly. Users log in at different times of the day, so it’s important to be able to target different people throughout the day.
Tweet Interesting Content
“Although you do need to tweet regularly, it’s not a case of quantity over quality,” says SEO & Content Executive Adam Richmond, “You need quantity AND quality.”
Regularly tweeting out interesting content increases the possibility of retweets, which leads to a larger audience reached, and an increased followership. Whether it’s funny pictures, thought-provoking videos, or links to helpful information about your sector, make sure your tweets are engaging and worthy of a retweet.
This also helps gain more followers through more than just retweets. When Twitter was fairly new, people would follow anyone and everyone. Just take a look at most millennials’ social media accounts, and you’ll see they have hundreds (sometimes thousands) of followers/friends, some of which they don’t even know. People are now more selective about who they follow, so interesting content that keeps popping up in their feed can convince them to become a follower.
Use #Hashtags
If users aren’t searching for you on Twitter, go to them. Users do look at hashtags and trending topics, so use them in your tweets to put your message in front of people.
But, you can’t just use any hashtags if you want to increase your following. There are countless examples across Twitter of companies abusing hashtags, and it always has a negative impact on either their following, their public image, or both.
Hashtag/topic “hijacking” refers to companies that use a trending topic or hashtag to promote their product/service, without adding anything to the subject. There have been some absolutely awful examples of this, including companies using tragedies in the news to sell themselves.
As long as your hashtagging is relevant to the tweet, you can put your message in front of people that will want to read your content.
Interact with people
“People are more likely to follow you if you engage with them,” says Digital Marketing Manager Natalie Crouch, “It makes your company more relatable and personable.”
In a similar fashion to hashtags and trending topics, you can use Twitter to search for people that are talking about a certain subject and interact with them. Get in a conversation with someone, and they’re more likely to follow you. It really is that simple.
You don’t have to stop once they’re a follower though. Twitter is a great tool for customer service management, and you can quickly turn followers into loyal customers. Loyal customers are more likely to engage with your brand, and more likely to retweet, leading to further outreach.