Introduction
It could seem pointless to put much focus on how to get followers on Twitter for self- or business promotion as there are other bigger platforms like Instagram and Facebook, and newer platforms like TikTok are gaining popularity as the ones where most of the buzz is. However, Twitter remains one of the best social media sites to promote yourself or your brand, expand your reach, and grow a community. Twitter is the place to do it whether you're a brand or a corporation looking to interact with consumers, an artist connecting with fans, or a regular individual looking to build your network.
This is because the platform fosters transparency and active participation. Twitter isn’t based on finely tuned content like Instagram or YouTube, but rather just the expression of ideas. Twitter has unparalleled tools for segmenting different content which makes it easy to have conversations with just the right people about the topics that matter to you. This makes utilizing the platform for growth a lot easier than other platforms.
Let’s not get things mixed up: Twitter is still a powerhouse of a platform. In 2021, Twitter was the 9th most visited site in the world. Currently, there are about 330 million active users on the platform, most of them being from:
- United States (69.3 million)
- Japan (50.9 million)
- India (17.5 million)
Why does the Twitter follower count matter?
As discussed, Twitter has over 330 million users, which means that Twitter has massive potential for reaching the masses with your content. However, when you’re starting from zero, your content won’t reach nearly as many people compared to followers with a big Twitter follower count.
That’s because when you tweet, Twitter first shows your tweet to the people that follow you. If that tweet does well and gets high engagement, Twitter will start showing it to users that don’t specifically follow you but do follow accounts that talk about similar topics as you do. However, if your tweet doesn’t get that initial engagement on Twitter from your followers, it won’t get nearly as far.
The follower count also acts as social proof and helps present you as an authority and a trustworthy user. When new people come to your profile and see that you already have amassed a big following, your tweets automatically hold more weight for them, as they know that you are co-signed by a large following. This also creates FOMO (fear of missing out) and can help inspire newcomers to follow you too in order to not risk missing out on something of value you provide. This all spirals like a snowball, making it easier and easier to grow as you get bigger.
Also, the more followers you have, the more people you can leverage for your doings outside of Twitter. If you sell a service or product, you can lead your followers to that. If you do something on another social media platform that is exclusive to said site, your loyal followers on Twitter may go and check out your doings there as well.
How to Get Twitter Followers Organically
Let’s get to the good stuff. How to get Twitter followers?
1. Optimize Your Twitter Profile to Attract Twitter Followers
Despite the influence you could have by using Twitter for business, not having a polished, up-to-date profile can discourage many would-be followers. Making sure your Twitter profile looks good will therefore be one of the first things you should do to gain more followers on Twitter.
What to make sure to optimize on your profile:
- Add a profile picture - Make sure to choose a picture that appropriately represents you, your brand, and/or your company. Your profile picture should grab the attention of others when they are scrolling their Twitter home feed. Your profile picture is what your people will come to associate with your name.
- Add a cover image - Same notes as your profile picture. Your cover image is only seen when people come to your profile, so it’s not as important as your profile picture. That said, a great cover image can give your profile the right vibe and aesthetic that attracts the followers you’re looking for. Use a service like Canva to make your header image for free online if you're having problems choosing the ideal image with the right dimensions.
- Write a bio - People read bios! Make sure the bio tells the reader who you are and what you do, but keep it brief. Also, a key factor is to add a CTA (call-to-action) to your bio. It can be anything from asking for the reader to follow you to go to your website. Another key thing to do is to add relevant keywords to your bio. This can help you show up higher in search results.
- Add a website link - If you have one, add a link to your website under your Twitter bio. This can pair perfectly with a CTA for readers to go read more about you on your site. This can be a great way to introduce new people into your funnel.
2. Engage With Your Twitter Followers
When your Twitter followers engage with and share your material, their followers notice that activity and grow interested. The engagement virtually acts as a recommendation. More engagement results in a wider audience and greater visibility, which attracts more followers.
Engaging with your audience produces very noticeable outcomes. It has been reported on various occasions that customers are much more likely to purchase from a certain company if they have had a positive interaction with it on social media. It can be as simple as liking and responding to a comment or retweeting a tweet that mentions you. It takes very little from you, but it can give back a lot.
Respond to comments and mentions. If someone has taken the time to write about you or your post, have the courtesy to respond. Use every chance you can to start a conversation. This is the kind of interaction that can trigger a positive response that later may lead to a sale or other form of reciprocity.
In addition to comments, respond to Direct Messages from your followers. This is especially important if you’re representing a business. Customers expect businesses to keep an eye on their DMs and respond quickly. DMs are a great way to start very personal and close conversations, which can help grow extremely loyal followers of yours.
3. Keep an Eye on Your Competitors
Your competitors can be a great source of inspiration. Firstly know who your competitors and peers are and study what they are doing. What is working for them and what isn’t? What can you incorporate into your strategy?
Since they are your competitors, their followers are your potential followers. By analyzing what their audience likes, you can see what elements would also work for you and your followers. Like Pablo Picasso has said: “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” Learn the art of stealing ideas from your competitors and making those ideas your own.
4. Learn what makes a good Tweet
If you want people to follow you, you need to give them something that incentivizes them to do so. Posting good tweets is what that incentive will be.
Data shows that the tweets that perform best are usually around 110 characters long. Twitter is a platform that is focused on very short-form content. People just don’t want to read you going on and on about a topic if it could be expressed in a shorter and better-hitting way. Keep your tweets short and simple.
Another thing to note is that a good tweet will spark some kind of reaction or response. That response can be an emotion of laughter, amusement, or wonder, or it can inspire one to respond and join a discussion.
5. Share relevant and useful content
Simple does not mean not valuable or meaningless. A good tweet should give some kind of value to its reader. Knowledge is the first kind of value that comes to mind, but entertainment, insinuating thoughts and emotions, inspiration, and motivation are all forms of value. When tweeting think about whether you would be glad to see your tweet on your Twitter feed and what would you want your followers to take away from it.
In addition to tweeting your thoughts, ideas, and opinions, share other pieces of content you found interesting and valuable.
- Retweet other tweets
- Share an article
- Share a movie or series recommendation
The list of options goes on and on.
6. Prioritize visual content whenever possible
Twitter itself has reported on multiple occasions that using whatever piece of visual media in a tweet will boost its engagement. Be it pictures, videos, gifs, article sneak peeks, etc.
One of the most underrated ways to increase engagement on twitter is to use gifs in your tweets. Gifs are easiest to use with GIPHY being integrated with Twitter but have a profound effect on your tweet’s reach. Twitter reports that tweets with gifs get an average 35% boost in retweets. Gifs help convey emotion, which in turn creates a more profound reaction in readers. The bigger the reactions, the more people will engage with your tweets, helping you reach more people and grow your following.
7. Tweet consistently
You miss every shot you don't take. How to get famous on Twitter? - increase how much you use the platform. The likelihood that one of your tweets may connect with your audience and go viral increases the more you tweet.
Undoubtedly, there is a boundary to stay in. Your followers won't have the time or energy to read tweets arriving after every minute unless you post a thread or go on a one-time tweet storm. A great number of tweets would be five each day, adding your personal responses and retweets. This allows your followers enough time to read and respond to your tweets.
The classic saying "practice makes perfect" applies to tweeting frequently. The more you tweet, the quicker you'll discover your style, your favorite topics to write about, and what topics resonate with your audience. Setting a goal to tweet every day for 90 days is an excellent method to develop the habit of tweeting. Choose a subject that interests you and has value for your audience, and talk about it for 90 days.
Though do note that you don’t have to tweet every few seconds like Kanye here:
8. Harness the power of hashtags
Twitter's hashtags enable your tweets to be associated with specific topics, especially relevant and specialized issues. There is a lot of debate regarding whether hashtags actually work for increasing engagement and virality, especially on other platforms. Most people think that using up to two or three hashtags in each tweet is the best practice.
Make sure the hashtags you pick properly match what you’re saying in your tweet, so those that are diving into that topic will actually tweet valuable. In addition to this, hashtags can be used to create and join communities. Numerous unique hashtags are used in this way. By using the right hashtags that connect with your niche, Twitter’s algorithm can better understand who to promote your more popular tweets to. Making the best use of hashtags will boost the followers you get on Twitter.
9. Tweet like a real person
You may sometimes find yourself writing very complexly worded tweets that flex your grammatical knowledge. If you notice this while doing it, stop. There is no reason to try and appear smart and eloquently spoken in order to be respected. It can actually have the opposite effect.
People want to understand what you’re saying and they want to understand it quickly or not at all. This is why it’s important to keep it short and simple, or in other words: write like a real person. Twitter is not supposed to be always formal, so use all the slang and incorrect grammar you want, if that fits your brand. The message your tweets convey is 10 times more important than how smart or correct it sounds.
10. Experiment with your Twitter tone
Continuing from the last point, there is, however, a time and place to sound formal on Twitter. If that’s what your brand’s image and character are, then stick to it.
If you’re not yet sure what you want your tone to be on the Twitter, experiment! See what lands and what you like the most. A good way to test this is to read out your tweets in different tones and see what you like the most.
It can take a while to find the exact right tone of voice on any platform. Have patience and experiment.
11. Create a community through active engagement
Your goal should be to build not just a following, but a community. The difference is that your followers should feel that they belong to a defined group because they follow you, not that they just see you and no one else. When they think of you, they should also think of your other followers as companions.
You can cultivate a community by the way you engage with your followers. Actively encourage and start conversations and discussions. Create a platform for your followers to mingle with each other. The end result should be that your followers feel a sense of pride from followingyou and belonging to your community. Just know that this will all take time and consistency.
12. Learn how to tag, retweet, and reply
Master the art of retweeting and quote tweeting and you will grow on Twitter. It’s one thing to just retweet something you like, but opting for a quote Tweet lets you do two things:
- Add your own opinion and/or insight to add value to what you’re sharing. It also lets you give context to your followers as to why you’re sharing that other tweet.
- Reply to tweets that mention you. This can be a great way to bring a conversation in front of the eyes of your entire audience. For example, if someone replies to one of your tweets and you notice that their reaction is shared by a large part of your audience, you can address all of them by quote-tweeting your reply.
13. Participate in Twitter Chats
When you don't have a large following, you should make the most of any chances to reach new audiences. Joining Twitter Chats is one method to achieve this. On Twitter, these are public discussions centered on a certain subject. They occur at a predetermined time, and the conversation is recorded using a hashtag unique to that chat.
By following accounts in your niche, you can find relevant chats. Then, at the appropriate moment, search for the selected hashtag and add your remarks to the chat using that hashtag.
14. Plan and Schedule Your Tweets
The time of day you post on Twitter matters more than it does on a non-chronological network like Facebook. Your tweets won't be seen if you submit them when your followers aren't using the platform, and lesser visibility equals lower engagement, decreased traffic, and fewer followers.
Knowing your audience and when to contact them are essential for performing at your best on Twitter. The Twitter platform itself provides you with an overview of your audience. You can adjust your tweets to your audience's interests and demographics by analyzing your Twitter analytics. Using this knowledge, you can decide when to tweet to your audience for the highest twitter engagement and reach.
You can either plan your tweets to go live at that time or make sure your daily Twitter schedule corresponds with the time of day when your audience is most engaged. Just keep in mind that you must consistently upload new information to Twitter, and the ideal tools for doing so are easily accessible data and perhaps a tweet-scheduling system.
15. Pin your most popular Tweet
A pinned tweet provides you with a small window of opportunity to make a significant impression, much like a job interview or a business pitch. Pinning a tweet draws attention from anyone who views your Twitter profile by acting as though it were under a spotlight.
You can choose the ideal tweet to pin to your profile in a few different ways.
Pinning a tweet that has done very well. The tweet will probably be interesting to other people who are viewing your profile if it attracted a lot of attention from your followers when you first tweeted it. It will very surely receive more views, likes, comments, and shares as well. Your newest followers are unlikely to ever see your greatest tweets because fresh tweets push older tweets further down in your timeline.
A tweet that highlights a brief promotion or an upcoming event that your company is supporting is frequently pinned. Simply unpin the tweet when the promotion or event is done and repin a new tweet for your subsequent one.
A link to a positive article or review of your business. Suppose, for instance, that you tweeted a link to an interview in which you took part. In reality, it's someone else promoting your company or brand, but you're pinning it to show how highly valued customers find your brand's offerings. Articles and interviews help create social proof, so newcomers find it easier to trust you.
16. Promote your Twitter on other social accounts
If you have a following on any other social media platform, it’s most likely that not all of your followers there are following you on Twitter. Yes, some of them just may not use the platform, but in other cases, it’s often due to the fact that they just didn’t know you use Twitter actively or didn’t think to search for you there.
Sharing some of your best tweets to other platforms helps drive traffic to your Twitteraccount. Tweets are also a great form of content on other platforms, helping you stay consistent with sharing new content.
17. Create Twitter Polls
Polls boost engagement and get your audience to actively participate in your content. Polls can be used just to ask interesting questions, but also to find out what your audience really likes. This information can be used to better tailor your content to what your audience likes.
18. Work with influencers
Collaboration is one of the best strategies for growing on any platform. Whether you’re in the role of a company or an individual, utilizing connections with others will help you speed up your growth. Find potential collaborators in your niche and reach out to see how you could both benefit from working together. Just make sure to pick influencers whose audience would actually be interested in what you do and the topics you discuss.
19. Promote your Tweets
Twitter has very strong tools for paid advertising. While yes, it will require you to cough up some cash, it can have great returns, especially for businesses and brands. If your content is good enough that your followers are following your CTAs and buying your service or product, then investing in getting to more people will mean more sales.
A well-put-together Twitter marketing campaign of paid ads can reach millions of people and help you grow your following on Twitter and also direct them to your website or sales funnel. Paid Twitter ads will show up on people’s home feed and if you have set up your campaign in the most optimal way, it will not feel like an ad at all, but rather something that truly belongs to the person’s home feed.
20. Use Twitter analytics
When you start tweeting more often, keeping an eye on how you’re doing is imperative. Keep an eye on your Twitter analytics to see how your content is doing. Look for patterns and standouts in regard to what is working the best and what is not working that well.
Use this information to course correct and focus more on what your audience is responding best to. However, don’t fall into the trap of only staying within what you know will work. Always experiment and try new things, as you never know what you and/or your audience may like even more.
How to buy Twitter followers
You can also accelerate your Twitter success by buying likes, retweets, and/or followers. By doing this, you will be prepared from the start and be able to use the attained followers to establish your authority. By doing so, you remove the primary barrier to people following and trusting you: lack of social proof.
Since most people tend to follow the crowd, social proof is one of the primary ways humans decide whether to believe a source or a particular individual. When you have a large following, FOMO (fear of missing out) is also applied, which increases the likelihood that people will follow you as they don't want to lose out on the information that other people are already actively following.
However, it's important to remember that even if you buy followers, new organic followers probably won't stick around for very long if you don't continuously provide high-quality content. This is why it’s important to follow the other tips we’ve discussed in our article as well.
Having said that, purchasing followers is a very effective technique to speed up your Twitter growth and can be a terrific strategy to go viral on Twitter.
SocialPlug offers various service packages for buying followers and engagement for both US-based Twitter accounts and also ones in the NFT niche. If you want to make growing on Twitter fun, exciting, and most importantly, fast, then **read more about our services on our services page.**
If you want to find out more about buying Twitter followers, read our article on safely buying Twitter followers in 2022.
Why should you increase your Twitter followers?
Twitter may not have as many users as websites like YouTube and Facebook, but it is the one that can most effectively reach a professional audience, so knowing how to increase Twitter followers is still a must.
Similarly to other social media sites, follower numbers are important. It is important for:
- Authority
- Credibility
- Organic reach
Accounts having a large number of followers are more likely to be interacted with and followed by users. Additionally, they are more likely to see your content in their timeline because Twitter prioritizes posts from accounts with a large number of followers over those with fewer followers.
It sounds like a bit of a catch-22 when you put it this way: you need followers to attract followers. You need not worry, though, since these professional tactics will help you swiftly increase your following.
Frequently Asked Questions
When are Twitter followers most active?
The average global interaction on Twitter is at its peak on
- Tuesday between 9 AM and 1 PM
- Wednesday between 9 AM and 3 PM
- Thursday between 1 AM and 11 AM
- Friday between 9 AM and 10 AM, according to data provided by Sprout Social.
The issue is that during these periods, there are a lot of other tweets to compete with. When it comes to Twitter, different demographic groups use the service in different ways.
There are distinctions between firms and consumers, for instance. Business-to-business (B2B) content on Twitter performs best during working hours. B2C content performs better on the weekends. It’s also reported that Wednesdays are often better for branded content.
How does scheduling tweets keep Twitter followers long-term?
Scheduling tweets in advance makes it easier to stay consistent with putting out content. Yes, you will sometimes get a spontaneous idea for a tweet, but sometimes your head might be completely empty when it’s time to tweet. Preparing and scheduling your tweets to be automatically posted removes the chance of you forgetting to tweet or needing to frantically think of something to post.
In the long-term, the more consistent you are with posting, the more people will organically come to your page. The more content you put out there, the more people are likely to see some of it and find you.
How can I engage with my Twitter followers?
Engaging with your Twitter followers is very important to growing and maintaining a following. Ask questions from your audience, answer replies and direct messages, and try to start conversations with them.
Final Thoughts
Growing on Twitter is not easy, but it is quite simple. At the core of everything we’ve shared is to consistently post on the platform, engage with your already existing following and look for opportunities to get yourself in front of new people.
If most of the tips mentioned are new to you, then don’t stress about trying to start implementing everything we’ve mentioned. Pick a few that seem like the best options for you and start working from there. The most important thing is to just stick to it and don’t stop being active on the platform. That’s how to get followers on Twitter.
