Social media marketers typically turn to Facebook when promoting consumer products, striving for more likes and constantly issuing updates.
Twitter has an important advantage over Facebook that many marketers don’t realize. Because Facebook updates are filtered through the network’s edge rank, consumers don’t even see most company updates. Twitter is not filtered. All your tweets appear in your followers’ timelines.
Many marketers don’t appreciate that benefit, says social media marketing expert Jeff Bullas. Because of that, it’s easier to accumulate followers on Twitter than Facebook. Perhaps marketers should invest more of their social media resources in Twitter.
Main Techniques for Gaining Twitter Followers
Bullas suggests some main ways to gain more Twitter followers.
- Follow people on Twitter. They may reciprocate and follow you back.
- Link to great content. People are more likely to follow you if you produce or share quality content on your blog or website.
- Engage with your followers on Twitter with retweets, comments and questions
- Make it easy for people to follow you on Twitter from your website by including a follow button near the top of your page
Retweets Equal More Followers
Prompting more retweets is the path to winning more followers, argues Larry Kim, founder and CTO of WordStream. Unlike other types of engagement, retweets increase your reach, placing them before more viewers – sometimes substantially more. A recent CyberAlert tweet on 9 Tips to Save Time in Social Media was retweeted by Patrice Truong, a former Microsoft managing director who has over 80,000 followers. His retweet produced over 200 additional retweets.
Kim analyzed his tweets to find which prompted the most retweets. In a post on Medium, he says he found that:
- Images help tweets stand out. Images with rich, saturated colors are even better. If you’re posting a link to an article that has a chart, try including the chart as an image in Twitter.
- Mini-infographics and charts gain attention. People can see the information without clicking through. If the writing is too small, they can get the gist of the message from the larger text and decide if they want to click through to learn more.
- Viewers appreciate relevant, helpful content. Example: free educational resources.
- People love humor and odd images with comments. His photo that touted Lego figures as computer cable holders was well received.
Meeting Twitter’s Limit
Twitter’s 140-character limit is sometimes considered restricting. You can still tell stories within that limit. Kimberly Grimms of Social Media Today explains how to get the most out of Twitter despite the limit, in a post for JeffBullas.com.
Include a link. Consider the link an extension of your message. The tweet is your story’s introduction. A link shortener like ow.ly or bit.ly can save characters.
Leave space. Using under 140 characters prevents the need for people to re-edit your message before they share it. Leave room for at least two characters, since the RT symbol is added to retweets.
Use caution with hashtags. Limit yourself to one or two hashtags per tweet, or occasionally three at most. Too many can be irritating. Don’t use the same hashtag in every tweet.
Pose a question. Hook readers with a question related to your content. Examples are: “Do you know many people …?” and “Do you ever wonder why …?”
Ask for help. People often feel happy to help share their expertise, especially if many others can see it. Examples are: Can you recommend a good …?” Or “Where can I find a …?” Thank people for their answers and attempt to start a conversation.
Bottom Line: Twitter offers important and often overlooked benefits for marketing and PR professionals. These tips from top social media experts can help you take advantage of those benefits.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
