> Interesting:
Smart, relevant, interesting, even funny content people want to read.
> Annoying:
Repetitively posting the same things, boring stuff,
or pitching/promoting yourself non stop.
Shaquille O'Neal had a GREAT post
where he gave his "
Twitter Formula".
- 60% Try to make people laugh.
- 30% Try to inspire people.
- 10% Try to sell stuff.
@Shaq has over 4.2 Million followers!
Which means, this is a great formula,
and one I definitely use as a model.
_______________________________________________________________
2. Be Interactive:Unless if someone is a celebrity and already has a huge following,
one of the best ways to create a following is to be interactive with people.
People will follow people they can interact with and have quality conversations.
Quality can mean interesting, meaningful, helpful to business, or just funny.
*** Nobody wants to follow boring/annoying people.
People who just post and post, but never interact with anyone will likely
have a hard time creating a following.
> How to be interactive?
- Ask questions
- Answer other people's questions
- Retweet other people's posts
*** And the BEST form of interaction is to compliment and/or
recommend other quality people on Twitter. They will usually
appreciate it and probably thank you for it. When/if they thank
you on Twitter their whole list will see them thanking you, and
therefor make you look like someone who might be good to follow.
Everyone loves positive people who give praise. Just make sure
it's sincere. Do NOT do the copy/paste compliment to 5-10+ people
a day. That will work more against you than help and it just makes
you look bad and cheesy.
*** Key Point:
If you become interactive with “influential” people, their lists of followers
will see them interacting with you and might then find you interesting enough
to follow. So interaction with influencers can help drive people to follow you.
_______________________________________________________________
3. The "Follow Back" Method:This is maybe the most common and one of the most effective methods
of growing followers. The "follow back" strategy. It's proven that if you
follow people a certain percentage will automatically follow you back.
*** Keep in mind, there are right ways and wrong ways to do this!
--> The "right" ways:
Are safe, a great way to meet new people and
create relationships on Twitter and build a following.
--> The "wrong" ways:
Are not only a waste of time, but can and
likely will get your account shut down by Twitter!
So, be smart and be careful.
> Here is the basic concept of the "Follow Back" Method:
1. Find people you find interesting/relevant and follow them.
2. Next, look at who they follow and follow people they follow.
3. Do this on a consistent basis.
4. Set a goal to follow “x” number of people every day.
5. Then once a week or once a month, go back and “unfollow”
the people who didn’t follow you back.
> How many will follow back?
Depending on the type of people you follow, you can expect
as low as 5-10% or as high as 50% of the people you follow
to follow you back. A safe average is about 20% - 30%.
*** This will depend GREATLY on:
- The type of people you are following.
- How active, attractive, and interesting you are to those people.
_______________________________________________________________
> Here's an example:
If you followed 100 people per day:
100 people
x 30 days = 3,000 people per month
x 12 months = 36,000 per year.
If 20% - 30% of those follow back, that would
= About 10,000+ People Following You!
If that sounds like a lot, or a lot of time... IT IS ! ! !
But...
- What if you did 1/2 of that? = 5,000+ people following you.
- What if you did 1/4 of that? = 2,500+ people following you.
*** What if you did more?
- Following 200 people a day could = 20,000+
- Following 300 people a day could = 30,000+
- Following 500 people a day could = 50,000+
--> People following YOU in 12 months ! ! !
_______________________________________________________________
*** How To Automate The Process:
Sure that all sounds great, BUT...
Doing that can take a LOT of time!
1. Finding quality people to follow.
2. Following all those people.
3. Then going back and unfollowing
the ones who don't follow back.
You can easily spend WAY more time doing all that than it's worth!
But, there is a solution.
There are sites and software you can buy that will automate
the whole process for you. I’ve heard good/bad about all of them.
Be careful choosing which one to use because some of them break
Twitter's policies and can get your account shut down.
When you see someone with 100,000 followers and they are
following about 100,000... You can pretty safely assume they are
using one of the software programs. You can also safely assume
YOU could do the same thing... IF you had the right software to use.
*** Which software is best?
I read all the reviews on all the most popular software programs available.
There is ONLY one with a great reputation, the best track record, and best features.
I knew several people personally who use it, love it,
have a HUGE following, and they highly recommended it to me.
You can get a FREE trial version of it here:
http://budurl.com/FollowerSoftware_______________________________________________________________
> Have I done the "follow back" method myself?
- Answer: Yes and No... I'll explain.
At first, I had no clue what Twitter was all about, how it worked, or even why
to use it. The last 2 years have been an interesting learning curve, and I have
tried/tested many things on Twitter. I did try the "follow back" method early on
and found that it did work.
Without software though to automate the process, it was VERY time consuming.
So I tested and tried several different tools and sites (like many people do).
I quickly found out that there are a LOT of sites out there who will try to scam
you out of money to help you build a following on Twitter... so be careful ! ! !
So, if you are going to use software - Only use software from a trusted source!
Otherwise you could get your account shut down, or even worse.
Some sites are known to run spyware to try to steal your identity,
or give your computer a virus, or even hijack your account and
start posting things to it you don't want there.
This is the only safe, reliable, and effective software I know of.
http://budurl.com/FollowerSoftware
_______________________________________________________________
Today when I find interesting people I will follow them and often
check out who they are following and follow some of them,
and that usually does lead to more followers.
Then when I interact with those people, I'll also see new
followers from their circle of influence, because they see
us having interesting interactions.
> The majority of my followers come from:
- Quality interactions on Twitter.
- My circle of influence from business both online and offline.
- And because people seem to enjoy what I post.
But you can always use the "follow back" method to get the ball rolling!
If you want to use a "technique" to get yourself started, personally
I don't think there's anything wrong with that. There are some who
say it's "cheating" the system, but who cares what other people say.
Do what you feel is right for you, and as long as you're not hurting
anyone or bothering them, do your thing.
If you use the "follow back" method, and target people with
similar interests, it can lead to great connections.
I don't think there's anything wrong with that!
Have fun on Twitter!
_______________________________________________________________
1. Twitter has a limit of following no more than 1,000 people
per day (obviously a lot, but some people use software or sites
that follow automatically). Following too many people, or following
too fast can get your account shut down.
I would NOT push or test that limit either.
I have heard it is best to follow LESS than
500 per day, and that is even a LOT.
To be safe, I would recommend to follow
LESS than 400 per day, and spread it out if possible.
Do NOT just sit and click rapid fire following people.
I know people who tried that, and got their accounts shut down!
2. Twitter also limits you to following a maximum of 2,000 people.
*** Unless you have more than than 2,000 people following you.
So you will have to unfollow those not following you on a regular basis.
I suggest giving people at least 3-4 days to follow you before you
unfollow them. Even better, would be giving them a 7-9 days.
Some people only check Twitter once or twice a week.
> Here are Twitter's policies on following limits:
http://bit.ly/TwitterLimits_______________________________________________________________
*** One More IMPORTANT Point ***
The process of unfollowing people can be even MORE time
consuming than the process of following them! That's why I
recommend, if you are going to do this, to use the software
program I mentioned because it will do EVERYTHING automatically!
It will help you find the BEST people to follow.
It will follow all those accounts for you.
It will spread out following those people through out the day.
It will keep track of who followed you, and then automatically
unfollow all the accounts that did not follow you back!
I didn't have the time, patience, or attention span
to do all that without the software, but you can if you want ;-)
And the software is ridiculously inexpensive!
And... You Can Try It For Free!
> Here is the link to get your free trial:
http://budurl.com/FollowerSoftware
