October 10, 2022
Last update
10.10.2022
08 MIN.
If you don’t have a solid Twitter presence, we will look at tips and actionable examples to help get more followers on Twitter.
Marvellous
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Your first thousand followers on Twitter are usually the hardest to get. Why? Nobody knows who your brand is yet.
You need to put in the effort to give your target audience reasons to follow you. And growing your audience will allow you to take full advantage of Twitter. The larger your followers, the more opportunities you have to increase your brand awareness, build a community, and drive growth to your business.
If you don’t have a solid Twitter presence, we will look at tips and actionable examples to help get more followers on Twitter.
Let’s get started.
There are over 500 million tweets shared on Twitter daily. This means that it is easy for your posts to get lost in a sea of tweets. If your target audience isn't seeing your content, it will be difficult to get any engagement, not to talk of followers. And one way to increase your tweet visibility is by sharing visual content such as videos and GIFs.
Studies have shown that people are more likely to stop scrolling through their Twitter feed to watch a video or view a photo rather than read a text post. This is because the human brain visually processes information 90% of the time. The human brain also processes images 60,000 times faster than text. So, if you want to grab the attention of people, you need to create and share more visual content.
There are different ways you can use visual content on Twitter. Let’s look at some of the most popular types.
Videos are one of the most effective content formats on Twitter. In a blog post, Twitter says that tweets with videos get 10x more engagements than tweets without videos. Video ads are even less expensive as they save 50 percent more per engagement.
Some tips to help you create engaging videos:
Images on Twitter do very well. Tweets with images are 34% more likely to be retweeted than tweets without images. And there are several ways you can use images. For instance, you can use product photos to showcase your products. Here is an example from Sephora.
When appropriate you can also use memes. Memes are a great way to include a bit of humor and fun into your content. And since memes usually get a lot of engagement, they have the potential to go viral.
Here is an example from Telflar using memes creatively to promote their brand.
Infographics and data visualizations like charts and graphs are an engaging way to visually present data that your audience can easily understand. They allow you to appeal to a large audience since not everyone wants to read a long thread of tweets. And since charts, graphs, and infographics are very engaging, they are a good way to build your social media presence. If you use data visualizations to share useful information, it can also help you build your brand authority. Here is an example from Forbes.
An effective way to increase your brand reach and get more Twitter followers is by working with influencers. And the best part is that you don’t have to work with macro influencers with hundreds of thousands of followers before you can start influencer marketing.
If you don’t have a huge marketing budget, a micro-influencer with less than 50k followers will be perfect for your brand. Micro-influencers are affordable and tend to have closer relationships with their followers. And even though micro-influencers don’t receive more engagement than macro influencers, their engagement is often more authentic before their followers trust them more.
The key thing is to choose an influencer that is right for your brand. Work with influencers that have an audience that will be interested in your product and not just because they have a huge following. You should also check out their engagement rate; especially their comments. The quality of comments will let you know if they have real followers or are using bots. Some influencers might even have a huge following but poor engagement rates. Avoid these kinds of influencers.
Lastly, make sure that the values of the influencer align with your brand. The influencers will be representing your brand. And working with influencers that do not match your brand values can bring negative backlash from your fans and customers.
You can collaborate with influencers to help you build up your social media presence or increase awareness for your brand/product.
The first place most people will check before following you on Twitter will be your profile. It's important that you optimize your profile and make it inviting to new followers.
Here are some tips to help you optimize your profile:
Use an easily recognizable profile image. It's best practice to use the same profile image for all your social media accounts. Businesses can use their company logo and freelancers or individuals who wanna grow a brand presence on social media can use a quality headshot photo.
Your Twitter bio can only accommodate 180 characters or less. Make it count!
You can use the bio to let people know who you are and why they should follow you. Here is a good example from Trung Phan.
He lets visitors to his profile know who he is and why they should follow him – he writes on business and makes dumb memes.
You should also use relevant keywords and hashtags in your profile. They will help increase your brand's visibility on Twitter search. Just make sure you use one or two hashtags so as not to distract viewers. If you are using an industry hashtag, ensure that your competitors are not at the top of the search results so you don't drive people to them.
Your head image makes your Twitter profile visually appealing. Take your time to choose one that grabs the viewer's attention.
Here are a few good examples of Twitter headers.
Target
Target uses a fun picture of a dog and incorporates elements of their popular logo in the header image.
Starbucks
You can change your header image depending on the season, holiday, or event currently trending on Twitter. For Fall, Starbucks Coffee used a Fall-themed header.
Old Spice
For their header, Old Spice went for bold and entertaining. Anybody who visits their profile will take some seconds to digest everything going on in the image.
Other ideas of what you can use for the header image are photos of your top-selling products, a new product, your team, and user-generated images.
Tip: Your tweets also shouldn't be protected. Your prospective followers won't discover you if your tweets are hidden.
Compared to social media sites like Instagram where you can share content less frequently, you need to post more regularly to get significant visibility and growth on Twitter. Because to get followers, you need people to find your tweets and engage with them.
So how many tweets should you post a day?
According to several studies on the internet, the consensus is that brands should tweet a minimum of 1-5 times a day. You can post more than that too. But the key thing is to share tweets that your audience will engage with.
If you are stuck for content, there are different tweet ideas you can use to fill up your content calendar. You can share user-generated content, repurpose other content into tweets, share industry news, useful tips, etc.
And with the help of a social media scheduling software, you will be able to schedule content weeks in advance. This will save you time and help you stay consistent with your content strategy.
One of the best ways to get your tweets seen and increase engagement is by jumping in on Twitter trends and topics.
When you tweet about the trending issues in your industry, you can establish yourself or your brand as a thought leader on Twitter. So with the combination of tweeting about trending topics which will increase your post visibility and then establishing yourself as an authority by sharing quality tweets, you can grow your following.
Before you jump on a Twitter trend, there are two questions you should ask yourself.
These questions will ensure that you are jumping on the right trend. You can find trending topics by going to the “What’s happening” section on Twitter. You can also follow Twitter topics relevant to your brand and industry. This will make it easy for you to follow conversations your target audience is engaging in.
An example of a brand jumping in on trending topics is Pepsi. On National Burger Day, they reminded their followers that all burgers go better with Pepsi.
Twitter hashtags help you to increase the visibility of your tweets because they are searchable. If you search for the hashtag #NationalFamilyDay, you will see all the tweets with that hashtag.
As of the time of writing, this hashtag is trending. The Simpsons took advantage of this and by jumping in on a trending hashtag, they got more people to see their tweet. In 1 hour of posting, their tweet got over 200 likes, 20 retweets, and 10 comments.
Jeep also posted using the hashtag and saw significant engagement levels.
Hashtags are a quick way to ensure that your audience finds your tweets.
There are several ways you can use hashtags.
Note that you shouldn’t overuse hashtags. They can be distracting when used excessively. One or two hashtags are enough per tweet.
It’s also best practice to measure the performance of the hashtags you use. You cannot do this with Twitter’s inbuilt analytics tool. But with a dedicated social media tool like Iconosquare, you will be able to track how well the hashtags you use perform.
Hosting or participating in Twitter chats is an effective way to increase your reach while simultaneously building your brand’s authority. With Twitter chats, you get the opportunity to interact with your audience in real time.
And if you have a small following, look for popular Twitter chats to participate in. Even if initially you don’t get the opportunity to speak in these chats, you can comment on the chat threads. The more valuable your comments, the more people will notice you in your industry. This will help you start to grow on Twitter. And with time, you will get invites to start speaking in chats or even host yours.
A loyalty program is a strategy where a business provides its customers with incentives such as rewards and discounts to get them to take specific actions. In this case, your customers will get a reward when they follow you on Twitter.
An example of a brand using a loyalty program to gain followers is luxury retailer Rebecca Minkoff. RM launched a reward program, Blume Bucks, where customers do several tasks including following them on Twitter for a reward. 100 Blume Bucks is equal to 1 dollar and can be used to purchase something in their shop.
Twitter Spaces is the perfect way to interact with your audience and build connections with them in real time. Hosting a Space gives you the opportunity to engage with your audience and cultivate a brand community.
Here are some tips to help your Spaces gain traction:
Also, encourage your current followers to promote the Space to their audience. The more people that talk about it, the more likely it will trend in the “Happening Now” Spaces section of Twitter.
Do not try to use Twitter Spaces to sell your brand or product. Instead, use it to entertain and educate your audience. People will follow you for the later.
Twitter created Communities to give people a dedicated space where they can connect, share, and discuss with other users. Participating in Communities offers you the opportunity to introduce yourself or brand to people who haven’t heard of you before.
Note that Tweets in Communities can be seen by everyone but only people within the Community can participate in the conversation. They also have admins and moderators to ensure that users follow Community rules.
So how can you join a Community?
There are three main ways you can join one:
UGC solidifies your brand’s authenticity on Twitter. Studies show that 60% of people say that UGC is the most authentic form of content. And as consumers get increasingly distrusting of branded content, sharing UGC will allow people to trust your brand more. People will be more likely to follow you when they trust the content you share
Not only that, but user-generated content also gets a lot of engagement. UGC gets 6.9x more engagement than branded content.
So how can you encourage your followers to share UGC?
Here are two ways you can go about it:
You can create a targeted giveaway and as part of the participation rules, your audience will have to share content related to your brand. The key thing is to choose a worthy prize that will attract your target audience.
In this example, Teleflora asks their customers to share photos of themselves with their flowers for a chance to win 50 dollars.
You can encourage your users to share UGC by creating a dedicated UGC hashtag for your brand. Whenever your audience wants to tweet about your brand, they can use the hashtag. This will also make it easy to monitor the tweets. For example, fans of luxury performance cars maker BMW uses the hashtag #BMWRepost when sharing pictures of their cars.
While it’s important to tweet regularly, you also need to engage with other users. This will include both your followers and people that mention you on Twitter.
Engaging with other users humanizes your Twitter profile and lets people know that a real person runs the account and not bots. And since social media is all about reciprocity, the more you engage with other people, the more engagement you will get.
You can engage with other users by retweeting, commenting, and liking their tweets. You can also tag other brands and influencers in your posts. A single retweet from an influencer can significantly increase the reach of your tweets.
And when you leave a comment under people's tweets, make sure it’s a well-thought-out response. Your goal is to deliver value. You will get more potential followers when you leave valuable comments.
Other times, you can leave a fun comment to let your audience know that you see their posts and appreciate them mentioning you. Here is an example from Nike.
Tip: Not everyone will @mention tag you on Twitter. If you don’t want to miss any mentions of your brand, take advantage of a social media listening tool. This will allow you to keep track of any conversations about your brand on the platform.
One of the best ways you can get your target audience to take a specific action on social media is to offer them an enticing prize in return. For instance, a fashion store can host a contest asking customers to follow them on Twitter and also tag a friend for a chance to win 50 percent off their next purchase.
So not only will people that know about your business follow you for a chance to win, but they will also be introducing another person to your brand. And this person can potentially become a new follower.
To see success with contests, choose prizes that will attract your target followers. In the example above, the prize is a discount on the next purchase from the store. So it will most likely be people that are interested in fashion and the kinds of items the store sells that will participate in the contest. These people will remain followers even after the contests and as long as you continue to deliver value.
Here is an example of a contest from ColourPop Cosmetics.
Before you run any contests, make sure that you look at Twitter’s guidelines for promotions.
This tip sounds obvious, but not every business uses it. You should occasionally ask your audience to follow you. Sometimes, people might engage with your tweets but not follow you. They just need an extra push before they click the follow button.
So as long as you are delivering great content and regularly engaging with other users, don't be afraid to ask for a follow back.
One strategy you can use to ask people to follow you without it looking like you are begging is to ask for a follow when you have important information to share. You can ask your audience to follow and turn on notifications so they won't miss important updates from you.
You won't get new followers on Twitter if your target audience isn't seeing your posts. So it's important to consider the timing and tweet when your audience is most active online.
Multiple studies from several brands show that the best post times on Twitter are mid-morning from 8 to 10 am on weekdays. The weekend is the worst time to tweet.
But note that these post times are generalized. These numbers will vary depending on location and audience. So you need to find out when the right time to tweet for your brand is. With Iconosquare’s “Best time to post” section, you will be able to find out the best time to post on Twitter for maximum engagement.
And you don't have to worry about manually tweeting. You can use Iconosquare to schedule your tweets to automatically publish posts when your audience is most engaged. Start a 14-day free trial.
Getting followers is just one part of the puzzle when it comes to establishing a solid brand presence on Twitter. You need a rounded knowledge of best practices and marketing strategies to help you grow on the platform. Here are some essential Twitter guides to help you get started:
Hi! I'm Marvellous, huge fan of Iconosquare as a product, and determined to help experienced social media marketers thrive in the various aspects of their career.
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