Getting More Twitter Followers and Twittering for Business

I noticed recently, since reaching 4,000 followers on Twitter, my "new Twitter follower" email notifications have been steadily increasing. This means I have a constant influx of new follower profiles to visit, check out and consider offering a return follow.  Not surprisingly, most of my new followers are real individuals, while the rest are made up of brands, agencies, non-profits and marketers using Twitter to get the word out about their overall business or a specific project. 

Despite whether you are an individual or a brand - playing well with other Twitterers is the key to success. With success here meaning more followers.

How do I (quickly, in 10 seconds or less) decide who I follow back? It's based on a couple factors, but overall they must:

• Have at least a handful of @'s on the first page of their profile, showing they listen, engage and talk with their followers.
• Have a completed profile, with their real name, website URL and, an interesting/compelling bio.
• Have a close following to follower ratio, meaning they actually follow people back and/or they don't follow a disproportionately larger number than those that follow them back.
• Talk about more than strictly "what they are doing." In other words, they share links, photos, videos and their most coveted thoughts with their followers.

In a matter of 10 seconds from looking at a profile, I have to get the impression they care about the community, enough to actually read some of my tweets and perhaps start a conversation with me at some point in the future. I am only encouraged to follow back those that play well with others, and contribute to the greater (Twitter) good.

Twittering for Business

This especially goes for brands, agencies, marketers, and basically anyone Twittering for business. The best strategy to pull in new followers AND grow awareness of your business AND drive traffic- is to consistently post balanced tweets (between promotional and non-promotional) that are posted by a particular voice or collective voice, based on the personalities and characters of the real people working for the brand.

A few days ago, while clicking through my new follower email notifications, the Suntimes and BestBuy221 Twitter profiles caught my eye. Both the Chicago Sun-Times and the #221 Best Buy store in Tulsa, link to and promote their brand through their bio and tweets, but also participate in random conversations through @ing others and discussing topics that have nothing to do with their business. It's new followers like these that make me happy to see brands using Twitter for business, because they are joining the community the right way, rather than the easy, spaming way. 

    

Comments

[Lisa de Bruin]

Nice! And isn't that the WHOLE POINT of Social Media? Not just listening, or spamming, even if I WANT a brand's stuff, I don't want overload in the ChatSpace.

Gary Vaynerchuk said it best here: http://web2expo.blip.tv/#1283612 "Listening to your community is good...Actually giving a crap is way better."

The Social Media Circle of any one person is that person opening themselves to influence just outside of their personal circle of influence...beyond their daily friends. This opens us to more opportunities than even WE can imagine: new friends, sure, but also news we might never search, food & wine, updates, tech, you name it.

I've found the following elements essential in any/all Social Media, Twitter included:

A REAL person, with real personality.
Freedom of expression (no censorship)
Thoughtful responses interacting w. the world.
Etiquette: pretty basic & essential
Relevant & Current (& stay that way)

[Best Buy 221]

Thanks for the favorable review! This is exactly the kind of reaction we're hoping for!

[Jessica Lawlor]

Thanks for those awesome tips. I have had Twitter since the beginning of the summer, but am recently starting to understand the actual point of it. I am learning to start conversations, and many of the tips you gave were definitely helpful.

I also run a Twitter account for my student-run PR firm, and am really thankful that you talked about also engaging in conversations through your business account. I wasn't sure where the line was that shouldn't be crossed when dealing with a business Twitter site.

Thanks again for those helpful tips, and I really enjoy your blog!

[Ernesto]

This is a good list. Essentially, you check to see if the other "follower" is a REAL.

Not just some megalomaniac marketer begging for followers, or some company strictly peddling their wares at nausea without offering advice or value beyond whatever widgets they sell. Rather, you're looking for a real person with a real story behind them.

Kinda like you Julia. :)

Good post. I like it.

[Jeremy Tanner]

A handful of @s is fine, too many @s is using it as IM and there are better tools for that (or DMs)

Also, if a close follower to following ratio is a requirement, how did BestBuy221 make the cut? Only 7% follow back. That's a spam account ratio and the only reason it's not worse is Twitter limiting them to 2,000 people followed at a time.

Jeremy

[Julia]

Jeremy, I thought about that, but at the end of the day I have to remember that most people, including brands are still trying to understand Twitter. I base my praise mostly on the overall energy, enthusiasm and effort coming from the people on the other side. With BesBuy221, their enthusiasm seems genuine and it's a fun idea to have an office twitter.

[Chel]

I've been pondering how to add the most value when using my company Twitter account and still add value to my personal account.

I just try to be myself and be as helpful as possible to both Twitterstreams.

Your thoughts just confirm my own on this one both personally and professionally. Thanks!

[Christine Perkett]

Julia - great post with valuable insights and tips. I'm sorry I missed it on its original date but I found it when researching others' thoughts on businesses on Twitter. We engage in a lot of discussion and education around this topic and I was interested in others' viewpoints (as evidenced in our blog post last week). I'm glad I found yours.

Hope all is well in NYC!
http://www.twitter.com/missusP
http://www.twitter.com/PerkettPR

[Ben Walker]

Fantastic post Julia. I definitely agree with you. I'm also happy to see businesses actually contribute to the twitter community. It makes the internet less over saturated with spam and junk.

Tweet with me!
http://twitter.com/bensir

[Chris]

Hi. Really good post. Makes a lot of sense and you're clearly going about it the right way!

http://twitter.com/chrischerrett

[JONA]

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