• Follow other people. Yes, the best way to get followers is to follow other people (unless you’re a celebrity.) On average, out of 10 people you follow, 3-5 will follow you back.
• Use the search box. See that search box on the right? You can type in any keyword or phrase and a list of tweets will come up. Think of what your target audience might be tweeting about. Type in those keywords. Interact and follow those people.
• Look at your competitors profile. See who’s following your competitors and follow them.
• Promote your Twitter page everywhere. Place a widget on your website. Place a post on your facebook page. On all print put: “Follow Us on Twitter!” and your twitter url. Place a a signature line on your emails.
• Tweet multiple times a day with quality content. Tweet often to get attention and tweet about things that your target audience will want to hear.

These are the top 5 ways I have found to get Twitter followers by just using Twitter. Of course there are several online applications and programs out there that may help you as well. If you need help getting targeted followers on Twitter, we are the experts! Contact Cultural Sponge for a consultation.

• USING ALL CAPS – When email first became mainstream, it was well known that using all caps meant screaming. More and more people are jumping on the social media wagon that never knew the ground rules. Take note- ALL CAPS MEANS SCREAMING (did you hear me?)

• Repeating the same posts over and over and over and over and over again – In print and TV, repetition does equal results, but not if the commercial plays over and over again with no break. If you keep posting the same thing, you will surely annoy your audience and be dubbed as spam! Be creative, try saying your message different ways or tying it into a campaign. Here are some great twitter campaign ideas.

• Over saturation – Yes, you can over saturate twitter and facebook. When I look at my home stream on twitter and facebook, I expect to see messages from a plethora of people and businesses. I get very annoyed when all I see is posts from the same business. Try to time out your posts. A good way to time out posts is by using an automated system. Hootsuite is a great tool to help you automate and track tweets.

• Profile page – There are many mistakes when it comes to your profile page. Placing your logo as your profile picture is a no-no. It’s simple, people relate to other people. Post either your picture or a picture of your team. Place your logo as a background image.  Also, another big mistake is leaving your profile page incomplete. Make sure to fill out as much as you can, especially your website address.

• Stale automated messages – Automated messages are great, but keep them fresh and up to date.

• Posting personal information – Keep your personal and business accounts separate. Your clients don’t want to hear what you had for dinner or your weekend plans.

• Too many followers in a short amount of time – Yes, people notice when you have thousands of followers over night. An account that builds thousands of followers in a short amount of time can be conceived as not genuine and spam. Focus on getting followers within your target market. Remember it’s the quality, not the quantity of followers!

These annoying tactics could get your followers and friends to unfollow or remove themselves as your fan. Worse, some just hide your profile posts or ignore you every time you post. Cultural Sponge offers strategic twitter campaigns, social media classed and consulting for businesses. Contact us and get your business heading in the right direction when it comes to social media!

• 73.5 million unique individuals visited Twitter in January 2010, up 8 percent from December
• Twitter has an amazing growth rate of 1,105 percent!
• 2009 was Twitter’s best year ever!
• It is estimated 1 billion tweets were tweeted in December and 1.2 billion tweets in January! (information provided by Crunchbase)

Keep in mind that comScore configures these number from twitters own site. These numbers do not record usage from mobile phones and other applications like the popular hootsuite and twillow tools.  Numbers from those apps may be twice as large.

With almost 75 million users tweeting over a billion tweets a month, it  makes sense for you to use twitter strategically to grow your business! Read more about strategic tweets and how to make twitter work for you!

Cultural Sponge develops strategic twitter campaigns to help businesses brand, create a buzz and grow.  Contact us today for a free consultation!