Written on May 8th, 2008 at 12:05 am by Darren Rowse
5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence
Since starting to use Twitter more regularly I’ve been asked by quite a few readers for tips on how to grow the numbers of Twitter Followers. Today I’m going to give a few tips on how I’ve grown my own Twitter Follower numbers up over 5500 in the last few months:
1. Leverage Other Profiles
Do you have an existing online profile somewhere outside of Twitter (big or small)? Use it to springboard into Twitter. If it’s a blog, mention that you’re using Twitter in a post and link to it from your profile and contact pages. If you’re on Facebook use one of the numerous tools available to drag in your Tweets to facebook. Add it to your email signature, business card, mention it in interviews or guest posts that you might do…. etc. The same applies with any online (or even offline) presence that you have - link to your Twitter page and link to it often (if you’d like to connect with me on Twitter my feed is here).
2. Tweet and Tweet Often - But Create Space for Reactions
The more active you are on Twitter the more likely you are to have someone find you from within Twitter and add you as someone that they are following. Every Tweet you do comes up on the Twitter Public Timeline - so upping your Tweet numbers can help have you appear more often there.
Warning - Tweet too regularly and about nothing worthwhile and you run the risk of loosing followers. What I’ve found is that on days that I’m more talkative than others that there can come points where I’m talking so much that my followers don’t have room to respond. Twitter can actually become quite confusing once you have too many trains of thought going all at once so I try to stick to one topic at a time and create pauses between them to let others interact.
3. Be Conversational
Apart from a good influx of new followers when I announced I was using Twitter at first the days that I get most new followers are those days that I interact with other Twitter users. Everytime you reply to someone and have them reply to you your Twitter ID appears in the feeds of others which exposes you to potentially thousands upon thousands of other Twitter users. Asking questions is perhaps the best way to get conversational on Twitter. Get 10 people to answer a question you’ve Tweeted and if even just one person signs up from each of those 10 people’s replies to you you have 10 new followers. Just as important is to participate in other people’s Tweets also - reply to their questions and ideas as much as possible.
The key with this approach is to be conversational about topics that will interest others. For example if you ask a very general question like ‘what cereal do you use’ and get a lot of answers - but i suspect you’ll get more answers AND new followers if the question was more relevant to people’s lives in some way (read on for more on this).
Another thought on the ‘art of conversation’ on Twitter is that I find I do better when I’m not talking about me. No one likes to hang around with people who just talk about themselves - so get the balance right between talking about yourself and talking about others and other topics of interest.
4. Provide Value
Tweeting on a personal level is fun and for many that’s as far as it goes - but if you’re interested in growing your Twitter influence you need to provide your followers (and potential followers) with value. It’s the same principle as growing a blog - if you help enhance people’s lives in some way they are more likely to want to track with you and read more of what you have to say. As a result your conversations should ‘matter’ on some level. Sure you can throw in personal tweets and have some fun with it - but unless you’re providing something useful to people (information, entertainment, news, education etc) they probably won’t follow you for long.
5. Tweet in Peak Times
Last week I tracked when I had new twitter followers add me and found (as I expected) that the frequency of ‘adds’ where made during business hours in the USA. My being situated in Australia can have some positives and negatives but one of the things I don’t enjoy about it is that I miss out on a lot of interaction with my followers who are on the other side of the world from me. I try to be online when the US wakes up (evenings for me) so as to make the most of the opportunities of being awake in this overlap time (similarly first thing in the morning for me can be good as my US friends are sometimes still at work or online at home in their early evenings). Tweeting during these times only increases the chances of someone finding you and adding you as someone to follow.
Bonus Tip
These are some of the things that I’ve noticed about my own Twitter follower numbers. I probably should add that for me it’s never really been a concerted effort. I do have the advantage of being able to do #1 quite well quite naturally but my last tip would be to just be yourself and Tweet form the heart. Don’t stress too much about the numbers but connect genuinely with the Twitter followers you already have and let the rest take care of itself!
Further Reading:
What tips would you add to mine on how to grow your Twitter Presence?
77 Responses to “5 Tips to Grow Your Twitter Presence”
Sumesh
May 8th, 2008 12:14 am
#3: I try to converse, with an occasional heated debate on Twitter on tech matters.
#4: I believe providing value is important. I personally share interesting links, and my own thoughts on Twitter.
#5: Peak times is a big head-ache for me - I live in India (GMT+5:30). I believe you’re in a fix of that sort too, Darren - being GMT+10:00.
Initially, I’d followed minimal number of my followers. Now I’m a lot more conversational, having switched from web to Twhirl and engaging in conversations.
BW
May 8th, 2008 12:20 am
I have to say that I have found Twitter very useful and it is a great way to get information and feedback quick.
I have found a lot of useful tips and tools just by following the tweets or various people on twitter.
I’m increasing the number of people I follow gradually and have found that my followers are also gradually increasing.
Best thing to do, is be yourself and provide quality information when you can.
http://twitter.com/coqui2008
Lucie
May 8th, 2008 12:22 am
Really useful stuff thanks.
Increasingly seeing people launching several twitter accounts (as I have done) to ensure they direct their Tweets to the right audience. Finding Twhirl is making this really easy to do.
Still waiting for the action sports industry to get busy on Twitter - could be a really useful resource for contest updates etc.
Alex Cristache
May 8th, 2008 12:23 am
Thanks for sharing these tips Darren. I’m currently looking to increase my activity on Twitter, so the timing is more than perfect. I’ve been observing your Twitter activity and I see that you have a very strong and successful strategy.
Andrea
May 8th, 2008 12:27 am
I noticed it took a while for my own followers to get up over a hundred, but once it did, it seemed like in a month or so it doubled. Dunno what I did, but it must’ve been right. :D
http://twitter.com/andrea_r
Sime
May 8th, 2008 12:28 am
Good post - I’m working on the too little, too much thing at the moment… Both in twitterland and on my Blog… Will get there eventually.
Thanks,
Sime.
Lynn Terry
May 8th, 2008 12:29 am
Ed Dale sent out a tweet that I quoted in a recent blog post (which I linked my name to) that is worth sharing here:
“Twitter is not getting followers - it’s creating a reason to BE followed. You are in the hands of your market. That’s how it should be.” -Ed Dale
You are a great example of that advice in action, Darren!
Dave Navarro
May 8th, 2008 12:30 am
Great tip - I’m using #3 on twitter right now!
http://twitter.com/davenavarro
Jesse Petersen
May 8th, 2008 12:32 am
Thanks for putting your tips together for us. You have quite a following that instantly translates into “expert.”
I completely agree with your warning on Tips #2 and #4.
I added one of the most popular people one day. I’ll leave him nameless here, but it was a HUGE mistake.
After 15 minutes, I had 22 tweets and no one in my list of 70 had time to get an a word in edgewise or cared to reply to anything.
Tweet with caution, I say.
Dominique
May 8th, 2008 12:38 am
Excellent post. Am following you on twitter.
I’m rather new to twitter as have only been on it for 3 weeks or so..have managed to grow my followers a bit.
More apt at replying twits then making them.. still have lots to learn from you.
http://twitter.com/DominiqueGoh
Rob Brydon
May 8th, 2008 12:40 am
Darren,
I have been thinking about this topic for a while now. Thank you for posting about this. I am glad to see that you put a point up about providing value.
Although my online footprint is small, I find that my best activity occurs wthen I post something that helps someone in some way.
Lipton of Starfeeder
May 8th, 2008 12:41 am
I posted a link to my twitter on blogcatalog as well as posted about it on my main blog. Since then I’ve been getting a few followers here and there, but I’m not sure if they are just companies trying to get more fans by adding fans…
http://twitter.com/starfeeder
Jeff - ScienceSays.net
May 8th, 2008 12:44 am
I was worried for a moment that this post would say “Make a super-awesome blog, then place a link on it”
Still, though, making a colorful, highlighted Contact Me page with my Twitter information prominently displayed helped a lot.
Sime
May 8th, 2008 12:52 am
OH! And…
http://twitter.com/gtvone
Sipboy
May 8th, 2008 1:00 am
I still don’t get the whole twitter thing. I have been all over the internet trying to get a better understanding of what it is all about. I guess I have to get started in it to really have it sink in. I have so many other social accounts, I didn’t want another account to keep up with. But with the flame surrounding twitter right now, it seems to be the hottest thing going.
Paula Hawk
May 8th, 2008 1:02 am
Great post - I have to agree with your ‘bonus’ post. I haven’t done much to increase my # of followers, but I am closing in on 300. Of course, no where near what you have, but I’m also pretty much an unknown yet! :)
George_E
May 8th, 2008 1:06 am
Good advise. Thanks for sharing. Especially the part about too much texting. I’m in the process of dropping some followers right now. I don’t care about people’s stupid rant’s every two seconds.
Twits are no exeception to the rule: content is king.
–
George
http://www.twitter.com/gesses
http://www.flickr/photos/gesses
Facebook: George Esses
Learn SEO
May 8th, 2008 1:17 am
So in other words, what you are saying is that we need to market our twitter url so that later we can market our website on twitter? Well if thats not the point, then what is it? Chitchat?
Michael Mistretta
May 8th, 2008 1:26 am
Very interesting about time zones. I find that it’s much easier to find twitter followers in 2008, as most people have an idea what twitter is - compared to 2007 where you had to explain it to everyone.
http://twitter.com/definetheline
Cassie
May 8th, 2008 1:32 am
Twitter has other uses than just marketing your website. For example, blog projects or simply getting ideas for new posts.
Anyway, my biggest tip (or my biggest peeve maybe) is not to post link after link which would be part of #4. If your blogs automatically post on Twitter, try and add other valuable content in between.
Joe
May 8th, 2008 1:40 am
i like twitter, but I find that I don’t tweet enough. I’ve got more followers than I thought I would though. No one really responds, maybe you can make a post on getting people to respond?
http://www.twitter.com/joen05
Cindy Szponder
May 8th, 2008 1:41 am
Hi Darren,
I have to say that so far I’ve noticed the most adds on days when I’m more active or when I provide information that one of my follows needs. I also see a definite link between my activity on Facebook and adds on Twitter. So there’s another idea.
twitter.com/cindyszponder
Hjörtur Smárason
May 8th, 2008 1:56 am
My number of followers has been growing faster on Twitter than anywhere else. I of course benefit from my other networks adding my friends from there.
But I find the most valuable advice being great value. That is what gets people to notice you, retweet you and recommend you to others. Write something interesting, share love and you will be loved.
Asking good questions is also a good method of establishing contact. Just like on LinkedIn. Somebody may forward your question to their followers for support.
Hjörtur
Oh, and one more thing. Commenting on posts like this one with your twitter account in the signature ;)
http://twitter.com/hjortur
Meg @ Spicy Magnolia
May 8th, 2008 1:58 am
Hi, Darren! You may want to clarify that a person’s Tweets are only put on the Twitter Public Timeline only if they do NOT checkmark “protect my updates” in their settings. But you also may be making the assumption that in order to grow your Twitter presence and make the most of its functions, to not protect your updates. Do you see any value in protecting updates so you can filter who follows you? Or is the downfall of not being on the Public Timeline not worth the protection?
John Lessnau
May 8th, 2008 2:00 am
#1 is definitely the most powerful way to get followers and pretty much goes without saying. If you have 1,000s of blog followers it is easy to convert them to Twitter followers. Unfortunately, most people don’t have this luxury.
For the rest of us the following three pronged strategy will get you moving in the right direction:
* Try to get someone on twitter with thousands of followers to reply to you or go back and forth with you a few times. This requires the ability to take rejection, because the Twitter ‘players’, those with many followers, will simply ignore you if they don’t know who you are. (see #1)
* Look at who the Twitter players are following and start following everyone they are following. You will get you lots of twitter noise, but for every 100 you follow, you will get 3-5 to follow you back. After a few weeks, stop following everyone that is not following you unless they are sharing tweets with value. Rinse and repeat.
* The rest is just grinding away, saying something of value when you tweet, ask questions, and answer questions.
You can follow me at: http://twitter.com/John_Lessnau
James Mann
May 8th, 2008 2:08 am
I really have to work on my timing. I get up at 5am every day, I am sure my heart meds have something to do with it, and I’m pretty much done energy and brain wise by noon.
It seems that a lot of those I follow are just going to bed when I am getting up.
I wish I could reset my internal clock somehow to start getting up at maybe 9 or 10am. Then maybe I could even have a bit of a night life again.
Mike
May 8th, 2008 2:21 am
I must also admit I don’t really get the whole twitter thing. It does seem popular with bloggers and internet marketers but outside of that circle not many “ordinary” people seem to use it.
It is the kind of thing I do for a while then forget all about. I really can’t see it getting outside of the internet marketing/blogging group of people. I am not giving up on it completely though.
http://www.twitter.com/retireyoung
John Lessnau
May 8th, 2008 3:13 am
@Mike
I struggle with the same question, is it more a waste of time than it is worth?
I think twitter will provide value if you can get a few thousand followers and then do a tweet every time you do a new post to bring more people into your blog.
I know stock market followers are getting on twitter for “hot stock tips.” I am sure there are other groups coming also getting on the bandwagon.
Moses
May 8th, 2008 4:34 am
Good points, i think #’s 3, 4 and 5 are probably the most important. I had a twitter convo going w/ someone who has over 1,000 followers, and 10 minutes later I had 5 new followers! “Peak times” reminds me of the cell phone’s “whenever minutes”, but it makes a big difference. Sending a tweet about your new blog post (for example) at 9:00am (during the week) is likely to be read by more followers than the same tweet sent on Sunday night. There is a method to the maddness, it just takes some time to figure it out.
http://twitter.com/urbannerd
Sandy Naidu
May 8th, 2008 5:03 am
Nice tips Darren…I am new Twitter..I know it is not waste of time (is used properly) but right now I spend way too much time on it…Its like a kid in a lolly shop…
Adam Singer
May 8th, 2008 5:13 am
i’m on twitter but i still dont really feel compelled to contribute much to the conversation there…
its either use that or spend time commenting and i think bloggers appreciate comments more…
AMYalcin
May 8th, 2008 6:05 am
Thanks for the tips Darren. I’ve been trying to be more active on Twitter so this is very timely!
JoLynn from The Fit Shack
May 8th, 2008 7:18 am
I’m having fun using Twitter and it’s one social media tool that I don’t focus on as far as “how to grow numbers”. I have some followers and I am also following, but honestly I’m using it to connect and stay accountable - to my health and fitness goals.
So far it’s working, and I’ve found others who also are interested in the same thing. Well, I also love to follow your tips Darren, and find out about what else is going on in the blogosphere and such (I don’t only tweet about healthy eating and exercise). In fact I wouldn’t have known about Dooce being on the Today Show this morning if I hadn’t been on Twitter - pretty cool, blogging is really in the spotlight, and Twitter gave me that news!
http://www.twitter.com/jb108
Simple Mom
May 8th, 2008 7:56 am
Good advice, and good kick in the pants for me. I’ve been on Twitter for a bit, but mostly in a casual way. I think being more proactive there really will pay off.
http://twitter.com/simplemom
Sheamus
May 8th, 2008 8:04 am
“If you have 1,000s of blog followers it is easy to convert them to Twitter followers. Unfortunately, most people don’t have this luxury.”
“I think twitter will provide value if you can get a few thousand followers and then do a tweet every time you do a new post to bring more people into your blog.”
John raises some excellent points. I do think Twitter has very limited value unless you have thousands of followers, but naturally unless you put in the effort you’ll have no possible chance of reaching those kinds of numbers. In the early days (and as I’ve said on here before), it does feel a little bit like sending text messages out to random numbers, hoping you’ll get a hit.
Here’s the thing: people who have large numbers of followers on Twitter already had large numbers of followers on their blogs (or websites, or whatever.)
For everyone else, it’s a long process! And as Mike says above, virtually no ‘ordinary’ people are on Twitter. Nobody I know in real life uses the facility, and neither do about 90 per cent of my online friends. It’s quite a strange phenomenon - it’s hot stuff in a select group, but immediately dismissed as basically useless by everybody else. Or something they’ve never heard of.
I’m reminded of a fairly recent incident where William Shatner responded to a query about whether the William Shatner on Twitter was actually him, and he said, “I don’t even know what Twitter is. It is not me.” :D
Link: http://twitter.pbwiki.com/Fakers
For a blogger, however, to abstain seems to be somewhat self-defeating.
In conclusion: keep plugging away… ;)
Darren Rowse
May 8th, 2008 9:05 am
Lynn - great quote. Ed’s on the money
Sipboy - I was the same - I didn’t see the point until I started using it.
I should say - Twitter can be a complete waste of time if you don’t use it in a focused way. But then again so can blogging and most other mediums.
Paula - 300 followers is fantastic if you harness it well. I mean imagine the power of what 300 people can achieve, consider the amount of people that those 300 people collectively know and influence!
Learn SEO - sometimes it seems like a bit of a vicious circle - but the thing is, the more places you’re engaging the more chance you have of influencing people more deeply, reinforcing your brand, finding a medium that some of your readers prefer to engage in etc.
I will add that I think the main reason to get people who connect with you else where to add you on Twitter is that it opens up your potential network significantly. Sure connecting with people that you already connect with is a little crazy - but it’s who THEY connect with that is also important.
Cassie - spot on. If all you are doing is posting your own links to your own blogs you’re going to peeve people off. Gotta mix it up - very wise.
Joe - I think it’s about asking questions that are relevant to your followers. This is hard when you have a real mix of followers and is one of the reasons I’m glad I used ‘problogger’ as my twitter id. It gives me license to focus a lot of my tweets on the topic of blogging.
Cindy - great observation on the link with Facebook.
Meg - good point. I personally don’t see the point in protecting updates unless you’re talking about more personal things or you want to keep your group VERY focused. There is a place for that but it’s not my style.
John - good points. I was going to put something in about trying to engage twitter users with a lot of followers but decided not to because recently I’ve had one or two followers who have been ‘tweetbaiting’ (or perhaps a better description would be ‘TweetStalking’) me and while it can work - it can also get you in trouble. I’ve been close to publicly calling them out on the tactic because it is so annoying. So tread with care and engage people genuinely and in a way that adds value and you’ll have more success.
John (2nd comment) - I can see why people think Twitter is a waste of time (and as I said above it can be if you let it be) but I think there are so many potential benefits if you use it well. Personally I get more out of twitter from the interactions than the traffic it drives to my blogs. Sure it does drive a little traffic but for me the real benefit is in what my Twitter followers tell me. For instance - yesterday I asked my followers to answer a question that I was asked in an interview that I was doing for a newspaper. The answers were so amazing that what I was able to respond to the question was so much better than I’d have come up with alone! To me, that is the power of twitter - not the 50 clicks I might get on a link to my latest post. The clicks are a bonus - but just periphery to the real benefits.
Sheamus - “people who have large numbers of followers on Twitter already had large numbers of followers on their blogs (or websites, or whatever.)”
While this is true of some on Twitter it’s not of all. There are a few Twitter people that I follow who have done it the other way around. They’ve become almost twitter famous. I saw this in action at SXSW with a few bloggers who had tonnes of people come up to them and say that they knew them from twitter - it was quite amazing to watch.
You are right though - it’s a long process and even if you have a kick start of having some profile already it can be a long one!
Bash Bosh
May 8th, 2008 9:10 am
Thank you for these great tips. I will try to be more active on my Twitter account.
Sheamus
May 8th, 2008 9:19 am
“While this is true of some on Twitter it’s not of all. There are a few Twitter people that I follow who have done it the other way around. They’ve become almost twitter famous. I saw this in action at SXSW with a few bloggers who had tonnes of people come up to them and say that they knew them from twitter - it was quite amazing to watch.”
@ Darren - Yes, you’re quite right. I shouldn’t have made such a generalisation. However, I do think in most cases my point stands. A lot of the Twitter accounts with thousands of followers already had a very popular website to begin with, and that traffic just followed on.
Even then, however, it’s quite relative. TechCrunch has an RSS readership of some 884,000 (yes, eight hundred and eight-four thousand!), but ‘only’ 16,493 followers on Twitter. That shows to me that Twitter is still a bit of an unknown quantity/of no interest for many people. Even techies! That’s a ratio of only 1.86 per cent!
If we all applied that to the RSS readership of our own blogs it might give a good working target to aim for, and at the very least ensure you don’t feel too discouraged in these early days. :)
sogeshirts
May 8th, 2008 9:44 am
Great tips Darren. I have been using twitter and actually found your blog through it through merkal. It is a very exciting communications device and I think if I adhere to your tips more I can build a bigger following. My twitter account is twitter.com/sogeshirts
Ryne Nelson
May 8th, 2008 9:47 am
I remember even before I had made my first 10 tweets, I was able to get followers simply by following others. Oftentimes, if you follow someone, you will be ‘rewarded’ with a follow in return.
I wouldn’t get too worried about the followers/following ratio as long as you’re happy with the level of relevant responses you get to your posts. That said, be careful not to follow too many people because you’ll get called out for it.
Great post, Darren!
Talia
May 8th, 2008 11:22 am
Why on earth would you want so many followers? I like to talk with my followers, and I can’t do that if I had that many.
Katybeth
May 8th, 2008 12:16 pm
Thanks, this information helped a newbie–a lot. I am still learning how to “jump in” somehow it feels like I am interrupting—and I wonder when a question is asked–are they really twittering to ME?? Guess, it takes time and posts like these.
Ross Kenny
May 8th, 2008 12:22 pm
Great Post. I keep hearing about this twitter and now I think I’m going to go and take some action after reading your post.
looks interesting and I’d love to test the results.
Thanks
Ross Kenny
Ash
May 8th, 2008 2:19 pm
Thanks you for sharing your twitter tips! I greatly appreciate it. The one thing that is a bit confusing/frustrating for me on twitter is that I may be following someone, but they don’t follow me. I may respond to what they are saying or ask them a question, but they never get it or reply. I have no idea how your followers talk to you on twitter. I do follow you, but don’t know if you would get anything I twittered to you.
Big Ben Patton
May 8th, 2008 3:52 pm
So true is the last part of your post. I find that I have to un-follow some people because they are unnatural and over the top, and not in a way I generally want to post up on my own blog. Usually upon further inspection the same thing is happening is their posts. I hope people take to heart the message of passion, but not insanity!
Nathan Ketsdever
May 8th, 2008 5:24 pm
I Tweet about life, new media, and culture @ DC Music Fusion
http://twitter.com/dcmusicfusion
Cheers!
Caitlin
May 8th, 2008 5:59 pm
What I want to know is, what are the benefits of Twitter?
Igor Poltavskiy
May 8th, 2008 8:14 pm
My addition.Use hot discussions for your future Twitter updates.For example,TechMeme.com can help.
Scott Sweeney
May 8th, 2008 9:55 pm
Twitter is outstanding for building traffic and getting readers to your blog. I compared Twitter to being in a band, and handing out a free CD at a show. You may only strike gold with 1 out of every 100 people, but if you that frequently you can quickly grow your readership. I posted an article about it on my blog.
http://www.manvsblog.com/2008/04/23/using-twitter-to-increase-readers-and-make-friends/
Scott
Affiliate17
May 9th, 2008 12:53 am
Thanks for the info
Affiliate17
May 9th, 2008 12:54 am
great post! very informational
Not John Chow
May 9th, 2008 6:53 am
I have yet to discover how to properly take advantage of twitter. It absorbs a great deal of time and I think that if you are not getting a lot of value out of it, it should be avoided.
Loraleigh Vance
May 9th, 2008 9:20 am
To know Twitter is to love Twitter.
I just can’t tell you how many great laughs and blog ideas I get from it.
Thanks for the great ideas, Darren
Loraleigh Vance
May 9th, 2008 9:41 am
Duh! You’re right, Hjortur.
http://twitter.com/LoraleighV
Matt Wardman
May 9th, 2008 11:31 am
Slightly off topic, but I actually sold my first private ad on Twitter.
One of my followers is the Head of Innovation for a UK Political Party, and I just said “I wonder if X would like to buy a special offer ad this month”. And he did.
GettyCash
May 9th, 2008 12:18 pm
I have been using Twitter for months but I didn’t post much. I think I will start to use it more often.
Hjörtur Smárason
May 9th, 2008 4:11 pm
It seems that many don’t believe you can get a large number of followers without having them elsewhere and utilizing that.
When I started on Twitter a month ago my network gave me less than 20 followers to start with. I now have 220 and it is growing faster every day. My network on Twitter is actually larger than any other network I have, more effective, more valuable and with a lot more interaction with my connection than any other network or platform. Twitter has helped me grow my other networks and my blog readership but not the other way around. And thanks to Twitter, my blog got listed on alltop.com.
I do use a lot of time on Twitter but it has turned out to be very, very useful. I’m constantly learning something and my connections have been really helpful.
If you want to get real value from Twitter, follow people you can learn from. If you can also add value into their discussion, people will follow back (and many of their followers will too). I see boosts in the number of my followers when I speak to someone very popular.
Hjörtur
http://twitter.com/hjortur
Vishal
May 9th, 2008 7:41 pm
Nice tips. Infact I just wrote an article on how to build and engage your twitter audience. Here it is in brief -
* Use it to build your personal brand
* Use it to get feedback from others and people following you
* If you are looking to hire, use it to help you find people
* Use mini URLs to direct traffic to relevant posts (not spam)
* Look out for unique scoops and news tweets by others in your niche
* Find other’s in your niche and network with them and get to know them on a personal level
* If you have employees or workers that go out in the field, let them use it to keep one another updated
* If relevant, use it to keep your customers updated, by setting up a Twitter Feed
* If you’re all meeting at an event, use it to coordinate and schedule per and post event meet ups on-the-fly
* Provide live coverage to your listeners if you are attending an event they would like to get live news about
* Possibly use it to setup impromptu and casual meetings, if you get to know that someone you would like to engage with, is around in the same event that you are at
* Use it to get diggs on stories you’ve submitted, if the post is relevant to your listeners
Those interested may please read the full article here - http://www.successonline.in/using-twitter-to-build-and-engage-your-audience/
There is also a list of useful twitter tools and plugins that you can use to enhance the experience.
SIGEPJEDI
May 10th, 2008 1:10 am
I agree, and these tips are solid in that many bloggers using twitter to spring board their online exposure have shared these same tips.
http://twitter.com/sigepjedi
Dr. Mac
May 10th, 2008 2:06 pm
Thanks, Darren! Great tips for a newbie to Twitter.
Brent2
May 10th, 2008 2:15 pm
I’ve found Twirl to be a wonderful tool. Even when I’m not sitting at my machine, I can just click on it to get all the updates. Then I reply, or simply update, without having to go anywhere.
RuelJ
May 11th, 2008 4:09 am
For twitter users who use firefox often I strong suggest you use the twitterfox add-on. This allows you to be always be updated with your twitter mates by getting a small alert on your FF browser. I have it on right now and it’s really a cool add-on.
In any case, for those looking for twitter mates please add me. Thanks!
http://twitter.com/RuelJamarie
wasanto
May 11th, 2008 12:12 pm
Thank you very much for your information in your blog,it’s help me a lot,even I ‘m not good at readinding English.Your blog very helpfull
Wishing you all the best
wasanto
Zerolove
May 11th, 2008 2:01 pm
I would not have found this site period if it wasn’t for twitter. I use it daily and have even created an aggregation service for the Birmingham, Alabama community of twitter users at http://bhampulse.zerosource.org .
Muhibbuddin
May 11th, 2008 3:41 pm
I must say, that twitter is one of best tool to reach up some follower’s. but what is going to tell to twitter is same for blog? or twitter is a new way to grow up some audience>. I’m sorry i’m new for this thing?
Avinash
May 12th, 2008 12:10 pm
Thanks for the tip Darren. Very useful indeed.
Sentences
May 12th, 2008 9:38 pm
Good article.. you can also check my article where I show you 10 reasons why you should use twitter :
http://www.sentences.org/10-reasons-why-you-should-use-twitter/
DT
May 13th, 2008 4:25 pm
Superb Tips, thank you very much
Terah
May 14th, 2008 3:00 am
Nice comment by BW and I agree. By just being myself, I am meeting great friends and learning and growing my business. Writing about your own personal experiences is the best content!
http://www.twitter.com/blogging4gold
if you want to see what I am doing.
Thanks.
:)
Reginald
May 14th, 2008 4:57 am
I appreciate you concise approach to this article.
I also found the benefits discussed in this article extremely enlightening and easy to digest.
Not to mention, these practical suggestions can be applied by any reader.
Thanks for the advice.
Brett
May 14th, 2008 5:54 am
Great article. I just stumbled upon your website and love it.
Keep up the great work!
Yesyes
May 22nd, 2008 2:57 pm
Great article. I’m going to do each of those steps and see how well it works for me in promoting my upcoming website, My Follower Adder.
Thanks for the tips.
http://twitter.com/yesyes
Arthur
June 4th, 2008 10:59 pm
Twitter is very similar to MIRC, but with a twist. I’m gonna use it also to drive traffic to my blog. Great advice here. thanks!
DrCris
July 9th, 2008 9:51 am
Twitter is totally ripe for bloggers, which ends up with a lot of people posting about their blog all the time. I read blogs for that. I think you need to make sure posts about your blog are less than a quarter of what you tweet, otherwise there is not much value.
Another way to expand your twitter presence is to get involved in FriendFeed Room. There is a doctor’s room on FriendFeed that has a whole bunch of tweets from doctors, so I can easily find followers who have my interests. Equally, I assume other people are doing the same in reverse.
My rule of thumb is to assume others are like you:
1. Would you read a blog or twitterfeed that is pure marketing?
2. How would you find people to follow? That is how people will find you.
3. Why would you stop following someone - boring, intrusive content, uninteresting conversations.
Cris
http://www.twitter.com/DrCris
gilda
July 13th, 2008 11:53 am
hello darren. you said to “tweet form the heart”. :)
charles
October 25th, 2008 1:47 am
Philippines and Australia seem to have the same timeline. I will try to focus now on twitter and maybe come up with about 100 followers a day. Hmm.. It seems fun.
Scott Williams
November 7th, 2008 8:28 pm
Great post and I totally agree with tweeting at peak times or during peakevents ie. election, games, national news…
As a pastor, I happen to be in a twitter follower/following world of mostly Christian folks; so I think knowing your follower audience is key, even the it could be a wide range.
Follow me at: http://twitter.com/scottwilliams
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