If you are using Twitter to increase your blog earnings or
to gain traffic to a blog or a website, you will need to have followers.
Followers are an integral part to successful networking on Twitter and other
social networking sites. There are some simple things you can do to get
followers on Twitter, it does take some time, patience and dedication.
If possible, avoid "automatic" following. Using
automatic following software (which is available) can result in your having followers
you may prefer not to have! You may find that some of your followers do not
follow you back. You can track these users by utilizing some
of the tools that are available for purging followers who do
not follow back. Remember, not everyone will follow you and you do not always
want to follow someone just because they follow you.
Steps to get followers
Step 1: Targeted interests
Search for users who have similar interests to your own. For
example, if you write mainly health articles, use #health in the Twitter search
field to find users who tweet about health topics. Do not overlook keywords for
health which can also be used. For example #naturalhealth, #healthy,
#weightloss, etc.
Step 2 Follow users
When you use the search feature you will be presented with a
list of people who are tweeting about the same topic. The search will return a
list that looks like this:
To follow any one of these users and not lose your list,
simply right click on their username and allow it to open in a new tab.
Review the timeline for the following:
- Inappropriate
content (adult or other)
- Activity
level (not active in last 10 - 15 days? Don't follow!)
- Off
Topic tweets (make sure most of the tweets relate to the
- topic)
- Once
you have decided that this user is safe to follow, simply click on
"Follow" to follow the user.
When it opens you will see this screen:
Step 4 Create follower lists
One of the most under-utilized options on Twitter is using
lists. They can help you keep track of specific users and find them easily. You
can create a list in Twitter by using the drop-down box next to where Twitter
shows you are following a person. It looks like this:
Helpful Hint
You can maintain as many Twitter lists as you elect to use
and you may put users on as many lists as you would like to. As you explore
other user's profiles, you may also find that they have similar lists. You can
also follow entire lists that are set up by other users. If you select
"listed" on a user's profile you will see this screen:
Simply click on the "subscribe" button to follow
the entire list. You can also follow the individual users from the list as
shown above.
