How To Build A Twitter Following From Scratch

Last 2020, Twitter has an impressive user base of 186 million and last 2021 this reached an estimated 353.1 million users. With this amount of traffic on the platform, marketers and business owners have more opportunities to catch people’s attention. After all, the more people on the site, the more likely you’ll encounter someone who might be interested in your products and services.

So it only makes sense that businesses and professionals from all kinds of industries have a Twitter presence. Fast-food chains, grocery stores, pharmacies, medical clinics, law firms, makeup brands, and many others have Twitter accounts used for social media marketing.

Why Your Twitter Follower Count Matters

By employing the right marketing tactics, you can build a Twitter audience and boost your brand’s social signals. Additionally, the more followers you have, the easier it will be to promote content from your website.

So if you have a blog or an online publication, you can link them in Tweets and encourage your Twitter followers to click on them. Thus, you convert some of your Twitter followers to site visitors of your domain.

So not only are you aiming to build your audience on Twitter, but you’re also looking to convert some of them into potential customers. The more Twitter followers you have, the more users you can promote your business, website, and content to.

8 Ways To Build A Twitter Audience

Here’s an important thing to note: getting a sizable Twitter audience doesn’t happen overnight. So unless you already have a well-known brand or high website traffic, you might have to build your Twitter followers from scratch.

1. Post Valuable Content

Remember: don’t just post promotional content.

Users should have an incentive for following you. If every post is an ad for your business, users won’t find much value in your content. Your Tweets should be educational, informative, or entertaining.

When they follow your Twitter account, they’re going to start receiving updates from you. So if the updates are not helpful or interesting to them, they won’t have any reason to follow you.

2. Make “Threads”

If you have more to say, split them up into “threads”. Twitter threads are a way to organize the replies under a selected Tweet. If you happen upon a Tweet that’s part of a thread, clicking on it will also show you other replies associated with it.

You can split up the text into 280-character Tweets and add the rest as replies to the first. Twitter also automatically arranges them in the correct order on your page, so you don’t have to worry about labeling each one.

So if you have some trivia, news, and detailed insights on a specific subject matter, use threads to better express yourself.

3. Use Visuals

Visual media, like photos, GIFs, and videos, generally do better on Twitter. So consider using images, infographics, memes, and reaction GIFs for your content and replies.

4. Be Consistent

If it takes you months to update your Twitter account, it might start looking abandoned. Followers also expect to see more content from you, but if you’re not posting anything, they won’t have any reason to keep following you.

Speaking of using visuals, don’t be afraid to use memes and join in on trends. One of the best ways to build your following is to join in on the online culture.

And yes, Twitter users have a very specific online culture compared to other social media sites, so try learning what it is and incorporate it into your marketing.

5. Interact With Users

Interactions are what gets Tweets trending. So if someone replies to one of your Tweets, try to respond to them. Likewise, if users have any questions about your products and services, briefly answer their questions.

Interacting and responding to other users can also encourage others to join in on the conversation.

6. Use Keywords And Hashtags

Boost your visibility by incorporating hashtags and popular keywords into your Tweets. Even if the keywords you’re using aren’t currently trending, users still use the search tool as a way to filter global public Tweets they want to see. So even if people aren’t following you, they can still see your public Tweets in the search filters.

Coining your own terms and ignoring hashtags isn’t going to help your account’s discoverability.

7. Time Your Posts Wisely

Speaking of visibility, you want to post while most of your audience is online. This is especially important if you’re building your following from scratch, as Tweets can quickly get buried when new ones are posted.

Try to use auditing tools to gauge which times of the day you’re getting the most traffic. Then, adjust your posting schedule accordingly.

You can also automate your Tweets by writing them in advance and using tools to post them at a later time. A lot of businesses do this, enabling them to run a consistent flow of Twitter content without having to hire someone to work exclusively on their social media.

8. Audit Your Twitter Campaign

Whenever you build a Twitter following for your business, you need to regularly audit your campaign. You can use Twitter Analytics to see how you’re doing and what you need to improve on.

Here are some of the important stats that can retrieve from Analytics:

1. Tweets
2. Tweet impressions
3. Profile visits
4. Mentions
5. Followers
6. Monthly Tweet Highlights, including:
   1. Top Tweet
   2. Top Mention
   3. Top Follower
   4. Top media Tweet

Using the data above, you can identify which types of Tweets and content are doing the best in terms of traffic and interactions. Then, you can create similar content that does well and avoid posting ones that aren’t getting as much attention.

If you keep posting what people like, the more you encourage users to stick around and anticipate your future content.

Bottom-line

Twitter has the potential to be a powerful marketing tool for a business of any size. It’s fairly easy to start and very cost-effect. In fact, a lot of small businesses start on social media, Twitter being one of them.

Done right, you’ll be able to reach your target audience fast. You can promote your products, create your brand, and build a relationship with your followers. Additionally, it can also be used to answer questions, inform customers, and share important news and updates.

That said, just because it is fairly accessible than most marketing tools doesn’t mean you don’t need a solid strategy. You need to plan, audit, and change things up as you go.

Author’s Bio

JC Serrano is the founder of 1000Attorneys.com, one of the very few private enterprises certified to process lawyer referrals by the California State Bar. His marketing strategies have continuously evolved since 2005, incorporating ever-changing SEO strategies into lawyerleadmachine.com.