7 tips to get more followers on Twitter

Nowadays consumers gauge a brand’s credibility by checking its Twitter handle. The more followers your brand has, the more likely it is you’ll gain peoples trust - and if consumers trust you, chances are they’ll probably open up their wallets for you. Here are 7 tips to help you gain more followers on Twitter.

1.     Choose your days and time your posts

According to social enterprise software firm Buddy Media, tweeting on weekends is more effective for brands as engagement rates are 17% higher compared with weekdays. E.g. engagement for clothing brands is highest on weekends and lowest on Thursdays. Tweets posted by entertainment brands on Sunday and Monday receive 23% more engagement. For publishers engagement is 29% higher on Saturdays. Engagement for sports brands is 52% higher on weekends.

Brands tweeting between 8am and 7pm receive 30% higher engagement than other times. (8pm to 7am for Facebook)

2.     Don’t overdo it

There’s a fine line between effective and annoying tweeting. The optimal amount of daily tweets is 22 according to Hubspot while analytics tool SumAll claims six tweets daily is ideal for business. Buddy media says four is right.

3.     Keep tweets short

Though tweets are limited to 140 characters, those containing fewer than 100 receive 17% higher engagement because leaving room in a tweet allows followers to insert their own text before your content.

4.     Ask for retweets

Tweets asking followers to “retweet” or “RT” receive 12 times more retweets than those not asking. Retweet rates are 23 times higher than average when the word “retweet” is written in full, but it’s only 10 times higher when using the acronym “RT.” Tweets containing links also receive 86% more retweets.

5.     Hashtag

Buddy Media says tweets with one or two hashtags have 21% more engagement than ones that don’t, but tweets with more than two hashtags show a 17% drop in engagement.

6.     Use software

Use the scheduling function of software tools like ConversionBuddy to publish pre-written tweets automatically.

7.     Fake it ‘til you make it

If you got some cash to spend and need followers now, why not buy them? Website socialmediadd.com provides you with 1k new followers per month for $59. In Johannesburg onlinecart.co.za sells 1k followers at R250 or 100k followers at R6 000.

It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out you are using internet bots if your account jumps to 100k followers overnight. Plus sites like statuspeople.com or twitteraudit.com offer apps that can test how many of your followers are real. If word spreads you are a faker, kiss your credibility goodbye. So buy followers at your own risk.

Hitting the tweet spot

Finding the right tweet spot is no walk in the park but the effort will pay off. Tweeting right could create fame and fortune for individuals, or increase revenue for businesses. Tweet wrongly and you might earn a spot in Twitters hall of shame instead. But if you combine these tips with email marketing and pay-per-click advertising, you should definitely be counting the mula in no time.