How To Get Twitter Followers Without Using A Mass-Following Tool

followersI’m not going to get into why you might want to get more followers on Twitter, maybe you want to increase your traffic or because it represents more business opportunities… I’ll leave that to you.

I will mention the word “Organic” as a starting point in this post. There is nothing healthier than getting results in an organic way. For example, in search is always better to get organic results than paid results, inbound marketing always gets you better results than chasing business and pushing sales. You can sleep better too.

The same mentality should apply on Twitter, it will take longer but a good foundation will give you a solid following that grows on its own. Here is a list of things you can do to organically grow your following on Twitter:

1. Know Your Niche

I’m talking about listening and learning how your community moves on Twitter. Who are the true leaders, what kind of content is shared, the popular blogs, the lingo, etc. Now, think of ways to participate, add value and improve the current conversation. In other words, get attention by kicking ass in your industry, aim to become a leader.

2. Write Content People Can Share

Make it easy for people to share your content, think of why somebody would be happy to put that piece of content in front of his/her own network. If you write great posts that are providing real insights and answers in your industry, people will love to share it because they are also trying to be resourceful to their network AND, if your post gets to be shared by a rockstar in your niche, it would probably spin like there’s no tomorrow (you thought I was going to use the word “viral”…). People that shares your content are likely to follow you and sometimes even “list” you.

3. Be Resourceful

It’s pretty clear that you should share other content more than your own but besides that, I think what’s important is to share valuable content that is really adding something to your network. Don’t just throw links in there because they are related. If you’re posting trash, people will stop clicking on your links. Posting great stuff will result in retweets and that my friend, puts you in front of other networks.

4. Stay In Your Field

How much value can you add in a niche that’s not yours? Stay in your field, where your expertise can be of value to others. Retweeting everything Mashable says is not that valuable to your tribe if you are a Yoga instructor, I’m sure there are a couple of stories that might apply but don’t make it a daily thing. You are just making it hard for people to share what you say and soon you will be invisible to them.

5. Follow Less But Follow Smart

Random following is not gonna get you anywhere, I don’t care if you’re just trying to generate some traffic back to your site, these people couldn’t care less about you. Instead, identify the right people, look for existing conversations, answer questions been asked out there. Of course the process is slow but you have the chance to connect with people that relates to who you are or what you do.

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6. Introduce Yourself

Are you the kind of person that goes to a convention collecting a thousand business cards? Don’t you think is more productive to go and meet some key individuals that you might actually end up doing something. When you do this, you don’t just get the card and run away, you at least introduce yourself. What if you do the same thing on Twitter? Follow this individual (a prospect, colleague, competitor, vendor, whatever you want…) and introduce yourself. That person will most likely want to stay in touch with you.

7. Engage In Conversations

Now that you have followed some interesting people, go talk to them, you didn’t just hand out your business card to run away. You must be active in starting conversations, don’t wait for people to talk to you. If you engage in smart conversations about your topic and add your 2 cents, not only you will be followed by those involved but also by the spectators.

8. Manage Your Tweets

So what’s the right number of tweets per day? What are the best times to tweet? I don’t think there is an answer for this, at least not from me. I think you need to find a balance that only your experience will dictate. To start, don’t go to the extremes, not too much to annoy people and not too little that you will be forgotten. Be consistent and have an idea of how you want to handle it.

9. Email Signatures

Just think about how many people gets emails from you every day. Add your Twitter link to your signature, you can use a tool like WiseStamp, a very easy to install plugin for your browser, to make it more professional. This tool generates a html signature so you can add other elements like RSS and other networks.

10. Invite People To Follow You On Your Blog

A no brainer. Have a Twitter icon on your blog and add a little call to action like “Follow me on Twitter“. A good placement could be right next to your subscriptions. You can also display the feed on the sidebar, just go to Twitter and grab the code from there.

11. Offline Promotion

Add your Twitter URL to anything you print, business cards, flyers or any promotional items you run in your business. If you own a Cafe or a small restaurant and you post your daily specials, have something on the counter to remind your customers to “follow our daily specials on Twitter”. You get the picture…

12. Don’t Use Auto-Responders

Maybe is my personal opinion but I prefer you don’t send me anything before you send a robot. It is a touchy subject for a lot of people. I would suggest to write a personal response but I’m not really sure if anybody reads the DM’s (Maybe you can comment on this, thank you).

Final Thought…

The main point here is that there are plenty of ways to increase your Twitter community organically and while it will take longer (much longer) than using a mass-following tool, you will be able to build a community based on a solid foundation rather than just collecting numbers.

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  • Another option for attracting followers that wasn't mentioned, but you do it with every web site you create - make it unique. Make it individual. Change the background.

    Changing your background is such an easy five-minute task, you'd be silly not to.
  • Thanks, great post. We implemented several of these at our travel photoblog site, they all work great, especially having a large 'Follow us' icon to Twitter.
  • But for mass following try this - http://www.twidium.com/en
  • http://twitter.com/sarahmckissick

    I'm me. And you are you.
  • Growley63
    You'd Probably hate me

    www.twitter.com/seeyouinhellboy
  • Yomamma
  • There's lots of 'Get more followers' types of articles all over the place but this is definitely one of the better, more genuine ones. Thanks for posting.
  • Brian
    Great info! Using a hi-tech approach is great but keeping the personal connection is critical. Thanks for the write up.
  • Ejw
    Thanks for the info. It's what I wanted to know.
  • Cashprofits
    There isn't a bot out there that can us the criteria for following people that I do. I've tried it. I just end up with people that are inactive (some of them as much as 90 days), they are spammers, or we don't have common interests. I'm serious about this stuff, I'm not playing games, and it isn't a hobby. I have the same account I started with, and it's never been suspended. I enjoyed your post. It will be very beneficial to help people learn how to use social media the right way, and to enjoy what they are doing. You've got it layed out step by step. And, I've posted your article, because its the kind of content I would like for my folllowers to see. http://www.twitter.com/Cashprofits
  • Ben
    Leveraging this to enable my flow ratio

    www.twitter.com/bullshitinc
  • Twitter followers quickly and thousands of more twitter followers everyday and increase your Twitter influence.

    Internet Directory
  • You want more people reading your updates. It’s not difficult to build a prominent profile but I think it’s important to start with the right understanding.

    Directory
  • Livemydreams2
    I like to follow people who are real and interesting; people trying to use Twitter to sell a product disturb/annoy me. http://twitter.com/Brad_Winters
  • sierra
    follow me on twitter please and i promise i follow back and i'm really pretty too!(: http://twitter.com/xosierralisaxo (:
  • I don't read DMs. I scan them for "real" ones, but it's rare to ever get a real one.

    Thank you for your advice on how to increase my Twitter following in an honest real way!
  • Recently my readers and I have been discussing over whether or not we shall utilize status updates schedulers in our network. I'm glad to see that after all the debates, we're against auto-responders but consider some wise strategy in using scheduler for productivity and goodness in our network. Personally I'm not into mass-following instead more concern about who am I connecting with, how I can transform that into a beneficial network for both sides. If we can't be humanly enough to make people interested in what we're saying, that's no point talking about 'Twitter network' for there isn't any. :-)

    A mind provoking post, Francisco. Stumbled.

    @wchingya
    Social/Blogging Tracker
  • Thanks for the comment Ching. Schedulers are a great idea specially if you share content, that way you can spread out during the day. You can use apps like HootSuite or CoTweet, they have schedulers already built in.

    Thanks for the stumble!
  • Thank you for the suggestions. :) Yes, indeed I am quite fascinated with what Hootsuite can do. Have been playing around with the schedulers, so far it brings positive results and never been happier. (Yay!) Keep the good posts coming.
  • No, thank YOU and hope to see you here again.
  • putitinurpocket
    #5 above is really key. I think myself included that following too many people is the biggest mistake I made.
  • very useful info... cheers :)
  • Glad you find it useful. Thanks for stopping by.
  • Nice post,

    I don't read DMs either. mainly because it's just people saying "Thanks, here's my blog. [link]" or "hey, I'm sure you'll love my blog [link]", ect, ect.
  • Interesting. I actually get quite a few DMs from folks that want to ask questions that they don't want in the public timeline. I'm good with this use.

    However this got me wondering recently after a thread of a dozen or so DMs back & forth with one follower. When is it more appropriate to use/suggest an IM tool for these sorts of real-time mini discussions....or is twitter slowly replacing the need for IM tools for individuals too?
  • Hi Luke, I'm not sure what the trends are on DM usage but I'll add 2 points. First, the amount of clutter when your following is growing can be overwhelming and if you don't use some kind of anti-spam you will lose visibility of those valued connections.

    And second, I think you raise a good point on the value of moving those relationships out to a more human platform, ideally offline but a good chat or skype call can take relationships to another level, specially when the other person can be on the other side of the planet.

    Thanks for your comment.
  • I'm not a fan at all of the auto-responder. I do read DM's but I generally don't click on links in a DM. I try to do a personal tweet to new followers if they seem like decent peeps who aren't trying to sell me something. I really like #11...I'm off to change my email signature right now. Thanks!

  • Hey Dian, thanks for the comment. Yeah, WiseStamp makes it easy specially if you don't want to get your hands dirty with code... Have a great weekend!
  • I agree. A person should only follow selected people that they have an interest in knowing more about, or about that person's topic area. I never auto-DM nor mass/auto-follow nor reciprical-follow as it's sometimes called. A person cannot follow the conversations from thousands of other people.

    And yes, organic growth, slow slow slow, but much more valuable in the long run. Thanks for a good collection of suggestions.
  • Thank YOU Doug. I agree with your point about reciprocal-follow, you shouldn't feel obligated to automatically follow back, specially if the connection makes no sense.

    Hope to connect with you again!
  • Kathleen Kent
    Thanks for a down-to-earth review of the basics of building a solid Twitter base. I am new to Twitter (@kathleenkent) and started tweeting after taking a class in Social Media at SSCC in West Seattle. I don't auto respond to those that follow me. It seems odd when someone responds to me when I follow them... especially when they already follow several thousand. How can anyone honestly follow that many people?
    I enjoy my conversations on Twitter. I have been introduced to some fantastic ideas and options that I haven't considered before... and I have hooked up with like minded individuals who are involved in actionable emergency preparedness. I look forward to the future in Social Medial.
  • Thank you Kathleen, glad to get your thoughts. I prefer not to respond when someone follows rather than sending an auto-response, even as a courtesy, a quick thank you note or just acknowledging the follow, the point got lost a long time ago when DM's became a little piece of advertising (or spam...). At this point, even if you take the time to actually type a personalized note, it will probably get lost in the clutter.
  • This is a more mature way to create, nurture and develop meaningful realtionships that will reap fruit in the future. While I am sometimes inpatient and wanting to develop my followers and lists quickly, I personally enjoy a lot more satisfaction if I take the time to organically grow my followers.
  • Patience is great advice Claire, you are providing good content but if you put it in front of the wrong people it's all wasted. Allowing your following to grow organically you make sure that content is adding value, you can not only enjoy it but it gets you better results.

    Thanks for stopping by. BTW, it seems like the Twitter icon on your blog is not linking correctly... I couldn't get there.
  • My Twitter account is a personal account and so I'm not into mass-following. I love it when people like what I'm saying and they follow me for that reason, regardless of topics. What I don't like is when I get spammers following me. I've actually blocked all of them. I'd like to know the people that follow me would benefit from what I post and I could interact with them. So, it's important for me to know that their twitter accounts are not their fronts or their money-making accounts. It's easy to spot them really. If I get a good following over time, I'd be grateful.
  • Thank you Allison. I agree with you 100% and while it is very easy to spot spammers on Twitter, it is also easy to lose visibility as your following grows. Chris Brogan makes a great point on Trust Agents when he says that we can only control a network of 150 people.

    You are doing a great job trying to maintain your network as healthy as possible. Hope to see you here again.
  • In response to Allison, try TwitSweeper.com to get rid of your spammy/undesirable followers....
  • Thanks for the advice Doug, I'll make sure to check it out.
  • jessicasimpson1981
    Regarding DM's, I am not a big fan of the auto reply, I feel like you should be taking the time to address followers personally if SM is all about real time convo, I know that is extremely time consuming so i see why folks do an auto generated DM but it makes me feel special when i get a direct message, esp from someone who is a big deal :)

    I personally havent done auto responds yet with my work account, I just respond in real time but I also only have 200 followers not 20,000.

    I was just introduced to the world of twitter spam and it is EXTREMELY annoying so for me I like to keep it real and legit, I think it makes a more lasting impression.
  • Thanks for the comment Jessica. I see how some people might have good intentions behind a auto-DM, as you say, it's time consuming. The real problem I think is in a DM with a call to action rather than just an acknowledgment or a thank you note, some people will see you as spammy and unfollow you right there.

    I think what you're doing is right.
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