10 ways to gain followers on Twitter

10 TOP TIPS TO TWITTER SUCCESS

There are many techniques for earning twitter followers. You will notice as you go explore twitter you see users that have tens of thousands of followers. There are 2 reasons for this. 1 - the users are famous people like Barack Obama or Ashton Kutcher or they are playing smart and using some of the many techniques I am about to explain.

There is no better way to get followers, than to simply follow others. This should be done with a measure of intelligence. Search for people that have the same interest as you do by checking out their profile information and also their tweets. Another thing to look at is the ratio of followers to following that they have as this is an indication of whether they will follow you back or not.
Look at the trending topics in the sidebar. If any of these topics appeal to you, get involved in the conversation. After all, Twitter is about social interaction and people will be less likely to add you if you chat with them and become involved.
Tweet about things that people will find engaging. Post links to interesting articles where you can. If people start to recognize that you are posting quality tweets. You will be more likely to build a following. People will be more likely to RT (ReTweet) you and mention you, which will spread your influence and help you build a solid network of loyal followers.
Be innovative and hold competitions where you can. Everyone loves free stuff, this can be in the form of giving them something that's either physical or perhaps a spare account for an online service such as Google Wave for example. You could hold a poll and try to get people involved and create interest in your profile.
Automate your service. This is not a sales pitch for any one service, but a quick search of Google will reveal a number of services that offer desktop software that will plug into your twitter account and if used correctly will increase the number of people you can reach out to. Simply by adding keywords you are looking for in profiles coupled with a location and search radius along with ratio of followers to following will give you a list for ideal candidates to reach out to.
Get the ratio of followers to following right.If you decide to use a service to add batches of followers, you are not always going to get those people following you back. This can cause a lopsided look to your following to followers ratio. If you are adding people in bulk, you should use a service such as "huitter.com - mutuality" This offers a way to "clean out' your unwanted users that wont follow back. Its a good idea to only use this every 3/4 days to give people ample chance to follow you.
Make yourself stand out from the crowd. Upload a custom profile picture, but don't use a logo or graphic. People like to communicate with other people, not faceless entities. So upload a good picture of yourself and its sure to catch the attention of more potential followers. The custom logos should be saved for your background graphic. This is also a good way to show that you have spent some time carefully crafting your twitter presence.
Avoid making every tweet a sales pitch. Its a good rule of thumb to tweet about things that others will find interesting. Perhaps make 75% of your tweets about things of current interest or areas where you hold expertise, and maybe 25% subtle tweets about your own business with a URL link thrown in.
Ask questions when you need help. This is a good way to get conversations going with fellow twitter users and a good way to get follows. Likewise it is good to use a service such as TweetDeck that can help you more clearly organize your tweets, mentions and direct messages so that no potential leads fall through the cracks.
Add yourself to user listings. Google search for Twitter directories and add yourself. Be descriptive in what your aims are and people will be likely to find your profile. A great one to add yourself to is Twellow.com

I hope you found this list helpful. Given a week or 2 using these techniques I am sure that you can build a small army of followers that will be in your target market and if you carefully maintain and manage your account it will give you a soapbox to voice your opinions, get involved in discussions and ultimately push your message out to the right people and hopefully get you more leads and convert them to revenue for your business. Please feel free to share this list with others through the sharing widget on the upper right of this page under "site updates"

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