The average shelf life of a tweet is shorter than a freshly baked cookie’s chances of cooling off before it’s eaten. If your company’s tweets aren’t attracting the fan base you want, it might be time to get out and initiate connections. With more than 975 million existing twitter accounts, it can be easy to get overwhelmed with networking possibilities. Use these guidelines and you’ll be on your way to building an empire of followers.
Check the Competition
You might not be the next Starbucks, but that doesn’t mean your company can’t take a page out of their book to build a solid following. If a competitor has a strong presence on Twitter, go through their followers list and start connecting with those users. You already know these people have an interest in companies similar to yours, so why not reach out to them? Try to go through similar business’ followers once a week and build your crowd.
Hunt Down Hashtags
Your company should already have a unique hashtag they use in nearly every post. Search this unique tag as well as similar tags and start following the people who use them. For example, if you run a bakery, search for terms like #cupcakes, #bakingfun, and #bakingislife, to find people who already have a genuine interest in your industry. These specific hashtags may also be used for twitter chats. To get involved in these real time conversations all you have to do is start tweeting at the scheduled time using the designated hashtag.
“Who to Follow” Feature
In the upper right hand corner of your home page you’ll find the “who to follow” section. This tool suggests new people for you to follow based on contact lists you’ve uploaded, people who have included your email on their uploaded contact list, and users with whom you might have shared contacts. If you’re just getting started on Twitter, this box could also be filled with new follow suggestions based on your location and listed interests. To find out if a follower is a good fit for your business, make sure their profile is complete, they tweet regularly, and you share similar interests. Be cautious of promoted accounts, these users might not have anything in common with your business but they are showing up in your suggestions because they pay to be there. To find out if an account is paying to be in your “who to follow” feed, look for the word “promoted” in gray letters next to their username, along with a gray arrow pointing upwards.
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