The importance of having Twitter followers
Without followers, your Twitter account has no value. If you’re going to invest time and effort in creating a killer profile, then you need to understand the follower relationship and how your followers add value to your business.
The basics: let’s look at the statistics
Twitter’s ”Small Business Customer Insights Study” (2016) demonstrates the way your followers feel about your business:
78% will retweet your content
75% have a more positive attitude towards your business after reading your tweets
69% have made a purchase from a business after following them on Twitter
85% believe that Promoted Accounts have helped them to discover new businesses to follow
Creating a following
If you want to create an engaged and valuable community of Twitter followers, there are several ways you can get started:
Promote your Twitter account
Include a follow button on your website or in your SMS campaigns. Include your @username on your business cards, in your email signature and in any printed publicity materials. Let your existing customers know that you’re ready to engage on Twitter.
Search keywords and #hashtags
Be an active participant in relevant Twitter conversations, and follow influencers who can advocate for your brand.
Engage your offline advocates online
Encourage your employees to get online, follow and retweet. If you partner with other businesses, actively promote each other’s content.
Be creative with retweets
Incentivise your retweets. Offer a promotional code if a tweet reaches a certain number of retweets, or offer a reward.
Stay focused on your niche
Don’t make the mistake of tweeting about anything and everything. Provide content that your followers will find valuable by focusing on information that is tightly interconnected with your business. Develop a reputation for expertise and you’ll become a go to account.
Be consistent and build trust
Use scheduling to create a consistent flow of valuable content that engages new followers. Research shows that bursts of tweets, with multiple updates in a short space of time, are the cause of over 50% of unfollows.
Promote others and get noticed
If you want to get noticed, notice others. Find content that adds value for your existing followers and use quote tweets and likes to truly engage with the content and show appreciation.
Set up a followers campaign
You can use Twitter Ads to accelerate the growth of your following by setting up a followers campaign. This promotes you to other Twitter users through the ‘Who to follow’ and ‘Home’ timelines. You’ll need a compelling reason for followers to click that follow button, so think about including an exclusive discount or product updates, for example, and target a relevant audience for your business.