If you’re new to Twitter it can be a little confusing on where to start and how to get followers. Unless you’re very famous you’re not going to get 1000’s of new followers after a single tweet. I screen everyone before I follow them and so do many others that I know.
There are some real basic things you MUST do before you start your journey on Twitter so let’s look at the easiest top 5 things to do.
#1 Add your logo
If you don’t have a logo Twitter gives you a Twitter egg that looks like this:
Many, many people will not follow you if they see the Twitter egg, including myself! It doesn’t take long to add one and it is quite straight forward to do…
To add a logo simply look at the top right of your twitter account and click on the egg logo and click on “View Profile“. You should now see an “Edit profile” button below your main header image. Click on the “edit profile” button and from there you can edit the logo (#1), your profile text (#2) and header image (#3).
#2 Add the profile text
Some people may only follow you if you have the same interests. Other may only follow you if you live locally. By adding some profile text you let them know a little about you, or your services, or interests and so on.
It is also advisable to fill in the location. If you don’t want to say exactly where you are you could always put something like “Southwest XXXX”. Just having something will help get those followers local to you. I have “South West UK” as my main location and I mention Devon in the profile text. I build websites for companies all over the World so it isn’t as important to me to have my town. If you are a local shop then it would be better to mention your town.
I have Twitter accounts with local news and information. On those Twitter accounts I only follow those in the local area who follow me. Even if a user tweets local information, without some idea of their location I won’t follow them back.
#3 Add a header image
It doesn’t have to be fancy but something other than the bland default background will also help you attract followers. Try not to use a background with lots of text as the profile text you should have added (#2) needs to be clearly readable. Make sure your profile text can be read with whatever you choose to use.
#4 Keep the follow/following ratio close
People can get a little carried away following people when they first join. It’s important to try and keep the ratio of following and followers to around 1/1 or under. Twitter themselves give your tweets more weight if you have high “followers” and low “Following”.
Initially is it okay to follow, say 100 people, with just a few following back. What you don’t want is to be following 600, 700, 800, 900 or more with only a handful following back.
If I see someone following 2,000 people and they only have 50 following them back I won’t follow myself. Many others won’t do either. Curb your temptation to follow until you hit the twitter limits, it will harm you.
I don’t have tens of thousands of followers but those that follow me are interested in my tweets, my services and/or are local to me. They are all 100% real and interact with me and that is what social media should be about… being “social”.
#5 Lots of followers/following but no tweets
Nothing screams of bots, paid-for followers and scams more than someone with 30,000 followers and no (or very few) tweets. It’s very easy to spot people who have purchased fake followers and you’re unlikely to get many real followers. This means that when you tweet to your followers you’ll have no real followers viewing it.
