Friday, September 2, 2011

Good Ways to Increase Your Followers on Twitter

For those of you who don't already know this, I love Twitter. It's the most amazing way to connect up with people all over the world who share your interests (or even just one of your interests). I mostly follow those who love to read books or those who write them, anyone who tweets original funny stuff, and social media gurus. I also follow a few news and political tweeters and some other oddball characters I picked up along the way, just cause they seem like nice, interesting people (and don't remotely resemble ax murderers or perverts or behave like stalkers).

The best way to increase the number of people who follow you is to follow new people and hope they return the favor. Stacy Juba came up with a Twitter Hopalong to help her blog visitors spread the word about their Twitter IDs. You add a comment to Stacy's blog and state what you tweet about, add your Twitter ID url, and then scroll up the list to find a few new friends to follow.

In addition, Stacy is blogging about Twitter all this week. Her previous posts are:
5 Easy Steps to Managing Twitter
How Authors Can Maximize Twitter to Promote Book Sales

Another sure way to pick up new followers is to make the content of your tweets so interesting that your current followers frequently RT (retweet) your messages. I often follow someone new because their message finds its way into my stream via one of the folks I follow.

And finally, make friends on Twitter. Engage with people. Retweet the good tweets and links you see. And then go out and follow some of the people recommended by Twitter. If they're like me, they'll go to your profile and check you out, and if they like what they see, they'll follow you.

Now take advantage of Stacy's great idea to connect with a few people. Hop over there to that Twitter Hopalong, add your comment and Twitter ID url to the post, and follow some of those folks who've left their info. I've already picked up a new batch of great followers, thanks to Stacy.

And just so you know, my Twitter ID is @PStoltey.

9 comments:

Kathryn Elliott said...

Neat idea! I'll hop on over. Thanks!

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

I need to read those tips!

Anonymous said...

Pat - I like Twitter very much, too. Not only do I really enjoy the people I've met, but it gives me the opportunity to connect with lots of folks I wouldn't know in any other way. And thanks for those links!

RHYTHM AND RHYME said...

I've just got the hang of twitter but enjoy it very much,

Have a good week-end.
Yvonne.

Elspeth Futcher said...

Thanks for the links, Pat. I'm sure I could be making better use out of Twitter than I am at the moment.

Stacy Juba said...

Thanks so much for this post, Pat! I'm going to tweet it now. I hope the articles help people with their use of Twitter - it took me awhile to get used to it myself. I'm enjoying meeting lots of new people in the hop.

Jemi Fraser said...

I tend to go through cycles with Twitter. It's fun, but I often feel like I'm on the outside looking in. Getting better though :)

Elisa DeLany said...

Sometimes I'll just randomly Tweet at people and eventually they end up following my if I'm funny enough. It's fun, having Tweet wars with other authors. (: Thanks for the tips, Patricia!

Dorte H said...

Hm. I am beginning to learn, but I am still at the stage where I am immensely proud when someone retweets one of mine ;)

And though I can be funny in fiction (I hope), my tweets are hardly funny so I try to do the trick by tweeting & retweeting good blog posts.