By now, I’m assuming most of you have gone through and added all of these amazing entrepreneurs to follow on Twitter. Hopefully, some of them have added you back. Now, your mission is to make sure the people following you on Twitter keep following you. You don’t want to be the victim of someone’s spring cleaning of their following list.
How can you improve your follower retention on Twitter? Start by following these 10 tips.
1. Remember Why People Follow You- This is the first thing you have to figure out. Unless they’re just desperate for more friends, people usually have a specific reason for following you. If your Twitter account is for professional networking, they most likely want to hear your thoughts on relevant industry topics. In other words, they don’t want to read about you clipping your toenails or getting in a fight with your significant other.
2. Determine Why People Quit You- It’s a sad fact of Twitter life, but people will unfollow you at some point. You need to figure out why they’re doing it. One handy tool for doing this is Qwitter. This will send you an alert letting you know the exact moment someone stops following you. It will show your most recent Tweet with the hopes that will shed some light on the situation. If that doesn’t help, ask yourself if you’re living up to your expectations from tip #1.
3. Interact with Your Followers- Twitter is a social tool. So, you need to be social. Don’t just send one-way Tweets. Interact with the people you’re following. Someone is much less likely to drop you if you engage with them on a regular basis. Remember, social networking is about building connections. The only to build strong connections is to chat it up.
4. Don’t Over Tweet- Maybe I’m being anal, but one of the things that leads me to unfollow someone is when they drop 50 Tweets in the span of a few short minutes. It’s like the guy at the conference who tries to take over the show by asking 10,000 questions. Let everyone share the floor. Tweet your heart out, but just be careful not to overdo it.
5. Don’t Under Tweet Either- If you don’t give your Twitter account any attention, you’re begging to be wiped away when someone starts trimming their following list. It goes back to tip#3—if people don’t know you, they’ll have little problem dropping you like a bad habit. Keep your visibility up by making at least a few quality posts each day.
6. Keep Self-Promotion to a Minimum- Is there anything more disappointing than following a new user only to find that every one of their updates is a link to some crappy blog post they wrote? Even worse is when they constantly Tweet about how great their company is or why you should do business with them. Look, a little self-promotion is expected. But keep it at a minimum. It’s not an infomercial; it’s Twitter.
7. Lend a Helping Hand- Instead of constantly promoting yourself, lend a helping hand to some of your connections on Twitter. If you see somebody wrote a good post, do them the favor of Retweeting it. They’ll be appreciative, and it shows others you aren’t just in it for yourself.
8. Be a Resource- If you really want people to continue following you, make it impossible for them to leave by making high quality updates. Whether this is linking out to a great tool or article or simply giving a thoughtful opinion in a discussion, people won’t stop following someone who’s a great resource.
9. Stop Whining- Here’s a surefire way to start losing followers—constantly complain about your life. One of the best things about working from home is I don’t have to listen to people gripe all day about inconsequential things. No one cares if McDonalds messed up your order or if your boss is a jerk; stop whining!
10.Be Yourself- Yes, this sounds like something out of a cheesy motivational video, but it’s true. People follow you because they care what you think. Just be yourself, and people will respect that. It’s the only way you’ll truly stand out from the masses.
What tips would you add to this list? Share them in the replies!
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