You already know that if you follow people on Twitter, a portion of those users will follow you back. But is that really the best way to get your first 100 Twitter followers?
It actually isn’t! From running contests and writing guest posts to reaching out to influencers, you can use at least 10 different tactics to grow your follower count.
To show you how you can use each of these tactics and the impact they will have on your account, I’ve created an infographic that details the tactics and ways to implement them.
One more secret strategy
Now that you know how to get your first 100 followers I want to give you another secret strategy to get even more.
A great way to increase your follower count is by stealing your competitors’ followers, which you can leverage by following these steps:
1. Track and respond to tweets about the competition
On Twitter, you can find out who is tweeting about your competition by using the search feature in the top right area of the screen. For example, one of KISSmetrics’ competitors is Mixpanel. So, I performed a Twitter search using their name.
When you search for people tweeting about your competition, you have to dig through the results and look for anyone who may have a question or is upset. If they have a question, you should answer it without pitching your own product or service. This will help with your brand awareness and will generate more customers for you.
If someone is upset or disappointed with your competition, like this guy is, you can always follow up with them.
I could respond to the tweet above from the KISSmetrics Twitter account and offer the author of the tweet free help. A simple tweet, like the one below, would work:
By tweeting and trying to help people, you can win over customers in the long haul and gain a lot of the same followers that follow your competition.
2. Analyze your competition through Twitonomy
Have you ever used a free Twitter analytics tool called Twitonomy? All you have to do is type in your competitor’s Twitter handle, and the tool will tell you everything you need to know about the company you are researching.
For example, I typed in Mixpanel, and here are some of the things I learned…
As you can see, the Twitonomy shows you which users Mixpanel retweets, replies to and mentions the most. If you were trying to attract its followers, you would want to interact with these people. Just make sure to avoid the people who work for that company.
You can also see the type of content that their followers enjoy the most as Twitonomy lists their most retweeted and favorited tweets.
Once you’ve analyzed all of your competitor’s Twitter data, you are now ready to steal its followers.
3. How to steal your competitor’s followers
The first thing you need to do is create a list on Twitter.
Within this list, you’ll want to follow the most active users that your competitor is engaging with. You can get a list of these users from Twitonomy.
Once you’ve created a list, make sure you monitor what those people are tweeting and provide a helping hand by answering their questions.
Next, you’ll want to look at all of the lists that follow your competitor and engage with the users who created those lists.
Typically, you’ll see hundreds of lists, so you should first engage with the users who have the biggest lists. By having your Twitter profile also being part of that list, you’ll instantly gain followers from your competition.
The way you would convince someone to add you to their list is to first tweet a few times at them around topics that you feel will interest them. If you also see them asking questions on Twitter, make sure you respond with an answer.
After a few weeks of engaging with them, kindly ask them if they would be open to adding your Twitter user name to their list.
You’ll also want to make sure you are leveraging all of the information you have learned about your competition to your advantage. For example, if you are looking at their most used hashtags, you can then start using similar ones in your tweets to appeal to their followers.
You can also do this with timing. By knowing the days and hours they tweet, you can start tweeting during those times to also appeal to the same followers.
And what I really love doing is seeing when my competition isn’t active on Twitter. For example, Mixpanel isn’t very active on the weekends, so if I started to tweet content that their followers would love on the weekends, I’d slowly start taking their audience.
Conclusion
If you aren’t active on Twitter, I highly recommend that you fix that.
Twitter isn’t just a numbers game. The higher quality followers you have, the more retweets and favorites you will get. This will help give you more visibility and increase your follower count.
If you work on stealing your competitors’ followers, you’ll notice that Twitter can be a good revenue source for you.
Just be careful not to engage in the following practices to avoid losing followers:
- Tweeting too many broadcasts that aren’t directed at anyone can reduce your follower count by 2.6x.
- Too much negative sentiment can reduce your follower count by 1.8x.
- Using useless hashtags can decrease your count by 1.2x.