6 Ways to Attract Twitter Followers

No it’s not another Twitter pyramid scheme. This is about attracting real, useful followers to your Twitter network.

Be interesting and unique
Share your own perspective on news or new information you find. Do you scan a pile of blogs for information? Share it, but look for things that aren’t mainstream. I mean, I love ReadWriteWeb, Mashable and TechCrunch but everybody tweets those posts. Find something original to share. Use services like LazyFeed, Feedmill or My6Sense to quickly scan blogs for new content to share.

Re-tweet
Keep an eye out for interesting information to share with your network. Look for the people the rest of your network might not know instead of retweeting the usual suspects. It’s a great way to give kudos to people who are good information sources.

Problem solve
When a question comes up in your network see if you can answer it. Google it if you have to. You’ll learn something and so will they.

Make connections
When you see somebody with a problem or question you can’t answer, look to your network and connect them with somebody who can.

Add to the conversation
Re-tweeting is good, but don’t you have more to say? Can you share some links to other information to keep the conversational ball rolling or take it in a new direction?

Respond when people Re-tweet or @ you
It’s just plain courteous to respond when somebody talks to you. Don’t be rude or we’ll just think you’re stuck up.

originally posted by Janet Fouts

Twitter Applications you may not know about

You know how you find that incredible Twitter app, use it a couple of times and then can’t remember where it was? Me too.

So I pulled this quick list together as much as a bookmark list for my own use as to share some apps you might not have seen yet.

If I am missing an application that you use and love - make sure to add it in the comments section.

MyTweet16: When you want to step back into Twistory. View the first 16 tweets of any Twitter user.

TweetScan: Search messages and profiles on Twitter and set up email alerts so you don’t miss a thing. Download an archive of your Tweets as a CSV for posterity.

Twellow: A directory of people on Twitter sorted by business categories.

Tweetag: Monitor Twitter from your iGoogle or Netvibes page in a tagcloud of your favorite keywords.

Twitangle: Rate and tag your friends so you can filter by rating or tags to find thoseessential Twits.

Twalala: Lets you filter streams related to particular keywords or usernames permanently or just until the shouting stops.

Twitterless: Takes Qwitter one step further and tells you when people stop following you and graphs your follower history.

Twitree: Displays your followers in a tree structure, complete with their latest tweets.

Doesfollow: Enter two user names and find out if they are following each other.

FriendorFollow: Helps you see who’s following you but you aren’t following back and vice versa.

Tweetworks: Allows you to create groups and view threaded discussions.

Tweetparty: Create groups and send direct messages straight to your team simultaneously.

Tweetstats: Graph usage and trends for your own posts or friends.

Tweetcube: Share files up to 10mb via Twitter.

TwitterFeed: Feed your most recent blog posts title directly to Twitter with a link to the post.

MrTweet: Helps identify those followers you need to follow but haven’t yet and view the influencers in your network.

Twits Like Me: Finds people with like interests on Twitter based on your updates.

TwitterFriends: Quickly view your network by who’s active, who’s not and basic stats on activity.

LoudTwitter: Posts your Tweets to your blog.

Tweetlater: is a good way to tweet your blog posts when you can't do it personally

*posted by Janet Fouts - Social Media Coach

Tweet Tweet

So what is Twitter anyway? In a nut shell, it is place where you can update your status and let everyone know what you are up to, share links & funny antidotes and anything you can think of in 140 characters or less :)

It's actually rather limiting and not as interactive as Facebook. You can send someone a message or add a mobile image (with a 3rd party application) but that's pretty much it. So why use it?

.......Because it's another great way to get your name out there.

So.... how can I utilize Twitter for my business? Well it's funny you should ask because I was just about to tell you :) This is how I set up my Twitter and how I've been using it.

Do you have a Twitter Account?
If not, just go to http://www.twitter.com and create one. Follow the steps and add your business information. Make sure to add some personality to it :)

Setting up your Profile
You can change the background by going to "Settings/Design" on the top right hand corner of your screen. Here, you can select one of their default backgrounds or upload an image. Of course, that wasn't good enough for me, so I solicited the help of PimpMyTwitter.net. For $73, they will create a background masterpiece. Ask for Barbara, she is the lead developer and owner - and she ROCKS!

Checkout her work:

• GiftBasketGuru
• OhMyDogSupplies
• SEMGroup
• HornDog
• IslandChick

How to get Followers
In order for people to see what you are posting, you need to build a following. These are the steps I took to get my posse :)

a) Click the "Find People" link on the top right hand corner. Search for keywords that pertain to your business - like gift baskets, for example. Click the profile that has the most followers. If you click their "followers" button, you have instant access to all their tweeters and you can start following them. 9 times our of 10, if you follow someone, they will follow you back.

This can be a long process when doing it manually. There are desktop applications that you can get to help you manager your followers:

• Hummingbird
• TweetDeck
• Twhirl
• PeopleBrowser

b) Create an account on TopFollowed.com. It grows your Twitter network slowly through reciprocal following. Everyone who signs up for TopFollowed automatically follows (and is followed by) other TopFollowed members.

c) Add your top keywords to the WeFollow.com directory.

Have FUN!
Now what? You have a profile, you have followers - what do you do now? Just have fun with it! I personally ignore tweeters that just post ads and/or sales pitches. Its boring and doesn't really make me want to follow them. You need to develop relationships with your followers, keep them interested and wanting more. Yes, I post sales pitches like everyone else but I also post great articles I find, videos, or I repost (RT) other tweets that I find interesting. I also make a point to start a conversation with 10 random people every day.

The important thing to remember is to be a LIVE person and not just a commercial :)