Not Enough Twitter Followers? Are you making these seven Twitter mistakes?

One of the ways of building interest in what you do is to use Twitter well.  There are lots of ways to communicate with the world, but Twitter is a great way of connecting with lots of people, including your customers.

However:

• Some people don’t have many Twitter followers.
• Some people are building their list of Twitter followers very slowly.
• Some people don’t seem to be building their list of Twitter followers at all.

They could be making some, or all, of the seven Twitter mistakes below.  Are you making  these mistakes, too?

Still using the egg

When you set up your Twitter account, the default profile picture looks like an egg.  Are you still using it?  If you are, then you’re missing an opportunity to let potential followers know a bit about you.  Upload a photograph, or use a graphic, but get rid of the egg.

Not checking your mentions

You could be a rather rude person and not realise it.  If you don’t check out who is mentioning you, then you’re ignoring people who have demonstrated an interest in you.  Check who is mentioning you.  Make sure you follow them and make a point of thanking them for what they have done to promote you.  You wouldn’t ignore a compliment in the real world.  Why are you ignoring it in the Twitterverse?

Stop and go on Twitter

You struggle to find time to tweet so you tweet now and then.  You also leave long periods when you don’t tweet at all.  That’s bad. People like continuity. They like to know you’re there.  They are more likely to follow you if they see you regularly.  Tweet often and don’t go away for a long time if you want more Twitter followers.

Why are you tweeting? Do you know?

If you’re one of the people who tweets about your sandwiches, your tight shoes or that late train, why are you on Twitter?  What are you trying to achieve?  Do you know? If you don’t, it’s time to think about what you’re doing on Twitter.  Believe me, if you don’t know, the rest of the world will struggle to work out why you’re there, too.

You don’t converse

There’s a clue in the Twitter branding about joining the conversation.  Conversations are about two-way communication.  Are you communicating or broadcasting?  Hint: if you tweet late at night, ask your virtual assistant to tweet for you or set up lots of auto-tweets, you’re not joining in anyone’s conversation.  Guess what?  Other people won’t have much to say to you, either.

You don’t use hashtags

Hashtags are a very powerful Twitter tool.  It’s not just the #ff #followfriday hashtag that matters.  You can reach a new audience by using the hashtags they use in their tweets.  You can find people to follow, conversations to check out and lots of valuable information, if you use the search function to find out who is using particular hashtags.  Don’t know where to start? Check out #CEO and #leadership to see what I mean.  Then use your imagination.

You don’t make it easy for people to follow you

It seems a simple enough thing to do well, but does your blog encourage people to follow you?  Do you have the Twitter function enabled on your LinkedIn profile? Does your business card encourage people to follow you on Twitter?   If you’re not helping people to think of following you, then your follower count will remain low.

What have I missed?

I’ve tried to note the most important things that seem to make a difference.  Do you want to add to the list?

When I work with businesses that are struggling with social media and are keen to build their Twitter following, I ask them about these mistakes.

In my experience, most people with fewer than 200 followers are making most of these errors.

When they change their approach they start to build towards 500 Twitter followers pretty quickly.

Do you agree that sorting out these problems will help people to grow their Twitter following?

. . . Now do you follow me on Twitter?

Follow @BMargaretAdams

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