Getting Quality Followers On Twitter

It seems like every couple of weeks another program or services comes out claiming to increase your followers on Twitter by hundreds or even thousands of people per day. And for many people, having a lot of followers on Twitter is akin to being popular and having your message heard.

In fact there are even advertising services that specifically charge more based on how many followers are being targeted by the message. But is that a realistic estimate? Or are most Twitter followers simply dead in the water and not actually following your message?

Right now on Twitter, I have over 4,000 followers. And by and large, most of these followers I did not “create” myself – in fact if you were to look at my e-mail account, I almost always have a steady stream of new followers each day.

Your Number of Followers Does Not Determine How Successful You Are On Twitter

A mistake that many people make is thinking that the number of followers they have is going to get them the result they wanted out of Twitter. This is simply not the truth. A person could have only 50 followers, but if they communicate with them regularly and if every single one of those 50 followers knows who that person is, then the value of the communication goes way up!

Adding an additional thousand followers to your account who aren’t listening to what you say is not valuable. If you have thousands of people you are following, the stream of traffic will soon become overwhelming and you can only take in so much!

Why People Follow You, and Why You Follow Them

There are many reasons to follow another person on Twitter, but some of the most popular ones include:

• You know them, or they know you. In other words you’re friends
• You are already contacts on another social media service such as Facebook
• You know someone who knows that person
• You have discovered that person at some point and you are genuinely interested in what they have to say on a particular topic

I know that through my own experience, some people have followed people who have followed me (do you follow?) because they wanted to become friends with my friends. Lets face it, we live in a SOCIAL world, where everybody knows everybody else. If you wanted to meet Donald Trump, you might first make friends with one of his business associates, and you might soon be introduced.

The Reason Spam Is So Valuable On Twitter

If you’ve been on Twitter long enough, you know that people will spam you! And not just by mentioning a product or service, but by literally shoving information down your throat that you didn’t want.

And you know, spam is a great tool, because it shows you who NOT to follow.

Every single day I go through my Twitter account and I do a massive un-following of people. It doesn’t take long to identify the spammers.  And as a result my Twitter feed is a lot cleaner. Now, might those people un-follow you back?  Yes of course, but ask yourself if you really want to be friends with someone like that.

The great news is that most people on Twitter won’t spam you, in fact they are very friendly. They will post lots of links to new articles you might like, and the more social they are, they will post a whole lot of @Replies, which are public replies to a person you are talking to.  So if you wanted to get my attention, just put @TaylorSherman in the message line, and it will appear for me automatically.

Why You Need Quality Followers

Quality followers are those people who ACTUALLY listen to what you have to say. They may ponder your points, they may provide you with great tips if you ask a question, and most importantly, you will develop lasting friendships and sometimes potent business contacts.

I’ve already met several people who I have incorporated into my business JUST through taking the time to reply to them on Twitter and finding out who they were and what we could help each other with. It’s really amazing.

The better quality of the followers you have, the more they will have reasons to promote you to other people, and to Re-Tweet your messages to their own stream of followers. Just today someone  Re-Tweeted an article that I wrote, which led to me actually developing a relationship with that person. So having quality followers is the key to effective networking.

How To Measure The Quality Of Your Followers

There are many metrics that you can use to determine how quality your followers are:

• How many people do you communicate with on a regular basis on Twitter?
• Do you use Re-Tweets and @Replies to go back and forth with the person?
• How many followers actively respond to your questions, or your requests for help?
• How many of your followers click on the links you put in your tweets?
• How many direct messaging conversations do you have going on “Behind the Scenes” with fellow Twitter users?

You should have an intuitive idea of how many people follow you, and how many people are actively listening to what you have to say. Does Twitter feel like a “big city” to you, where you are all alone and know no-one?  Or does it feel like an amazingly friendly place where you know a lot of people, and can’t wait to meet more?

Wherever you are with the quality of followers, you can always develop your skills.

How To Get Better Quality of Followers

Although it may be tempting to only talk to the people who you already know from outside of Twitter, that would be defeating the whole purpose! It’s great to develop NEW relationships and contacts, and here are a few ways that you can do it.

• Send either direct message or @Replies to other people’s questions. Solve their problems!  If someone solves an issue for you, they feel grateful and they want to give back to you. This is a perfect time to generate reciprocity and make a new friend.
• If a person posts a link that you find interesting, go and read it! If it’s a blog they run, post in the comments that you found them on Twitter, and then send them on a message saying that you’ve just commented on their blog. They will race to read it, as people LOVE comments!
• When a person you wish to get to know posts something great, make sure to Re-Tweet it. When you post a Re-Tweet, you are saying publicly that you approve of that person’s content. As a result, this is a great way to make new friends!

Why Quantity of Followers May STILL be Important

Even though having quality interactions with fellow tweeters is important, quantity may still be a concern. For one thing, it increases the number of people who are notified every time you send out a message. Sometimes I get replies from people who I haven’t really known, and who found my tweets to be of interest to them. They may tell me something I didn’t know or that would have taken me a long time to figure out.

Other times when browsing your own stream of tweets, you can be notified quicker about current events, or changes in your industry. Many of the people who are tweeting about hypnosis are continually providing new articles that can increase your skill level or develop your competencies. If you find ONE new technique that helps you to work better with a client that you are seeing, isn’t it worth it to take the time to develop your Twitter account?

Get Started Today

On all ideas it’s important to take action and to have them work for you. If you don’t already have an account, then create one and make sure to Follow Me when you do, as it’s always great to meet new friends. I hope you’ve gotten something good out of this article, and let me know if you’re using Twitter and how successful you are with it!