For the past four weeks, I’ve been giving a virtual course in “Twitter 101” here on Campus Splash. The first week, I debunked common myths about Twitter – essentially excuses that people use for why they’re not yet tweeting. Then, we discussed how to tweet, and the three simple ways (original, reply, and retweet). Last week, we walked through a glossary of Twitter terminology to help you understand the language.
This week, we go in-depth and answer perhaps the most common question new Twitter users ask: “how do I get people to follow me?”
Well here’s the most basic answer: it’s not about the followers, it’s about the following. To think about how you want to get people to follow you, first ask yourself what would make you want to follow someone else.
Here are three tips:
1. Tweet interesting stuff!
People like to read things that are interesting, unique, and personal. The more your content will be valuable, the greater chance someone is going to want to come back for more
2. Follow back!
Simple Twitter etiquette – if someone follows you, check out their profile and return the courtesy. Think back to our basic rule: think about how you follow others to try to get them to follow you. So begin by following a bunch of people…chances are they will follow you back.
3. Participate in #FollowFriday Check back to the glossary and look up the definition of a hash-tag. There are a few hash-tags that have become pretty universal on Twitter – and one custom that has developed is the #FollowFriday hash-tag (or #FF for short). This is a way to recommend to your followers other twitter users that you think they should be following. So, on Friday, check out other people’s #FF lists – and then create your own.
Like anything, growing and maintaining your Twitter account will take time. But with a little bit of effort, you’ll find that it doesn’t take much effort to grow a decent sized following.
Chris Golden is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of myImpact.org- an online platform and Twitter based application for volunteers to record, share and track their impact. Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisGolden. He’s served for two years as official Twitter correspondent for the National Conference on Citizenship, speaks frequently on social media to student, young leader and non-profit audiences and was invited to NASA Tweetups at the Kennedy Space Center for the STS-133 and STS-135 launches and the first White House Twitter Town Hall with President Obama.
Twitter 101: How do you get people to follow you?
By Chris Golden · July 19th, 2011 · Student Life · Comments
19 July
For the past four weeks, I’ve been giving a virtual course in “Twitter 101” here on Campus Splash. The first week, I debunked common myths about Twitter – essentially excuses that people use for why they’re not yet tweeting. Then, we discussed how to tweet, and the three simple ways (original, reply, and retweet). Last week, we walked through a glossary of Twitter terminology to help you understand the language.
This week, we go in-depth and answer perhaps the most common question new Twitter users ask: “how do I get people to follow me?”
Well here’s the most basic answer: it’s not about the followers, it’s about the following. To think about how you want to get people to follow you, first ask yourself what would make you want to follow someone else.
Here are three tips:
1. Tweet interesting stuff!
People like to read things that are interesting, unique, and personal. The more your content will be valuable, the greater chance someone is going to want to come back for more
2. Follow back!
Simple Twitter etiquette – if someone follows you, check out their profile and return the courtesy. Think back to our basic rule: think about how you follow others to try to get them to follow you. So begin by following a bunch of people…chances are they will follow you back.
3. Participate in #FollowFriday
Check back to the glossary and look up the definition of a hash-tag. There are a few hash-tags that have become pretty universal on Twitter – and one custom that has developed is the #FollowFriday hash-tag (or #FF for short). This is a way to recommend to your followers other twitter users that you think they should be following. So, on Friday, check out other people’s #FF lists – and then create your own.
Like anything, growing and maintaining your Twitter account will take time. But with a little bit of effort, you’ll find that it doesn’t take much effort to grow a decent sized following.
Chris Golden is the Executive Director and Co-Founder of myImpact.org- an online platform and Twitter based application for volunteers to record, share and track their impact. Follow Chris on Twitter @ChrisGolden. He’s served for two years as official Twitter correspondent for the National Conference on Citizenship, speaks frequently on social media to student, young leader and non-profit audiences and was invited to NASA Tweetups at the Kennedy Space Center for the STS-133 and STS-135 launches and the first White House Twitter Town Hall with President Obama.