There’s no secret to Twitter success, just a few simple steps you should follow.
1. Create an account.
First, create a Twitter account
and fill out all profile information. This will help other people find
you and also get your Twitter profile ranked in search engines for
relevant keywords.
2. Download TweetAdder.
Next download TweetAdder.
At the time of this blog publication, a singl
e account is only $55, and
it’s well worth the money. Other applications are free or cheaper, but
they require a lot of manual upkeep. TweetAdder runs in the background
while you work.
3. Set up your Auto Thank You.
Be sure to thank people for following and ask for their input. It is
generally considered a faux pas to ask people to like your Facebook page
as well, but you can direct people to your website for more information
as long as it does not sound too sales-y.
4. Automatically Follow People Back.
There are two following mechanisms in TweetAdder: Follow and Follow
Back. Both following mechanisms are set to stop when the ratio of
following to followers reaches a certain point. The reason for this cap
is to prevent your Twitter account from getting suspended. If you are
following a ton of people and no one is following you back, Twitter
assumes your account belongs to a spammer who is trying to get as many
followers as possible. Keeping the ratio healthy ensures your account
stays active.
Be sure the ratio is higher for Follow Back than Follow. You want to
leave room to follow back people who choose to follow you. If you have
already maxed out your following ratio with new people you searched for,
you won’t be able to follow back people who find you. We like to leave
auto follow back at 1.5 to 1.
5. Manually Search for Influencers.
Use the profile search to find people who would be interested in your
business. You can search for a keyword included in their profile, like
“mom” or “office manager”. Select people who have more than 1000
friends, or even more, if possible. If you are starting from scratch
with 0 following, go ahead and immediately follow the first 20 profile
matches. Be sure to adjust your ratio so you don’t max out right away.
The default is 1.2 following to 1 followers, so you’ll need to
temporarily set it to 20 to 1. After a few days, bring it back down to 5
to 1 so you don’t get flagged as a spammer. A healthy ratio after you
have over 50 people followers is 1.2 to 1.
6. Set up an Auto Search.
This is the real genius of TweetAdder. Once it runs out of profiles
you hand-selected, it will search for people and follow them
automatically. We haven’t found another application that will do this.
It looks back through tweets to see what people are talking about and
then follows them based on their conversations. Try to get pretty
specific so you can be really targeted. It will make your follow of
their account especially relevant.
7. Set up Auto Unfollowing.
Be sure to set up unfollowing as well. You should unfollow anyone who
hasn’t followed you within a reasonable amount of time. Three days is a
nice number, since it ensures people who follow you are active users.
You need to keep your ratio of following to followers healthy. If you
have followed too many people and not enough people are following you
back, Twitter thinks you are a spam account and will shut you down. 1.2
following to followers is a pretty safe number for unfollowing.
8. Maintain.
You should periodically check back to make sure there are enough
people waiting to be followed and that your ratios look okay. Keep in
mind the profile search feature isn’t automatic, so it’s a good idea set
a recurring calendar reminder every two weeks to go in and add manually
more people to follow. This is how you will find most influential users
since they generally have the most followers.
9. Give Back.
You should tweet multiple times per day. At least once in the morning
and once in the afternoon or evening to cover the different times
people are viewing tweets. You can use a number of different programs to
find out when you should be tweeting to your particular audience. They
can also determine your most influential followers are so you can
interact with them more or offer them special deals. These people could
be converted into brand evangelists.
Be sure to tweet interesting and relevant content for
your audience demographics. Also monitor your account and be sure to get
back to people quickly. Try to take conversations off-line into private
messages if they’re starting to get too long so you don’t annoy your
other followers. Be sure to shorten all links and only include pictures
when necessary.
It is very hard to talk about your brand in 140 characters, so you
should always post links to relevant information on your blog whenever
possible. You can also ask people to visit your Facebook page if you
have an event or to sign up for your email list for more in-depth
updates.
Do you have any questions or suggestions? Let us know.
