I despise the numbers game when it comes to Twitter — if given the choice between 100 quality followers and 1 million random followers, I’d take 100 all day and twice on Sunday. (Wait, would that be 200 followers? I digress). It drives me bonkers when people brag about their networks. Ugh.
But since I am lucky enough to have built up a pretty substantial little Twitter community, I use a lot of tools to keep everyone straight. What’s the point of having friends if you don’t know how to talk to them?
What tools?
I keep a “new followers” column in Tweetdeck and keep track of all the people who have recently followed me. Tweetdeck makes it super easy to follow people, so I go click click click click then clear the list so the next time it refreshes, I’m not confused about which names I’ve reviewed. (You can also click on your “followers” link on Twitter.com and get the same information)
I have columns set up in Tweetdeck for key searches like “fitblog,” “Top50IHT,” and “journchat” as well as lists that I’ve set up for people whose tweets I really don’t want to miss (family, colleagues, etc.)
PLUS, I’ve gotten a little lot pickier about following people back — not because I don’t think y’all have a ton of value; I just don’t have room for auto-bots, spammers or other junk in my stream. (Wow, that sounded dirty).
So, here are my tips for things YOU should do to your Twitter account to make it easy for me (AND OTHERS!) to hit that “follow” button…and I’m using several recent followers as guinea pigs.
Be More Followable
1. Avatars
Get rid of that default avatar that Twitter assigns you and put up a nice photo of yourself (or of your logo, but I prefer your face). It can be serious or silly — it doesn’t really matter. It just gives me some perspective that YES, this is a person. Take @KatieHWS as an example:
I mean, how cute is she? Follow.
2. Biographical Information
Fill out your biographical information. PLEASE. Every single day, people show up in my new followers stream with a nice picture, a seemingly harmless name and NO information. How am I supposed to know anything about you? Tell me what your job is, or what you do for fun. Post a link. This doesn’t have to be your life story; just a little bit of information to rule you out as a spammer. Take two examples — what TO do (@ajwbowen) and what NOT to do (@roxypotts).
3. Recent Activity
Have interesting recent tweets. Now, I’m not advising you to overthink what you tweet — be yourself! Don’t worry about who is reading! But I’m more likely to follow someone that’s obviously engaged in conversation, tweeting to people, RTing, asking questions, etc., than someone who is mindlessly posting links and never being part of a community.
And if you auto-post your blog posts to Twitter (which I do — it’s no crime!) be sure that those are not the ONLY tweets you make. Again, the good (@Stephanywrites) and not-so-good (@GolfCityUSA).
4. Public Relations
Do your own PR! I say this with the words DANGER! DANGER! DANGER! flashing in my head, as I brace for an onslaught of obnoxious self-promotion. But if you tweet with me — either asking me a question or RTing something I wrote, I’m likely to check you out immediately. Or, if you tell me something about how we’re connected — share that you, too went to Syracuse University, or that you, too love to rescue animals, or that you, too love the color purple, it’s an instant call-to-action for me. And I’m much more likely to click follow.
Don’t force it — but if you really want me to take a close look at you and follow, give me a subtle nudge.
5. Involvement and Community
The #Fitblog twitter chat is not only a way to meet some amazing people, it’s a way to gain instant followers. Typically, people see a nice jump in their followers the day after a chat, and it’s because we’re a community. We all race to follow each other at 10:01pm, as soon as the chat ends. I still do a bit of due diligence in checking profiles out before clicking follow, but if I recognize your name from a chat, you’re most likely getting followed (and getting added to my Fitblog list, which has its own Tweetdeck column).
*note: the #Fitblog list is not updated as of July 2011 — just became too much work!
So, there you have it — my tips for getting followed on Twitter. Did I miss any? Post a comment and let me know what you check out before clicking “follow.” And be sure to follow (ahem) me (@kwidrick) and maybe even tweet this post if you liked it!
About Katy
Great advice, girl!
These tips are SO helpful, Katy. I’m still learning the details of Twitter!
I’m glad they helped!
When I make a decision to follow, I focus on their bio and twitter stream. Are they conversing with the community or just pumping out a bunch of links? Even a full page of RT’s is a turnoff to me. There’s got to be engagement with @ replies. Who they follow or how many are following them doesn’t really matter.
Excellent presentation on this, Katy!
Thanks, love!
I, too, hate the full page of RTs. It makes me wonder if they have set up a script to randomly RT keywords or certain people, and it’s a total turnoff.
Wow.. Twitter is way more tech than I can handle! This is a really informative post though, thanks for going to the effort of putting it together! I really don’t even get how you guys do that fitblog chat thing.. but I want to join in sometime!
J,
The chat thing is about to get easier — I’m launching a new website at the beginning of November, so stay tuned! And let me know when you want to join…I’d be happy to hold your hand. Virtually, of course.
I have to admit, I’m in the same boat as Janetha on the Fitblog chat thing. I want to chime in, but I’m apprehensive because I don’t really know the “rules” around it. It seems silly, but I feel like I’m some obnoxious stranger busting into the middle of a nice cocktail party, shouting “I like spin class too!” just to have everyone kind of stare at each other blankly like, “Who the hell invited her?!”
All that to say, I’m excited you’re launching a new site to make it easier to get started! And thank you sincerely, as always, for your very informative posts!
I have to weigh in on what makes me un-follow someone, even if their scope of influence seems high. Whiny, attention-seeking or rapid-fire tweets that monopolize my feed are very likely to have me unfollow. And I often un-follow when someone shamelessly promotes a product. But, I agree that the community aspect is my favorite part of twitter. You have to get involved! =)
Good points…there’s probably another post that I could devoted to “Why I Unfollow You.” Thanks — I’ll start working on it!
Great tips Katy! I am enjoying the #fitblog community ever since I discovered it, lately. Such a fun and energetic community
We should meet up for coffee or froyo one day!
I’d love to — email me and name the time and place! kwidrick at gmail dot com.
Love your posts. Such great advice
Nicely put together article. I go through some of the same steps before following someone back. In fact, the link in my bio is to a blog post specifically detailing why I will or will not follow someone back. I’m not about the numbers, I’m about the connections with interesting people who’ve got something worth reading!
Fenriq,
That’s a really interesting idea, to link to your follow/unfollow reasons. I agree, it’s all about the connections.
I am doing my best to use the Tweets, but what do you say to a girl who is a hard core facebooker? Twitter seems to be less conversational, and I am all about the talk and chit chat. Maybe I’m just missing something! (This in NO WAY implies that I am old. Cause I’m not. Not that old, anyway!!! lol) So I will do my best to be more twitterific and take your advice. But I have a feeling my first instinct will always be my sweet facebook!
Charlie,
I’m a Facebook addict, as well…I tend to think of that as a place to SHARE and Twitter as a place to INTERACT, but I do a lot of both on both sites!
Great advice. I think a lot of us have much to learn. (Or I do, at least!)
Yes yes and yes!! I’m really getting into the Twitter thing as a means of communicating, connecting and self-promoting! Do you have any feelings on Facebook? I feel like Facebook pages are kind of passe, and I don’t want to over-saturate.
Susan,
I need to write up a similar post on Facebook, but I did do this one that raises some points:
http://katywidrick.com/2010/08/11/allow-myself-to-introduce-myself-5-new-rules-of-networking/
this is great advice. I’m still learning to use Twitter!
You just made me go through my follower list again and see who I should follow back. I realized that most of the ones I “should”, I already did. The real people who actually tweet and engage. I only have 80 followers, but I am happy with my twitter stream. Not that I wouldn’t like some of the other “real” people I follow to follow me back, but that’s OK. Thanks. Now off to “follow” you.
Caroline,
First of all — thanks for the follow
Second…how long have you been on Twitter? The more you are on the site, interacting and getting to know people, the more followers you’ll get. Just take part in a few #fitblog chats and you’ll see!
Love this post, Katy! Lots of great points that people forget about. It’s the little things that count!
Your Tumblr URL cracks…me…up.
I’m glad you liked the post!
Thank you for this! I started following you on twitter not long ago when someone first told me about fitblog. And I joined in for the first time this past Tuesday. (It was so fast my head spun! But I’ll be back.) I wish there was more information about twitter etiquette and what abbreviations mean and when to RT or FF or whatever. I admit that I don’t quite “get it.” I have been slowly trying to remember to actually tweet something but I honestly think I have so little of interest to say and it seems odd to reply to people I don’t know. I guess I need to get out of my comfort zone and just do it. (Sorry Nike.) BTW – Did you really go to Syracuse? My son is applying there and it is one of his top picks.
It is fast…but as I hinted, a new website is coming soon! It might not help with the speed, but I do think it will be easier to keep track of questions and topics. And you’ll be able to set some filters.
I will work on a post to help explain some of the Twitter jargon…it can be confusing!
And YES! I’m a proud ‘Cuse alum, as is my husband. What is your son considering for a major? Let me know and I’ll see if I have any insight. I was Broadcast Journalism at Newhouse and my husband was Architecture.
Katy,
This is great (somehow…I have missed the new followers list in Tweetdeck…and now I’m loving it!!)
Thank you!!
You are so welcome! I love all the columns in Tweetdeck…I have (shameful, I know) about a dozen active at all times.
I go through almost every quarter and clean up who I follow. My main criteria? Have I had any give and take with that person that I can recall?
If I’m following someone who is not talking to me, they are merely filling my stream with noise. Even if it is good noise -to me it’s noise. I follow some brands and some celebrities and they do not fall into the rule. But 95% should.
Also? People who seem to talk all the time! I do not need to see that I spend an hour at the gym and come home to 500 new messages. SOMEONE is talking way too much!
What keeps me following someone?
-Demonstrating a great sense of humor. #IPlayWithTheHastag is the easiest way. How clever a hashtag can you write?
-Being clear on your convos what you’re talking about -for the followers who “come in in the middle of a conversation.” -especially because Twitter has made it harder to follow a conversation back in time. This also means that occasionally if you’re taking part in a twitterparty or twitterchat -you retweet the questions or topics instead of relying on the host/hostess to only do that job.
-NOT thanking every frakkin person who retreets or FFs or mentions you. Classic example of self-serving NOISE. You really want to thank them? Do it a DM. Or talk to them about something real. (note- RTs, FFs, etc. are twitter world, they are not real.)
I just followed the entire #fitblog list – and cannot stand the random noise of some of the people. Will be unfollowing them -regardless of the convo rule- because of the too much noise rule.
Deb,
All excellent points…I assume my noise means that you can’t stay on of my followers, huh?
I struggle with the fact that because I tweet SO MUCH for work and #fitblog, a lot of people are turned off. But I know that others are inspired, so…
You might want to check out http://muuter.com, too. You can mute hashtags, keywords or individual tweeters for a specific period of time.
Katy,
Actually I’m still following you. I get something every day from your tweets. Truthfully, because I tweet fitness and crafting and my life? I have lost followers because of MY noise.
I really mean the person that when you check their profile they tweet something on average every 3 minutes. 90% of these @s with no help to the rest of their followers about the conversation:
@AAAA that is so true. (1 minute ago).
@BBB I tried that, but I didn’t like it. (3 minutes ago)
@ccc Come on! You can so do that. (5 minutes ago)…
Where did the day go? What have done with it? (6 minutes ago)…
Same history for 8-10 hours.
That example really cries for example of how it could be done better:
@AAA It is so true that you only get out exercise what you put into it.
@BBB I tried pea protein, but didn’t like the taste.
@ccc Come on. I’m sure you can do one pull-up if you try.
My lunch break is over..time to get some work done. #TweetAtYaLater
The first three examples here invite others into the conversation by sharing what it’s about.
You forgot to add that the ones who ask you to follow them, DON’T get followed. So annoying!
Ahhhh, yes…I totally agree! The only time I find it acceptable is with brands or when you want to contact someone through DM. I sometimes ask someone to follow me just so I can DM them, or vice versa.
Ahhhh, yes…I totally agree! The only time I find it acceptable is with brands or when you want to contact someone through DM. I sometimes ask someone to follow me just so I can DM them, or vice versa.
Oh yeah, that is acceptable, but when they have had hardly, if any, contact with you, and they ask you. Hell no. Just b/c they asked!
Hi Katy, thanks so much for the tips. Could you let me know how I sign in to fitblog? I am a newbie..Thanks, Jill
Hey Jill!
I’d love to have you join us tonight! We’re launching a new website for the chats in a couple of weeks, which should make things even easier.
But for now, check out this post: http://katywidrick.com/fitblogchat/
I think the easiest way to take part is to go to Tweetchat.com and sign in, then enter the #fitblog room. You’ll only see tweets that include that hashtag, and you can pause or slow the speed at which the page refreshes.
Come on by at 9pmET and you’ll find lots of helpful and friendly people!
This is a great post, Katy! Great tips for twitter users! Luckily for me i’m already doing all of those
Great tips! And those first two are by far the first things I consider when deciding whether or not to follow someone back.
Katy, this post is really great. Thank you so much for writing it. I am still new (about a month or so) to this whole Twitter World and the blogging community. I have surprised myself and really like Twitter! Your tips are great and hopefully they can enhance my profile tremendously.
I’ve always wondered about the #fitblog chats and your comment above, with your link cleared it up for me. I think I’ll join in this week!
you make me a better blogger. thank you.
I totally agree with all of your suggestions!
I have one question however . . . I mainly use Twitter on my iPhone. Is there a tool similar to Tweet Deck for iPhone? I’m looking for something that will allow me to create lists and keep everyone organized.
Great post, I don’t know what the fascination is with collecting random followers either. I follow people that are actually interesting and that I would actually talk to in the real world. There are those famous people that you follow out of curiosity, the fact that they live pretty much a life similar to yours , or just as a circus sideshow @charliesheen
Toronto Girl West yes there is Tweetdeck for the iPhone works on iPad too.
Thank you for the great information! I’m new to blogging, twitter, and the other social media. I often find myself wonder what I should tweet about….your post is so helpful and makes me feel less nervous about tweeting!
Thank you for the tips! I could always use them