Strategies for Getting More Twitter Followers

So you want to increase the number of followers you have on Twitter? Well in that case you have what I think are really two main options, which I classify as the slow and steady approach vs. the fast and slightly spammy approach.

Increase your Twitter Followers slowly but surely

For this approach you need to rely on the quality of your content to do your marketing for you. Make sure you post relevant links, do reply @ strategically amongst possible brand advocates and cross-promote your Twitter presence via your other online channels. The advantage of this approach is that you are more likely to get better quality leads over time and will also maintain a very positive Following to Followers ratio. It tends to be the case that if you follow fewer people on Twitter than Follow you, you get more kudos as an authoritative source.

Increase your Twitter Followers fast and without prejudice

This is really a case of being a lot less discerning about your approach to Twitter. You still need to be Tweeting quality as your new followers won't stay, but this method gets you more followers fast, but at the sacrifice of a poor Following to Followers ratio - i.e. you end up following more people than follow you in the short term.

So how do you get more Twitter Followers fast?

Step 1. Find Tweeters in your target market with a reasonable number of Followers - a few hundred should do.
Step 2. Check out the lists they have been listed on and determine if these match your target market - e.g. Jeff's list of Paperclip Purchasers, if you are selling Paperclips.
Step 3. Follow the members of those lists!
Step 4. Watch and see how many people follow you back - if you have chosen a list that matches your own profile quite well then they should be interested in following you too.
Step 5. A few weeks later you should go back and use a tool like Twitter Karma to cull those people you followed but then didn't follow you back.

This is an effective but slightly spammy way to get more Twitter followers - so you use with care!