As some of you know, I have been spending quite a bit of time working on my Twitter account. I spent the vast majority of last year doing very little with Twitter, and it showed – on the 20th December 2011, I had just 374 followers.
But just before Christmas I started work on building a following, and I have been pretty happy with the results to date. At the time of writing, I have 1,452 followers. Over the past couple of weeks, I have gained just over 25 additional followers per day on average. If I were to keep that rate up, I would have around 8,000 followers by the end of this year.
There are of course many people who have done far more impressive things with Twitter, but I think that my achievements are pretty good, relative to the size of this blog. With that in mind, today I want to share with you three methods that I have tried, tested, and found to be effective in growing my Twitter profile.
1. Pay With A Tweet
If you have read my Complete Guide To Guest Posting, you will probably have paid with a tweet (update 11th February 2013: the guide is no longer available to download via the “Pay With a Tweet” method). The concept is very simple – you offer something of value to your readers in exchange for them tweeting out a link to their followers.
In the example of my guest posting guide, people just had to click the button, which took them through to a screen where they could alter the text of the tweet itself (they are not able to change the link). Once the tweet had been sent out, they got a link to my guide. They got a free eBook, I got extra exposure via their tweet – everyone was happy!
There are a few different services out there that can do this for you – I used Pay With A Tweet. You may have heard of cloud:flood, but I have tried to use that on two separate occasions and it has failed me, so I would recommend that you stay away from it.
There are two things you want to bear in mind when considering this method:
- You should only use this if you know that the majority of your readers have a Twitter account
- It will not be effective on blogs with a low level of traffic
2. Tweet Embedding
I really like this method – it is totally non-invasive, and I think it adds a little extra value to your blog.
You may have noticed in some of my recent articles that I surrounded certain sentences in blockquotes and added a “tweet this” link. I actually did it 5 times in my Top Five Regrets of the Dying post. This is a pretty subtle way of giving your readers another opportunity to tweet your post.
I don’t have any hard evidence to back this up, but I think that this particular style of Call To Action (CTA) is pretty effective. Someone may not be particularly bothered about simply re-tweeting a post, but they might see an interesting quote and be compelled to share it.
This method has been a success for me – at least a few people have always tweeted any of my embedded tweets. In fact, some people have tweeted both the post itself and the embedded tweet – double exposure can’t be bad!
There are many different ways in which you could employ this method. You might try something a bit playful or fun, for instance. That gives me an idea…let’s try a social experiment.
Tom Ewer bet me I wouldn’t tweet this (tweet this).
You may be wondering how to embed tweets. I actually do it manually, which allows me to embed the tweet as a link, rather than a little widget. It’s the way I prefer to do it. Just write up your tweet, then run it through this URL encode tool. It will spit out a long string of characters. Just insert that string in the relevant place below, and paste the whole thing into your HTML editor where you would like the link to appear:
[raw]<a title="Tweet This Quote" href="https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?text=yourtweethere" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">tweet this</a>[/raw]
Edit – I have now developed a little plugin that allows you to simply type the anchor text and tweet into the WordPress Visual Editor. Check it out here!
3. Exclusive Twitter Content
I recently got into the habit of tweeting out quotes that were relevant to the leaving work behind message. But it seemed a waste that these tweets had no link attached to them. Whilst people might get a modicum of value out of reading the quotes, I figured it would be cool to take it a step further. So I set up a special page on my blog that is unaccessible via the navigation bar or any other means, and I attached a link to that page whenever I tweeted out a quote.
It may not sound like much, but a few people contacted me just to let me know how cool they thought it was. And if a few people are doing that, quite a lot of people are probably enjoying it. Whilst this method may not have a spectacular effect on your Twitter growth, it is another cool way of making your brand stand out amongst the crowd.
Oh, and if you want to see the page, you’ll have to follow me on Twitter and keep an eye out for the quotes!
What Works For YOU?
So there you have it folks – three different methods I use to give my Twitter growth strategy a boost. But don’t be shy – I’m sure we’d all love to know what methods you have had success with. Let us know in the comments section!
Creative Commons photo courtesy of eldh
I really like all these methods. I think the embedded (tweet this) is really powerful. Studies show that the the most retweeted content on twitter comtains “RT this” or “Please RT”. Why not use it within blog posts? It seems like too simple of a CTA to really evoke action, but it is shockingly effective.
The idea of having Twitter only content is fantastic. What a truly incredible way to inspire people to follow you. Personally, Twitter is my favorite social network. It has so much potential for sharing and connecting. As always, thanks for the fantastic tips!
Hey Christelle,
I love Twitter too, although I am quite biased, as it is the social network I have had by far the most success with! I do find it to be a highly “sociable” social network though – I love interacting with people on it.
Cheers,
Tom
2nd one is brilliant! Hope you dont mind me stealing it.
Chris
That’s precisely what I want you to do 🙂
Sometimes just having a bit of fun on twitter and chatting to people can really get you a lot of followers. I like to add people who add me and just comment on their tweets. It works for me. Especially if their tweets are personal.
When I am adding a link to my own blog(which I only do sometimes) I try to personalize it. I think it helps.
I really do like suggestion one and two though:). As for three, do you think you would be depriving non-twitter followers of good content? I would love to hear your thoughts on this.
Couldn’t agree with you more William. I love chatting to people on Twitter, and I make a point of always following people who tweet me or reach out to me. I like everything you’ve suggested.
You’re only depriving them if they choose not to be a Twitter follower…and that’s really the whole point of it. For instance, I like to do personal updates and occasional ramblings on my Facebook page that only my fans would see – that’s what you get for being a Facebook fan. Not sure if that’s a good thing though 😉
I like the concept of having people “pay” with a tweet. I’ll be keeping that in mind for future releases!
I also really like the idea of exclusive Twitter content. It makes me crazy when I follow someone on Twitter and “like” them on Facebook, but am getting the same thing on each account. I like how you took it a step further and created a special page on your site that only your Twitter followers can see.
I strongly believe in not only using Twitter to promote things but also using it to engage with your audience. I have a lot of fun just chatting on Twitter (which can be detrimental to my actual work flow, but hey).
I came over here through Buffer and am looking forward to reading more!
Hey Elizabeth,
I totally agree with you about duplicate content – I try to do something a little different between my Twitter and Facebook pages. Twitter is for tweeting out all of the articles I read and like, as well as interacting with people on a quick and easy basis. With Facebook on the other hand, I like to include more in-depth stories, questions and comments, in addition to publishing my own posts and only the very best of whatever else I read.
Glad you like the blog! 🙂
Cheers,
Tom
These are great suggestions Tom – none of which I have ever implemented. I am definitely going to embed the Tweet This snippet! That’s a great idea.
My strategy with Twitter has just been to stay the course. I’m nearing 800 followers (I’ve been on Twitter actively for about 6 months). I’d love to have a bigger following, but I like that my followers are all pretty organic.
I know people who have used paid services to up their numbers, and I could just never wrap my head around that idea. I’m less interested in the number, more interested in knowing that those people feel engaged.
Hi Ruth,
I think you’d be surprised at the positive results you can get out of semi-automated services – I say that from personal experience. If you look to attract the kind of people who are likely to be interested in what you have to offer and offer quality content via your tweets, integrating a “non-organic” strategy can benefit nicely (with little effort required). It’s something I’ll be writing about in the future.
Cheers,
Tom
Really looking forward to the exclusive content just to see what you’re up to.
I tweet every article and chat with folks and rt generously – not sure exactly what works… seems to synergize.
Hey Anne,
I think a helpful rule of thumb is “if it adds value, then it’s probably doing good”. Even when people don’t directly thank you for re-tweeting content, they have probably seen it and taken note.
Cheers,
Tom
I’ve heard of these things but haven’t done any yet. I like the exclusive Twitter content idea! I think scheduling tweets can be effective, too, especially to time them for maximum exposure. I often forget to tweet my posts at the right time, so this would definitely help!
Scheduling Tweets is a no-brainer – I am a BufferApp addict. As we speak I have tweets buffered out until next Tuesday 🙂
What does BufferApp do that TweetDeck won’t?
(I’ve heard that if you use 3rd party tweeting things, Twitter doesn’t like it. Whatever that means…)
Good question – one that I don’t know the answer to. I have tried to use TweetDeck on a couple of occasions but have never been able to get along with it.
I like BufferApp because it makes it extremely easy to schedule out tweets ahead of time. You can move them around easily, and track the number of clicks and total exposure.
And it helps that the BufferApp guys are genuinely nice people and are working hard to produce a really top-quality app!
I actually hadn’t gotten into Buffer yet, Tom. I always sorta struggled with Hootsuite, but I’ll definitely give em a shot! Thanks!
I used trick #2 in today’s post, thanks so much for an excellent idea and sharing it with everyone!
I just wrote up a super step-by-step version of #2 for The Homeschool Post – I’ll come back and post the link when it gets published.
And I have to say:
I CAN’T FREAKING BELIEVE IT’S THAT EASY!
I spent hours and hours figuring out how to do a tweetbox. And this is so ridiculously easy. I just wanna die.
ARG
Yikes 🙂
Some semi automatic tool is always great for twitter, I also use bufferapp and it is a great way to schedule tweets. I do not want to send all tweets in one go and leave other time without any update.
Having an exclusive content is a great idea, let’s see how it comes out…
I’m about to launch my own blog and the idea of growing a following from nothing is pretty daunting. I appreciate the good advice!
No problem Torin – if you’re already looking into Twitter promotion etc at such an early stage, it really bodes well. Most new bloggers don’t even think about such things for weeks! Let me know if you need any help.
I appreciate it! I still need to check out your site in more detail, but I’d love to connect at some point via email or message.
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Awesome article, Tom! Thanks for this great info and also for the “tweet this” code! Will definitely be following your stuff!
Cheers!
Not a problem Cliff! 🙂