How to gain more Twitter followers…!

How to gain more Twitter followers! How many times have you seen that my friends…and usually from a source with an agenda? The first question to ask, I respectfully suggest, is why I am writing this piece unless I have an agenda. The second question to ask, I further respectfully suggest, is why that I feel qualified to put my pen to paper on this topic.

In answer to the first question I would like to generalise the reasons that most users are on Twitter and that undoubtedly is to advertise an agenda; be that business, political or whatever.

From the perspective of a business I am more that able to confirm that Twitter is an outstanding medium to promote a business free of charge and, for a small business with limited financial resources, it cannot be overlooked. However it has limited value as customer service; either face to face for bricks and mortar businesses, or online for web based businesses is of the most importance with…word of mouth recommendations being invaluable above everything else.

As for @Rations2R_n_R well…I do not own a business and so a further valid question is to ask why I devote so much of my time to Twitter. In short I enjoy it and find it a distraction from real life. 

In response to the second question that I proposed regarding my qualifications as to this matter. 

We have all connected with those that have many thousands of followers, after single figure tweets, and those that claim that they can provide us with “real” followers…for a fee of course!

It isn’t too difficult to separate the wheat from the chaff, or the authentic from the “here’s my Paypal account”.

So how does one gain followers and to that there is no easy answer as it depends on each individual? As mentioned earlier a bricks and mortar business will gain more from word of mouth than any Social Media presence. 

The “success” of @Rations2R_n_R cannot be judged by monetary profit but only by Twitter followers and visits to my blog https://rations2rocknroll.wordpress.com.

Each has seen significant progress since my launch on 26th December last…just over five months back.

My Twitter profile has (at the time of writing around 2,360 followers); an average gain of around 15 followers per day, for a non-business “fun based” account. Am I setting the world on fire? Of course not but it has been achieved through authenticity!

So how does one genuinely gain followers? 

Follow and engage. Follow and engage. Follow and retweet, comment and genuinely engage. Take an honest interest and support your followers; particularly those that support you. Social Media with the emphasis on “Social”. There is generally no such thing as a free lunch and so the only way to expect support for your “message” is to reciprocate the support of your followers. Give nothing and expect nothing back.

Personally I never follow anyone that fails to follow back. I don’t follow “celebrity” although I appreciate the reasons that many do.

In conclusion the only way to gain genuine followers is to engage in conversation, to retweet and to show a authentic interest.

It’s hard work at times but the effort is worthwhile. 

Cx.