In the past few years twitter has entrenched itself into our everyday lives. It is how I found out Kate Middleton was to marry Prince William, and that Christopher Hitchens had died. Twitter is now how most people get their news. It is also a brilliant marketing tool. No matter what you do with your life, you can improve your career and be in contact with people from all around the world. So here is a guide to getting and keeping followers, with a few facts thrown in.
Go for quality, not quantity.
Some people may have thousands of followers, but they may be spammers or may have paid for them. (Buying followers is against twitters terms and conditions.)
Try to not get upset when people unfollow you
It is usually not personal. Maybe you retweet too much, maybe they are just following too many people. It has nothing to do with you as a person. Just unfollow them back, unless they are incredibly interesting.
Add your photo and professional details to twitter. People are more likely to follow you if they know a bit about you.Brevity is the soul of wit and even more important on Twitter. You only have 140 characters to get your point across. It is a good skill to have.
Twitter has more than 100 million global active users according to Twitter CEO Dick Costolo
Think of all of those people you can be connected too! The internet has made the world more democratic, and twitter has played it’s part in that.
Hash tags
Which is this: # (to get a hash tag on a Mac Alt + 3 = #) This creates, in twitters words, a ‘global conversation’ that everyone can follow.
Put a follow button on your blog or website
Remember, you can only direct message people who follow you, and they can only do the same if you are following them.
- Interact with people.
- Follow people. They might follow you back. You can follow 2,000 people initially, more if you have over 2000 followers.
- Be worth following.
- Have a good avatar. A picture of yourself is good.
- Have a good bio. Keep it short and interesting.
- Post interesting stories. Add links to articles you enjoyed reading.
- Add yourself to directories like Wefollow.com
- Get your friends to follow you.
- Add your twitter to the signature in your email.
- Don’t worry if it seems to be taking a while. You’re twitter will grow.
- Be interesting- That is the most important thing. If you are interesting people will follow you.
- Have a niche; tweet about a specific thing. You can grow your business and become an expert in your field.
- Join Klout.
- Don’t buy twitter followers. This might look good but what you want is engaged followers.
- Don’t constantly retweet.
- Don’t tweet all the time. If you clog up someone else’s feed then they will probably unfollow you.
- Don’t be offensive. Have your opinion but respect other peoples.
- Respond to people.
- Follow other people in your field.
- Tweet regularly. Three times a day is fine.
- Remember that things came across differently in print. Sarcasm and humour can be taken seriously.
- Watch out for spam. Change your password and don’t click on links from people you don’t know.
- Be relevant.
- Don’t try to please everyone. You have to have an opinion or you will not be interesting.
Of the 100 million global active users, half of them log in daily. “We had 30% of our monthly active users login in every day at the beginning of the year. Now it’s over 50%,” Costolo revealed.
200 million tweets a day in June 2011.
There are one million registered twitter apps. 750,000 developers
People who joined Twitter in 2011 include Nelson Mandela, Joe Biden, Zac Goldsmith, Salman Rushdie, Rupert Murdoch and the Pope.
- Thirty-five global heads of state use Twitter
- In 2011 Twitter had 65 million Tweets a day. They have over 200 million Tweets per day.
- Twitter accounts are rarely hacked but Twitter advises the following for security of your account;
- Use a strong password with at least 10 characters and a combination of letters, numbers and other characters for your Twitter account. And use a unique password for each website you use (email, banking, etc.); that way, if one account gets compromised, the rest are safe. A personal email account that’s compromised is the second most likely way an intruder gains access to Twitter accounts.
- Use HTTPS for improved security on Twitter.
- We recommend linking your phone to your Twitter account. Doing this could save your account if you lose control of your personal email and/or password. Here’s how to do it.
- If you think your account has been compromised, visit our help page for compromised accounts to find out how to fix it quickly.
- Twitter post regularly about safety and security at @safety.
- Twitter CEO Dick Costolo said Twitter has 100 million global active users, of those 100 million global active users, half of them log in daily. “We had 30% of our monthly active users login in every day at the beginning of the year. Now it’s over 50%,” Costolo revealed.
- Twitter had 200 million tweets a day in June 2011.
- Do not unfollow people right after you follow them. Wait five days or Twitter might think you are a spammer.
- Half of Twitter users log in every day.
- 55% of Twitter users are mobile users.
Forty percent of Twitter users do not Tweet, or haven’t Tweeted in the past 30 days.
Frost’s Top People to Follow
Frost Magazine, Obviously.
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