Retaining your twitter followers is not as easy as it seems. The reason is that people do not understand that twitter is not a market place. It is a place to share your ideas and network. This means that you have to provide value for your following or they will start to unfollow you. If you are not familiar with twitter read my beginner guide to twitter to get started.
I follow back practically 95% people that follow me. Some people say that it is not a good policy, but I disagree. Following people back is a way to show appreciation for the people that took time to follow you. Anyway, here are my concepts on how to get twitter followers to stick.
Tweet For Value
When you tweet, your message must be interesting for your followers. It can either be funny or in someway related to your niche. If you are using twitter the right way, then most of your followers will be targeted. These targeted people are normally looking for targeted tweets. Always think that would your followers want to read this, and you will be well off.
Tweet also some of the popular stuff that is around. These tweets have normally pretty good content and most people love them.
Tweet Regularly
Do your tweeting regularly. I would suggest to tweet at least once every day. If you tweet only once a week, some more active tweeters may decide to unfollow you. This is especially true now that there are tools that can automate the process of removing inactive tweeters.
ReTweet Stuff from your Followers
Many of the people that follow you also make valuable tweets. By tweeting the stuff that your active followers have tweeted, you show them appreciation. This only applies when your follower is a more Joe Average, than a mega tweeter.
Do not Overly Advertise
When you use twitter, you can and should tweet your own posts. It is a way to notify your following that you have new stuff available. This does not mean, that you should tweet the new post 10 times every day. If you continuously tweet only your own posts, then people will get tired and unfollow you.You can retweet your posts again, but do not over do it. As a rule I would not tweet more than two of my own posts per day.
Conclusion
Twitter is a place to network. It is not a place to spam. Always keep in mind, that will your followers like your tweets and everything will go just fine.
All comments are welcome. What do you do to make your followers stick?
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I do not tweet my own posts but I would retweet my followers posts. I do not tweet the same post daily cos’ I do not think it is necessary cos’ it may looks like being long winded.
Charmaine´s last blog ..M-Audio KEYSTUDIO 49I Keyboard-based Music Production System
I believe in tweeting your own posts, because it provides value for your followers by quickly telling them that you have written a new post. To be really sure that people won’t mind it, you start your tweet with “New blog post” or something similar.
Thanks for the comment Charmaine, Great to read your comment!
I think Retweeting is very essential, it is also the best way to get someone’s attention and show someone that you liked his tweet.
Its like a conversation and gets the message across that you like their tweets. If you rtweet people’s tweets, its likely that they will follow you back and tweet yours too!
Vaibhav – Programming Kid´s last blog ..Buy a Domain for 99c only [GoDaddy Coupon] December 2009
Giving attention to others makes sense and people like it. Thanks for the commment Vaibhav!
I am often asked how I got to as many followers as I have (and I clean up my accounts/who is following me at least once a month and recently cut out over 2000 people – a lot who had not tweeted in over 90 days).
1. I swear by ReFollow – which makes it very easy to mass unfollow everyone who hasn’t tweeted in 90 days.
As far as how I keep my people – I am not very targeted with my tweets – I am all over the board but with consistency my followers KNOW that I tweet two Excel tips per day and three-four Virtual Assistant tips.
As for my other stuff – yeah, it’s scattered based on what I read, find interesting and RT from other people.
Another big thing in my opinion as to how I get so many people to “stay with me” is I am very sincere and always, always, always thank everyone for their mentions (FF) and RT’s. I am also pretty conversational with people and truly care/engage with them.
Is it all time consuming – yep, but it’s well worth it for me as I get most of my new clients through there. (and I love making friends).
Michelle @mmangen
Michelle Mangen´s last blog ..Send voicemail via Twitter using PocketsApp
Thanks for the great comment Michelle. Being friendly does show a lot in the way you can keep your followers.
Who really would willing follow a jack-ass
These are simple yet useful tips in keeping your Twitter followers. I forget about the RT option, as I like to use the bit.ly browser bookmark to shorten URL’s and send them straight to Twitter, but I have been trying to be more mindful of that and include the @reply to blog authors to let them know they are being shared.
~ Kristi
Kikolani´s last blog ..Best of Social Media on Kikolani in 2009
It is really important to keep the @nickname with the RT to show people easily that you have retweeted. I for one always look a lot at the replies page to find out what blog posts are cooking.
Thanks for the comment, and a warm welcome to the community
I am doing regular Original Tweets, Retweets but why i am too loosing followers?
Many people will unfollow you if you do not follow them back. If you start doing that you may attain more of your followers. Some argue, that you should not follow people back, but I disagree. It shows some appreciation.
Another thing. I looked at your profile on twitter and you tweet and retweet alot, which is great. Still I would suggest that you chat more with your following. Interaction is the key, just have fun.
Which types of software do you use to manage your followers… Measn to say following back..??
Arijit Das´s last blog ..Google is wishing its Users "Happy Holiday!"
There is no software needed, just use twitter and check your followers. You can use twitter karma http://dossy.org/twitter/karma/ if you want to do it automatically.
I do not recommend that you follow people back by software, because they do not discriminate. If you do it manually you can select only those people who really are active.