Search For Followers
There are numerous useful tools for finding twitter followers. Searching Follower Wonk, which can be filtered by keyword and location, will help you discover influential, active twitterati who will either help you spread your message or potentially become customers of your product.If you join Klout, it will tell you how much influence you wield, what topics you are ‘influential’ about and other useful statistics; it can help you check you are tweeting about the most useful topics. As an SEO twitterer, I found Klout regarded me as a moderate authority on Communism, which led me to re-adjust who I was following and what I was re-tweeting (although how Sunny Hundall and Liberal Conspiracy are ‘Communism’ I’ll never know). You can also search for influential networkers in your own area of expertise; these are people who are generous with their retweets and replies, and frequently interact with others.
Interact
You have to give to receive and interaction with your followers will yield dividends. I would encourage everyone to set up Twilerts to monitor your brand reputation and keep track of positive mentions of your brand – retweet these, and send the writer a quick thank you. This kind of personalised customer service makes you and the company look good, and if they have any queries, they’ll value the individual approach. In addition to this, retweet content you find useful, reply to questions people ask, whether that’s “When’s X arriving at your store?” or “Is the new Adele album any good?” Make sure to participate in Follow Fridays, where you #FF @oneofyourfollowers to show appreciation, or recommend them to your followers. (Big thank you to Amanda of @WeAreWorkshop for giving me a Twitter crash course a few years back).
Meet in Person
In Lancaster at least there are numerous Tweetups, many organised by Jane Binnion, at the Storey Gallery or the Dukes Theatre. It’s a great place to get new followers, interact with other local businesses and swap cards. Often a physiotherapist might be looking for a website; or a new business for some affordable office furniture – at the last meetup I attended there was even a lady advertising herself as a kind of ‘handywoman’ – including tasks like house sitting, pet sitting, waiting in for packages and the like.
