In my post on how I got 5,000 new Twitter followers in six days, I said the easiest way to get new followers is to follow them first. The hope is the person you’re following will follow you back. However, this doesn’t always happen. To increase the chances of a Twitter follower back, keep the following tips in mind.
Have Some Tweets Ready To Read
If you’re brand new to Twitter, the first thing you should do is seed your profile page with some interesting tweets. Put yourself in the other person’s shoe. You follow them and they come to check out your Twitter profile and see an empty page with no tweets. Would you follow that?
The concept works the same way with a blog. Before you do any promotion, you want to make sure your blog has some quality posts up. No one wants to see an empty blog and no one will follow a Twitter account with zero tweets. Well, maybe a bot will but who wants a bunch of bots following them?
Maintain a Safe Following to Followers Ratio
To help control spam, Twitter placed a limit on how many people you can follow. The limit is 2,000 or 110% of your followers, whichever is higher. If you have 10,000 people following you, you can follow a max of 11,000. If you have 10 people following you, you can follow a max of 2,000.
Just because Twitter allows a new account to follow 2,000 people doesn’t mean you should do it. While you can use auto following software like Twitter Snipe to follow a ton of people in one day, most will not follow you back if your following to followers ratio is out of wrack.
I’ve seen tons of Twitter accounts following 2,000 people but only have a handful followed back and those are probably bots. It’s pretty clear to a real person what is going on when he sees an account with 2,000 following and zero followers.
If your Twitter account is fairly new and you only have a handful of followers, the easiest way to destroy it is by suddenly following the maximum number of people allowed. Start off small and slowly add people on a daily basis. As your account gets bigger you’ll be able to increase the number and still maintain a nice following to followers ratio.
Upload a Picture To Your Profile
A picture is worth a thousand words. Putting a picture of yourself in your Twitter profile will greatly increase your chance of the person following you back. While there are Twitter marketers who will post a photo of a hot babe or some strange avatar, I really recommend you post a picture of yourself. This helps to build trust. The exception to the rule is if the Twitter account is a corporate one. In that case, a company logo will be fine.
Have a Great Bio
The first thing a user is going to read when he visits your Twitter profile is your bio. Chances are, the decision to follow or not will be based on what your bio says. Don’t just put up any old thing. Spend some time to write a really nice bio that tells the reader what you’re all about. Originally, my bio had some smart ass remark about making money online by telling people how much I make online. Since then, I have changed it to the following.
I am best known for showing the income power of blogging by taking my blog from zero to over $40,000 per month in two years. Visit JohnChow.com for more info.
In addition to the bio, you should make sure everything else is filled in. This is especially true for the link to you blog. Your Twitter profile can be a source of great traffic. A good percentage or users checking out your profile will click through and check out your blog. My Twitter profile sends almost 1,000 referrals to my blog everyday.
Get a Custom Twitter Background
If you really want to make a good impression, then get a custom Twitter background. A custom made background will help separate you from the millions of Twitter users using the default background. My background was created by Twitter Image. They did a great job on it and their prices are very reasonable as well.
A custom background by Twitter Image cost $100. If it worth it? How much is 1,000 referrals per day worth to you? For me, it’s worth far more than $100.
Interact with The Followers
This is the big one. You want people you’ve followed to follow you back? Start talking to them! Send them a reply introducing yourself and why you’re following them. Retweet a few of their tweets that you find interesting. The more you show up on their Twitter streams, the higher the chance that they’ll follow you back.
Now, you can’t do this if you suddenly follow 2,000 people. This is why I recommend you start small and add 50 to 100 at a time. This will give you time to interact with everyone and have them get to know you better. The truth is, most people will follow you back if you interact with them. I follow anyone who sends me a reply to any of my tweets.
If you follow the above advice, you should see a very high percentage of follow backs from the people you follow. Good luck and if you haven’t already done so, follow me on Twitter.