Twitter has quickly grown to become one of the more popular ways to stay in touch online. It may have started out as a humble microblogging platform (learn about Twitter in plain English), but it is so much more than that. It’s a way to network with like-minded individuals. It’s a way to “crowd-source” your research. It’s even a way to get in contact with celebrities like Lance Armstrong and Miley Cyrus. Yes, they’re on Twitter too.
If you follow me on Twitter, there is a good chance that I will reciprocate and follow you back. Naturally, there are a few caveats to this general rule of thumb. I want to follow you on Twitter, but you have to convince me that you are worth following. Here are a few surefire criteria to keep in mind, not only to get me to follow you, but also to get more followers in general.
The Following-Follower Ratio
I will not follow spammers on Twitter. If your account shows that you are following a large number of people but you are only being followed by a handful, it likely means that no one wants to hear what you have to say. The following-follower ratio need not be a perfect 1-to-1, but a ratio like the one shown above is an instant turnoff.
Bios, Avatars, and Aesthetics
Just as it is preferable to have a good About Page on your blog, you should be providing a decent biography on your Twitter account as well. Before I choose to follow you, I want to know who you are. There are some pretty generic bios out there (“Internet marketer interested in SEO”), so stand out from the crowd by showing a little more personality. Also, make sure that you load a custom background and avatar on your account, because these give you more opportunities to personalize your Twitter profile. Let me know who you are and why I should care.
Twitter is a Two-Way Street
On the Twitter front page, it asks you a simple question: What are you doing? This may give the impression that a Twitter account is nothing more than a streaming monologue of a person’s life, but it is of paramount importance that you interact with the Twitter community as well. Use the “@” feature and engage in a dialog with other Twitter users.
TheInsaneWriter (below) has the right idea.
These conversations can be as superficial as asking what you should eat for lunch or they can be as profound as discussing the political situation with President Barack Obama. Just get talking.
The Egocentric Motivation
If you really want me to follow you, the best thing you can do is to send me an “@michaelkwan” message on Twitter. You could introduce yourself, answer one of the questions I pose through Twitter, or respond to one of my recent tweets. Just don’t spam me with a “check out my website” kind of message. No one likes those.
Excellent post, Michael – yeah it’s important that we don’t follow spammers or “promotionals” 🙂
I do make exceptions if I think the “tweets” are worthwhile or valuable, like CNN’s news feed.
CNN’s news feed is pretty good. Much more useful than checking my e-mail for their ‘breaking news’ alerts.
I also like the NY Times and ESPN for news/sports. I also follow @donlemoncnn who does a show at 7 & 11pm on Saturdays, 6 & 10pm Sundays.
Totally on the button Michael. I follow those who are interesting, tweet updates not just blog posts. I like to see and here what is going on in the world. I do have CNN, Obama, Shaq and the NY Times, but I also have the Dot Com group of John Chow, Stephen Fung, Ed Lau, you, Gary, BCM, Buzz, well the list goes on and on.
I also follow my circle of friends from work at other locations to keep up on everything in the district technology department. I see Tweeter as a large community that you can socialize in many different groups.
The best thing is that you can learn a lot from people, just by communicating and listening.
Excuse the typos’s here for hear and tweeter for twitter. The wife is pushing to leave the house to get food.
Lol! We totally understand Ray.
When I do finally get around to getting on Twitter, I think one of my first tweets is going to be:
@michaelkwan, check out my website!
Hehe. In reference to your follower/following ration discussion, I understand it, but at the same time, what if I have a bunch of people that I want to follow so set up my account and do so, but haven’t had anyone start following me yet? Would it be better to not jump right in and start following everyone right away and rather ease into it adding one or two every couple of days?
If you have a couple dozen people that you want to follow right away, that should be fine. Just don’t let it get out of hand to the point where you’re following several hundred accounts and you only have three followers.
It’s a good way to get blocked. I never ask for a check out my site, or please follow. If I have a good conversation with the person and they like my comments they will check it out on their own.
I don’t know if this is the place, but given that I’m still reeling from the shock… Last week, we discovered that a friend of ours had died. One of the ways we realized something was wrong was that he had stopped posting tweets – and he was a rabid poster. And they were interesting posts, too, usually with a link to some news item. I’m so going to miss him.
ALBannon on twitter, if you want to…
That is a shame. My condolences.
There was a twitter blacklist which identify spammers by the following-follower ratio, but the service is now closed.
That is a great service. Too bad it’s not closed. It could be something someone might want to try starting, maybe Twitter or a bigger company would buy them out. Smelling some sort of profit, money making idea there.
Except that there must be a reason why the original service shutdown…
I am already following you on twitter. I will definitely be leaving you a message to introduce myself. I just moved to the Vancouver area. I have to check out one of your guy’s dot com pho.
I’m going to look for you today on Twitter Vik. Always looking for folks to network with.
I follow anyone back that says something remotely personal. I despise bots that retweet posts every few seconds. I’ll also kill any followers that DM’s SPAM to me.
I dumped a whole bunch of followers that were just SEO or money making folks that followed just because they saw my account.
I’ll follow you player. Obama is the ultimate most followed twitter man. Phew!
But he has sent a tweet since he took office. I doubt we will see him again until he leaves office.
I have a feeling that you’re right on that one…kinda the same with his white-house blog that he started…it’ll likely never be him that posts to it…so much for being accessible :S
I’m following you Mr Kwan! I have found out some fascinating thing through twitter, and the connections and friendships you can build within twitter have no limits. I tend to carry on conversations in DM alot of the time, as you can communicate on a more personal level.
However, you gotta love a good public tweet!
I’ve gotten a TON of requests from people lately who are, obviously, brand new to Twitter. They added 2,000 people as friends; have no one following them in return; and haven’t even bothered to make their own first Twitter yet!!!
I’ve received a lot of those requests too. Many of the accounts tend to get suspended within a few hours after they’re created.
I’ve also gotten a lot of follows from supposedly important people that are spam accounts with a letter different in the username. They tend to get suspended rather quickly.
Just wondering if anyone here uses TweetLater.com to automate their Twitter experience? It’s becoming more popular I’ve noticed.
I’ve been looking at it, but haven’t actually used it. I haven’t seen a good reason to automate my tweets, since they are spur of the moment or topical, time sensitive.
I’ve heard of some people doing this, but am not really sure on my opinions/feeling of doing it. I guess if you can timestamp them and keep them interesting/timely then go for it.
I don’t really use it to automate tweets, but more for receiving @ replies via e-mail in case I miss them. I also send out automatic DMs to new followers thanking them for following me.
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