Fact : We all want followers.           

Myth:  It doesn’t take any work

In order to attract followers there are basic steps which I follow to attract potential followers and maintain my followers.  Now these may seem obvious but you would be surprised at the number of people who fail to follow to do this:

• Fill in all segments of your profile. It the only area you have to demonstrate information about yourself. Name location, website and bio.
• Use a username that is appealing and relevant. Good example: PizzaHut, FirstNameLastName Dumb example:  jklanfh235
• Be able to answer: Who is your market? (Marketers, photographers, gardening, etc)
• Do not tweet something that you would not want to read. You have to know your market and what they are interested in.
• Balance: Keep a balance between your articles, personal updates, photos and RT’s (retweeting: I’ll explain that below)

Following this approach allows potential followers to ensure that you are a real person and not spam. This works both for personal (personal branding) use as well as for business. You must remember that twitter is a direct connection to your consumers as well as potential consumers. Twitter=marketing.

A great example of  a company using  twitter to further there brand is Kodak’s Chief Blogger- Jenny Cisney.  Kodak is the few, if not the only company who has actually created a full time position for a Chief Blogger. It’s clear that Kodak understands the importance of having an online presence and interaction with its consumers on a daily basis. Jenny is a valuable source for photographers via twitter and blog. If you have a question she does her best to answer your question, always provides valuable and applicable information for her followers while still being personal. She has found a great balance and as a result currently has 10,200 followers.

Of course a company does not have to go as far as to create a full time position but MAKE SURE YOU’RE AN AVID TWEETER. As a consumer I enjoy seeing Pizza Hut tweet about pizza and fully engage its followers in conversations.

So now your getting a  followers, now what?

Do you auto-follow and/or auto-DM (Direct message) your new followers? This is completely optional. Personally I do not auto-follow but it is a great way to increase your twitter network. This could become a problem because of SPAM (of course) but do not fear there are services such as ReFollow, Twitter Karma, and Twiping that can handle that for you. (the list goes)  A company that allows you to auto-follow is TweetLater.

Auto-DM   is annoying and not recommended simply because it comes down to being personal and auto-DM is NOT. Once again I personally do not auto-DM. Instead I try to be as personal with my followers as possible so I send them a DM thanking them for the follow and make a comment about there blog while sticking my website into the DM. I’ve mad conversations with interesting people across the globe as a result. This of course is optional.

Ultimately attracting and maintain followers requires a balance and consistency on your part. Twitter is an easy way to market your product/brand/service, meet people and market to consumers on a global scale. It’s your choice how you want to use it.  Good luck my tweeters!! Feel free to ask any questions.