How Do You Grow Your Twitter Fan Base? Watch Me

I have set up about two weeks ago a Twitter account for our spokesdog. On its own, linked from our website, and promoted in our e-newsletter, her Twitter follower base has grown to a whooping five followers. Two of which are my Twitter accounts.

I am going to teach you and you can watch my efforts, how to grow a Twitter following in the next 30 days. Remember our starting point is 5 followers.

Here are the steps I am taking and I will give you regular updates over the next 30 days.

1. Set up an account at Social Oomph (they pay me lunch at McDonald’s if you click this link and buy). Add your Twitter account information there and then set up an auto responder and auto follow function for your account. This means if someone follows you on Twitter you automatically follow them.  Twitter is a reciprocal universe. It is not until you are big with over 1,000 followers that you should consider vetting followers or screening who you follow. You can do this on Social Oomph as well. But at this phase we want to BUILD a following fairly quickly. Don’t follow anyone yet!
2. Now that the automation part is set up start by making sure you are logged in to your Twitter account and start doing searches of people to follow on Twitter. In most cases these people will follow you back. My guideline for new accounts is to select people in your industry or news that your particular followers will find interesting. So for Keebler, we should follow her food supplier – IAMS, her pet toy store – PetSmart, her vet – if he has a Twitter profile (he doesn’t and so really should see me!), and other pet related Twitter sites. I try to find about 75 people to follow to get going.
3. Now sit back and watch your Twitter Feed using HootSuite or TweetDeck and interact with the people you are following. (Remember HootSuite pays me if you upgrade to Pro when you click this link – but a pittance.) Interaction is key, retweet interesting updates, ask questions, in other words have fun connecting. As you retweet and interact more people will join in the fun.

It is very important to understand that putting your Twitter icon on your website and blog are simply not enough, you must work the system for your Twitter account to grow and it takes time. You don’t want to fill your follower list with spammers, so be thoughtful about who you follow. Think about what other people want to read when they come to your Twitter home page there should be a match between your focus and who you follow.

Now watch www.Twitter.com/askkeebler to see how I am growing this account in action in the next 30 days. Oh by the way if you are on Twitter, come on follow me now help me get Keebler going!