In this article, I will explain 3 ways in which one can attract a lot of followers. While I am sure that there are exceptions, for the most part, the Twitter Elite fall into 1 of 3 categories; only 2 of which are attainable by most. It is my hope that you guys will use this article not as a roadmap to gain more followers but instead use it to develop realistic goals and benchmarks for your account. That way you can stay focused on your message and your audience, not your popularity.

Celebrities, Major Brands, and (Some) Politicians

If you joined Twitter because you want to be the most-popular user, chances are you’re going to be disappointed. For the most part, the most popular users on Twitter are celebrities, major brands, and occasionally politicians. There are several reasons for this but this is mostly a result of their already high name recognition and popularity. Celebrities, major brands, and politicians have the advantage of huge advertising budgets and mainstream media outlets to help push traffic to their profile page. This is an advantage that the average Twitter user will never have.

Examples

• @levarburton
• @Alyssa_Milano
• @nordstrom
• @BarackObama

Journalists and Bloggers

On Twitter, people tend to follow users that have something interesting and unique to say. Journalists and bloggers are really good at finding and distributing information. So naturally, these types of people attract huge amounts of followers. If you’re looking for a way to attract a lot of followers, starting a blog is probably your best bet. A blog will give you credibility and a home base to build a following. Once you start writing articles and posting them to Twitter, you will find yourself being retweeted more and more often. Eventually, you will find that your follower count will begin to increase. While this process takes a lot of time to reach critical mass, it is probably the most effective way to build a large following.

Examples

• @WSJ
• @mashable
• @claytonmorris
• @huffingtonpost

Retweeters

The third type of person with a lot of followers is the Retweeter. Good Retweeters are hard to find, mostly because because it takes a lot of hard work, dedication, and time to find interesting articles and retweet them all day. If you want to become a great retweeter, find a topic of interest, then find some great people to follow; after that, just start retweeting. Don’t fool yourself however, retweeting is exhausting and you may find this role to be tedious at first; but eventually people will start to notice and your following will start to grow. The toughest hurdle you will have to overcome will be distinguishing yourself from a bot. You can do this by being friendly, helpful, and most of all by engaging with other users. Don’t just retweet people, reply to them as well, try posting your own thoughts every now and then to put your retweets into context. This will show your followers that you actually read what you post.

Examples

• @mayhemstudios

In Conclusion

The longer you use Twitter, the more you will realize that it’s not a horse race. Twitter is more than just about how many followers you have. Twitter is about distributing information, engaging others, and most of all, having fun. Most Twitter veterans can spot a person who is just looking for followers a mile away so try not to look desperate in your attempts to build a following. Your first step should be to relax. Then focus on being a responsible member of the community. Once that is done the rest should all fall into place.

Use Facebook for Interaction and Conversation

Facebook’s threaded comments make it a much better tool than Twitter for interacting with your fans. Having all your replies in one place makes conversations much more natural. Try posting general comments or questions on your page; you are likely to see an increased response from your fans.

Don’t Import Notes to Facebook Pages Using RSS

There are a lot of websites that import their site’s RSS feed as a note onto their fan page. This is so Facebook will automatically post new articles as soon as they are published. DO NOT do this! When you import an RSS feed as a note to your Facebook page, it keeps your fans on Facebook rather than sending them to your website. This actually reduces traffic to your site, rather than increase it. The solution is to post links manually into your feed. Unfortunately, there is no automatic way to do this that I know of.

Don’t Overwhelm Your Facebook Fans With Content

Your Facebook Fans are likely to follow fewer people on Facebook than they do on Twitter. This means that your fans can easily be overwhelmed with content from your feed. Try to limit your Facebook Fan Page to 3-5 updates per day.

Sync Your Facebook Status to Your Twitter Account

Facebook will allow you to sync your fan page with your Twitter account; and even though the connection only goes one way, it is a great way to save time if you post identical content on both sites. To link your Facebook Fan Page to your Twitter account click here.

Conclusion

There are many ways to use Facebook to promote your page. Feel free to share any ideas, techniques, or strategies in the comments below.

Twitter, however, is not a horse race. It’s a way to make new friends, new contacts and most importantly; to spread a message. As Twitter grows however, spreading your message has become increasingly difficult as each new user competes for the attention of your followers. In this article I hope to share my experience to help you cut through the noise and get noticed on Twitter.

Don’t Count Followers, Count Eyeballs

One thing to keep in mind is that not all of your followers are looking at the screen at exactly the same time. This means that if you have 500 followers, not all 500 of them will see your Tweet. If you’re looking to make an impact, try posting your items when you think the most eyeballs are focused on the screen.

Time Zone is Important

Lots of people forget about this important factor when on Twitter. If you live in the U.K. and you post your Tweets at 12:00 p.m., keep in mind that it is 7:00 a.m. in the eastern U.S. and 4:00 a.m. in the western U.S. That means that a significant number of your followers are either sleeping or just waking up. This means that if you want to make the biggest impact, try waiting until later in the day to post your most important information.

Post a Variety of Information

Try posting a variety of information. Don’t just Re-Tweet the people you follow. Engage in conversation, post original content, and try to post items before anyone else does. You might find that a “breaking news” approach combined with some helpful enthusiasm and a little bit of conversation will greatly increase your likelihood of being noticed.

Repeat Yourself!

Like I said earlier, Twitter is all about eyeballs not followers. People who follow hundreds or thousands of people may have trouble paying attention to all the information in their feed. This means that in a noisy Twitter world you have to repeat yourself. This doesn’t mean that you should spam your followers – be responsible, but try repeating your Tweets every several hours. That way you can give your followers several chances to see what you’re Tweeting for the day.

Speak English

Yep, I said it! We all know that the Internet is an international community but it’s important to keep in mind that a majority of Twitter users speak English and a significant portion of the Internet is clustered in the U.S., U.K., Canada, and Australia. This means that if you want your Tweets understood by the Twitter community that you really need to be Tweeting in English.

Don’t be Shy

To get noticed on Twitter you have to speak out. When I first joined Twitter I didn’t have very many followers and I was a bit hesitant to post links to things because I felt that other, more influential people were already posting that information anyway. What I didn’t realize then was that even though more influential people were already posting identical information that it was likely that not all of that person’s followers had seen it. My Tweet may have been brand new to one of my followers and even one of theirs. So don’t be afraid to post something even though you only have a handful of followers.

In Conclusion

Every Twitter user has an agenda. Some are looking to make friends, some are looking for business contacts, some are there for self-promotion, and some are hoping to make money or drive traffic to their website. There is no playbook for Twitter. There is no guaranteed way of attracting new followers and forcing them to pay attention to you. The only true way to establish yourself in the Twitter community is to participate but to also be genuine. Hopefully, these tips will help you to become a successful Twitter user. Feel free to add your own thoughts or comments below.