I’m admit, there are times I feel like a graduate teaching assistant, trying to keep myself a lesson ahead of the class, so I think it’s time for a basic review. Here’s one of the recent questions I’ve been getting:
I want a lot of people following me. Do I need to follow a lot of people back?
Short answer yes, long answer no. The goal is to build a network. It can’t be a one-sided relationship, but it’s it’s essential to find a balance that works for you.
Show Your Personal Side
You’re judged by the company you keep. Potential buyers want to see the personal side of your organization. The bios on Twitter are really short. Who you follow lets people see what you’re into and who you hang with. If I’m checking out someone’s account I want to see who they’re following.
I look at their ratio. A user who follows thousands of people but has very few followers, will often be a spammer or a wallflower. Either way I’m usually not interested.
Find Like-Minded People
Every few weeks I like to spend a morning taking a closer look at who I’m following. I visit their time-line to see who else is following them, because chances are, those folks have similar interests to me. If I follow them and jump into the conversation, hopefully they’ll return the favor down the road. Especially if I’m sharing content that benefits them.
Instant Authority
Twitter is all about making connections and sharing information. It’s never been easier to find and spread awesome content to your followers. Bringing them fresh info makes you an instant authority and they’ll come looking for you often.
The question is, where will that content come from? Those you follow are a great source for instant information you can share with your potential customers. Helping others spread content hopefully means they’ll do the same when your promoting your next blog post or product launch.
Customer Service
Following your customers lets you respond to their concerns quickly, which is just good customer service. Staying involved lets you hear all the great things they’re saying about you and your brand. It’s also a great way to share your success stories. Retweeting praise is an simple and free way to let everyone know that you’re keeping your customers satisfied.
More importantly, you can respond quickly if they aren’t happy. The bottom line is that you’re interacting, showing that you care.
Identify the Influencers
Twitter is essentially a giant cocktail party. At any party there are some people that do a lot more talking than others. Maybe they have the best stories to tell, or they’re great at small talk, but it’s important to target those folks that bring a little more influence to the party.
These are usually folks that have hundreds or thousands of followers but don’t follow that many themselves. They’ve already put in the work to generate a massive following, and they’re obviously providing great info or people wouldn’t stick around to hear what they had to say.
Go ahead and join their conversations. The key is to always bring something useful to the party. Influencers are a great resource if you can interact with them in a way that benefits them and their followers. Getting an influencer to comment on one of your tweets means getting your brand in front of thousands of eyeballs, which can bring a slew of new followers.
Quality Vs. Quantity
I don’t follow thousands of people. I just can’t keep track of that many people. I’d rather keep things a little more intimate. For me a close circle of friends sharing usable info is better than thousands of people tweeting about how they burned their eggs or why their boyfriend is a jerk.
There are no hard and fast rules for using twitter and there are entire books devoted to techniques designed to help you build a strategy. It’s essential that you pay attention and find a ratio that works for you and your brand.
Chris Vanasdalan is a full-time writer and part time PR honk who would love to talk to you about developing a social media strategy. You can follow him on twitter here... or check out his website www.writenowindy.com.
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