10 Ways to get more Twitter followers for your business

• Tweet regularly.
• Use trends or keywords or hashtags that people use.
• Find your audience and follow people.
• Write a good bio that clearly states what your business does.
• Engage in conversations with people.
• Write several variations of your message, and schedule them.
• Find ways to help and add value first, before selling.
• Put your Twitter handle where it’s easily seen on your website.
• Ask your blog readers to follow you on Twitter.
• Make sure to have social share buttons on your blog posts.

1. Tweet regularly

If you’re not active on any of your social network channels, people are not going to follow you. If it’s finding what content you should be tweeting, you need to research your niche for related content and share that. Additionally, you should be creating your own content, like images and video.

Find blogs in your niche and schedule their feeds to automatically publish to your Twitter channel.

And if you can’t tweet, then perhaps find a virtual assistant or hire an employee directly to do it for you.

Need help managing your social media presence? GoDaddy Social has you covered.

2. Use trends or keywords or hashtags that people use

Twitter is entirely searchable and lists in real-time order, so trends like elections, events, hot news topics and more can help you “ride the wave” because a lot more people are tuned into their newsfeed at that particular moment.

Related: How to hashtag on Instagram and Twitter

3. Find your audience and follow people

You should follow people, but make sure not to follow everyone. Follow people in your target audience that may actually be interested in what you have to say.

For example, if you have a company selling a healthy children’s snack, you’re probably going to want to target parents (moms or dads).

If you are looking for a certain group of people, you can search for a word or phrase they might be using. Twitter will pull up a list of who has been talking about that subject and you can either jump in and engage with that crowd or follow them — or add them to a list for future marketing campaigns.

Aside from normal search terms, you can also search for hashtag terms. All of the tweets that use a particular hashtag are grouped together, making it easy to find everyone who is commenting on that topic.

Related: How to hashtag on Instagram and Twitter

4. Write a good bio that clearly states what your business does

Whether you’re trying to target an interest or location, your profile needs to reflect that. Make sure to include who you are, what you’re offering and why you matter to people. These points are very important for people to see right away when they see your Twitter profile.

Twitter allows only 160 characters for you to use when putting together a profile. It’s not a lot of characters to work with, but it’s very possible to put together a very clear profile.

Also, if your brand or company is based on you, make sure to include your face. Don’t put up the selfie you took at the bar unless your brand is about going out to the bar. If you want a polished and professional profile, make sure your pic looks that way.

5. Engage in conversations with people

Social media is all about talking with other people. Engaging with people is a HUGE part of what Twitter is about.

You’re there to make valuable connections and exchange information. If you happen to get sales as a result, fantastic!

Related: 15 social media tips and best practices

6. Write several variations of your message, and schedule them

In the marketing world, there’s a Marketing Rule of 7, which says that it takes at least seven times for the consumer to hear a message and act on it. This includes buying something, subscribing, sharing your content or even engaging.

With Twitter content existing in real-time, sometimes just saying your message will get drowned out. It’s better to formulate several tweets with your message and schedule those out over time.

For example, if your company produces blog content or information that doesn’t expire, you can reschedule that content over time. A blog post written 10 years ago could still be added into a new tweet and published again over time.

7. Find ways to help and add value first, before selling

In marketing, there’s an 80-20 rule, also known as the Pareto Principle. This means that 80-percent of the time, you will publish content to your social channels that are not promotional. The rest is to be used for promotional material.

Sure, you’re a business and your Twitter profile clearly states that, but remember when users follow you, your tweets go through their newsfeed. If you’re constantly bombarding people with selling, it becomes like spam.

As for the non-promotional 80-percent, make sure that you’re helpful, entertaining and add value. This attracts more people that are willing to interact with your business.

8. Put your Twitter handle where it’s easily seen on your website

If you’re on Twitter, you should be linking to it on your website. Try adding it to your blog’s sidebar, contact page, front page or even your about page.

Choose spots wisely, as you don’t want it to be too excessive.

Additionally, make sure they can be seen. If they are too small, then some people won’t see them at all.

9. Ask your blog readers to follow you on Twitter

When you publish a blog post, you might want to try to offer another way for people to engage with the article (other than the blog’s comment thread). Every so often, encourage readers to follow you on Twitter (or any other social handle) and retweet the article. This helps get you free exposure.

10. Make sure to have social share buttons on your blog posts

If you have a presence on Twitter and a blog, then you really need to have social share icons that include a Twitter share button. This makes it easy for people to share your posts, rather than expecting them to take a few extra seconds to copy and paste the link, as well as write up a tweet.

If you’re using WordPress as a CMS for your company’s website and blog, then you can install a social share plugin, similar to Sassy Social Share and configure it so it includes tweeting the article’s link, title and your Twitter social handle.

Pro tip: For social share buttons, add buttons before and after the article. This maximizes the possibility of the article being shared. While a floating share bar is nice, for your reader’s sake, it’s not always ideal on all devices.

So now what?

You know about Twitter, some tips on how to get more Twitter followers, and some no-nos, so it’s time to put all of it into action. Don’t be shy. If you follow these tips for how to get more Twitter followers for your business, you can develop a valuable audience. Good luck!

Priority Web Services offers a variety of products to help you develop relationships with your customers — including creating and building your social presence and monitoring and reporting on your performance.