Why You’re Not Getting More Twitter Followers

Do you tweet regularly but barely get a response? Do you follow lots of people but don’t get followed back? Do you retweet other people’s tweets but never get retweeted? You’re not alone and you’re probably wondering how to get more followers.

Here are 8 common mistakes that could be hampering your Twitter efforts, along with some tips on how to correct them.

1. Your Twitter handle is weird

Twitter engagement begins with followers. If no one is reading your tweets, no one will respond. So make it easy for fans to find you by making your Twitter handle as obvious as possible.

Stay away from cryptic names or names with lots of numbers. And use your business or blog name, if possible. Then people won’t have trouble finding you and your followers will easily connect your tweets with your brand.

2. You haven’t optimised your Twitter profile

Many people set up Twitter accounts, but then leave everything blank. Using your profile to showcase your brand and to tell what you do, will help you get more followers.

So follow this simple checklist to ensure your profile is fully optimised:

• Upload a profile photo
  If you’re running a business account on Twitter, upload your logo as your profile photo. If you’re running a personal account, upload your own headshot. Avoid cartoons, celebrity photos or unrelated images. Remember, the key here is to make your profile easily identifiable with you and your brand.
  
  
• Customise your design
  Twitter gives you the ability to customise your background and header image, so use both to reinforce your branding.
  
  

• Include a bio and your location
  Summarise your business in a few catchy lines and make that your bio. Also add legitimacy to your account by including your location.

3. Your tweets are too long

You probably know that Twitter only allows you 280 characters per tweet. But did you know that using that full amount makes it harder for others to share your content since their comments won’t fit with a retweet? So aim to use fewer than 200 characters to give your followers space to retweet your stuff with their thoughts.

4. You tweet constantly

When you tweet over and over and over, you become a motor mouth in the eyes of your followers. Rather than tweeting every minute, tweet consistently but focus on quality.

5. You never tweet

Just like tweeting too much can be detrimental, so can not tweeting at all. Social media is about being social, and being social requires content, interaction and engagement.

Don’t set up your Twitter profile and forget about it. And don’t tweet once a month and expect fans to follow. You need to actually use Twitter, if you expect to be successful on the social network.

6. You tweet irrelevant stuff

If you’re a marketing firm, focus your tweets on marketing. This doesn’t mean you never post anything else. But it does mean you mostly post content relating to you and your industry.

Don’t set up a Twitter account for your healthy food blog and discuss financial news or politics. Your followers expect you to post about topics that relate to your industry. If you don’t, they may lose interest. And remember, there are lots of ways to generate fresh content for social media.

7. You ignore mentions

When someone asks you a question or sends you a word of congratulations on Twitter, respond. Followers will see that you actually engage with people and will be more likely to interact with you. Not to mention that it’s a great way to show off your stellar customer service.

8. You promote too much

Many brands and bloggers automatically tweet links to new blog posts or resources, and that makes sense since it helps update your followers with new information. But that shouldn’t be all you post.

Use Twitter to share links, opinions about industry events, photos, behind-the-scenes info, etc. Otherwise, your followers may turn away.

SOURCE: Post Planner