I don't follow a lot of people on Twitter. It's not by design, it's just because I find the twit-o-sphere overwhelming. No wonder, look at my TweetDeck!
I didn't have time to carve out a community on Twitter, HubSpot.tv threw me out there and suddenly I was overwhelmed by emails (which I then turned off) telling me people had followed me. I'm not complaining, I love having followers (in a totally non-religious way :-) but it all came awfully fast and fell behind in my follow-backs.
Last week I got the following tweet from @SarahMerion and I realized she was right!
I barely follow anyone! It's time for me to get back out there and conqure the twit-o-sphere!
I started this the other day and realized how I was selecting people was interesting and probably says a lot about how people (or at least how I) use Twitter.
This is not by any means and exhaustive list and if I am not following you, the best way is just to send me a tweet and let me know. I do hope these tips help you get other followers and enjoy Twitter a little more.
1. Say something interesting
The second column in my TweetDeck is where all my @ replies are located, and where I start looking for people to follow. I did a webinar with Mike the other day and had a lot of @ replies. I figured I wasn't following many of the people so I scanned through my @ replies for people who said something that caught my attention.
2. Make sure you have an good photo that shows your face
I don't even clicking on people's profiles that didn't have a photo of them. If it was a logo or something obscure, I went right over it. I want to know you are a HUMAN!
3. Fill out your bio with unique information
When I did click into someones profile, I first checked out where they are from and what they do. If they are from the Boston area, I pretty much always follow them. If their profile only says is "social media expert" I generally don't follow.
4. Don't only send @ replies
You are in the Twit-o-sphere to contribute and join the conversation. If you only converse with people you know and follow, your stream is a pretty un-interesting series of half conversations that I don't understand. I look for the articles you share and the things you put out there for everyone and see if those appeal to me.
5. Have followers
I know this seems weird but you have to have followers to get more followers. That's not to say I didn't follow people with only 27 or 62 people following them, but if I did they really had to excel at the points above. If someone has over 1,000 followers, I assume they are interesting and tend to follow more quickly.