As you use social media, your immediate goal is to grow your network as you promote your product. At the same time, you should seek out others to follow, ideally based upon a common interest, industry, profession, location, etc. You will also be sending out tweets that relate to what you do and those like interests of your prospective followers and clients – those messages should also have keywords included so that potential followers will find you in their searches.
However, the way in which many people and companies attract followers is their downfall. Many people set up their account and then start following as many people as possible indiscriminately in hopes that those people will in turn follow them back. They’re easy to spot – they’re the people who are following 5,000 people and only have 1 follower. Another equally easy to spot user is the one with insanely high follower and follow numbers. For example, if the Acme Widget Corporation has 5,145 followers, but also follows 4,989, then Acme may have a largely artificial following. Do 5,100 people really care what Acme has to say? Does Acme really spend his hours and days tracking the tweets of 5,000 followers? Not likely. Acme is just one of 5,000 users trapped – everyone seems to be talking, but no one is listening.
Instead, you should cultivate a natural following – Follow someone on Twitter because you care about what they have to say, and they have a genuine interest in you. If someone tweets a question describing a problem or need to which you may have the solution, you have an opportunity to help someone else. The more questions you answer, the more people you serve and the stronger your reputation and your following will become.
How do people find you? Content is king – post over the course of each day, but don’t blast out a dozen tweets within a short time – it can be like being the loudest and most obnoxious person in the room. Focus on a handful of topics – in the morning, post about the latest good news impacting your local community; afternoon, focus on your industry or an aspect of your profession; evening tweets can be more laid back—with content that might be entertaining or thought-provoking. Plan out your strategy – but keep it simple and always deliver value at every opportunity.