Six tips to help you to attract, and keep, a following on Twitter

  Fill out your profile.   When you set up your Twitter account, choose a Twitter handle as close as possible to your business or professional name for easy recognition. Fill out your profile with your name, website link, bio/ about you, company name, and maybe a line or two regarding what you plan to tweet about. Upload your photo or logo to complete the profile.

Follow me, I’ll follow you. Looking for followers? Find your friends and business associates and follow them. In turn, most will follow you. Follow companies and professionals you respect. Smaller ventures will likely follow you, and you may pick up some of their followers. You can ask for introductions to your friends’ and associates’ followers as well.

Advertise your Twitter handle. Your Twitter handle will be @YourTwitterName. When you update any of your marketing material (business cards, letterhead, brochures, etc.) don’t forget to add it in. Add it to your email signature too!

Use a widget on your website. Twitter, and other online social media companies, offer widgets for your website which allow you to pull your feeds onto your website. Twitter’s can be found at: twitter.com/goodies/widgets.

Avoid constant self-promotion. The amount of time you spend singing your own praises should take up no more than 10 to 20% of your posts. Focus 80 to 90% of your tweets on sharing information such as interesting and pertinent article links, tips, photos, quotes, buzz, and general info. By offering tips and how-tos, you can “advertise” your expertise and demonstrate your knowledge. Some business owners also like to tweet about their other passions, like sports or fashion, but avoid going too far off-topic. Think about your followers’ common interests.

Retweet! Occasionally, if you see a tweet from someone you think would be worth sharing, you can retweet it—like forwarding an email. You will have shared useful information with your followers and given a thumbs-up to the person who shared the original tweet. If that person is not a follower, he or she might become one. Be careful not to overdo the retweets—you need to add your own value!