23 Steps for Building a Sizable and Engaged Twitter Following (Updated 01/18/12)

Updated Stats as of January 18, 2012:
Twitter Followers (@jerichotech)  70,031
Tweeted Updates 22,882
Twitter Lists 2,378

 

My new book, Trajectory, is nearing publication.  To read the Introduction, click here.

To view how Trajectory is organized, view the infografic here.

A YEARS WORTH OF EVIDENCE

On April 14, 2010, Jericho Technology joined Twitter and began building a comprehensive Twitter following.

During the ensuing 10 months and 22 days, our plan has been to test, analyze and strategize the best way to harness the power of Twitter for ourselves, before we began building Twitter accounts for our clients. The reason for this approach?  We believed that despite the fact that we have been advising online clients for over 20 years, it was first necessary to prove our Social Media credentials before we could reasonably perform this task for others.  It was a significant investment of time and resources, but it has paid off.

WHAT WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED

During this period, we have gone from zero followers to over 32 thousand, as of March 2, 2011.  As reported by Klout (our Klout score is 65 and climbing), we have surpassed the 1K threshold on list memberships, total retweets, unique retweeters and unique messages retweeted.   We have a 100 percent Twitter Influence Percentage as reported by Twitter Grader. Our ReTweet Rank is higher than 98.43% of all companies tested. And our PeerIndex score is 79. We have Tweeted 8,274 worthwhile articles.  For purposes of comparison, Justin Bieber has Tweeted 7,993; Kim Kardashian, 6,770 and Ashton Kutcher, 6,501.

(Updated Stats as of October, 17, 2011:  Twitter followers 58,451;  Klout Score: 74;  Tweeted Articles 19,767)

Perhaps most significantly, if you are thinking this is much too much work, consider this:  100% of all our Twitter activity over the last year has been performed by one person, Michael R. H. Stewart.

We have never purchased a single follower, nor have we ever used automated methods to build a following indiscriminately.  We appreciate every one of our followers, and have always done our best to show that appreciation by providing them with the best information available to assist them with their own business interests, all at no cost.

Since over the last year, 41% of our website traffic has come from Twitter, in all likelihood if you are reading this post you are one of our valued followers.  So, the purpose of this post is to summarize our recommendations on how best to utilize Twitter, based not upon conjecture or theory, but rather on first-hand empirical evidence.

RECOMMENDATIONS

Any business owner, entrepreneur or internal Social Media strategist that determines Twitter to be a valid and effective method for gaining online influence and/or exposure needs to take it very seriously. It’s not an avocation, it is a vocation. To build a successful Twitter following is relatively simple, but it isn’t easy. Unless you are prepared to devote yourself to a period of sustained effort, your Twitter account will be a hobby, not a valuable business tool.

Beyond the obvious – that you must carefully target the audience you plan to build, actively engage with them, provide them with a steady diet of valuable and pertinent information, and treat them with the respect they deserve – there are a series of defined steps that are useful and efficient.

Presumably, you are looking for practical advice, not generalizations, so we will avoid discussions of engagement, authenticity and professionalism and simply provide the steps used for our own business, Jericho Technology, Inc., to build a highly targeted, engaged and rewarding Twitter following of 58,451 in 18 months.

Of course, there are many approaches that have been used by businesses during Twitter’s infancy, and we do not profess to have all the answers. The most we can do is provide you with an informed opinion.

Required Steps

1. If you are using Twitter for business exposure, you must have a website and a blog that is Social Media-enabled, compelling and useful to your audience. After all, if you are going to exert substantial effort to build a following, it is only logical to create and maintain a web presence that commands their attention when they arrive.
2. We recommend not to advertise on your website. Unless your following – and the resulting web traffic to your site – is enormous, the pennies you will earn from display ads is hardly worth it. Especially since this will give the impression to your followers upon their first visit that you are trying to monetize them. Many formidable Social Media experts would disagree with this point, so use your best judgment and get feedback from your following before you advertise.  The one exception to this rule is when you have something of intrinsic value to your followers.  For example, we believe that the Thesis theme for WordPress is hugely valuable when building Social Media websites, and recommend it strongly.
3. We would recommend WordPress as a web platform as it is the most usable, flexible and Social Media-friendly web development software. Also, importantly, it is best to house your website on your own domain location, not on WordPress.com.
4. To take full advantage of Social Media, as a minimum you should have a compelling web presence on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and YouTube.
5. Familiarize yourself with the professional uses of Alltop.com and StumbleUpon.com. More about why later.
6. As you are building these tactical tools, keep in mind that everything you do will be judged by your audience. Each web venue will either add to your credibility or detract from it.
7. Using the Twitter page as an example, it should have a memorable appearance, and a visible promise of the quality of information you are going to deliver to your followers. In our case, the Twitter promise on the page can be seen in the accompanying graphic.
8. Never fall for the clueless suggestion that you should “buy” followers, or automate your Twitter growth from mindless software that merely collects untargeted bots and useless Twitter accounts. If your Twitter account is to be effective in building your business, remember that your followers should be carefully chosen from your target market, should have needs that your services can satisfy, and that will find your Tweets worthwhile.
9. Before you can build a useful Social Media following, you first must have a carefully prepared strategy. Without a well conceived plan, your efforts will be wasted.
10. Without using automated software to build your account, you can certainly employ software and websites to make your work more effective and efficient. After much analysis and practical experience, we find Tweepi.com and Hootsuite.com to be the most beneficial.
11. Work on your credibility: Establish and monitor your online influence by maintaining high scores on Klout, PeerIndex, ReTweetRank and Twitter Grader, and then post your scores prominently on your website. The same efforts that will build each of these scores will also grow your Twitter account in a professional way.
12. Determine and then find followers within your target market. Ask yourself who your targeted followers are likely to be following today. For example, our targeted market is entrepreneurial. By definition, entrepreneurs are likely to be following the Twitter account @IncMagazine which currently has 209,393 followers. By using Tweepi.com we located a significant number of these individuals. We then further defined the Tweepi results by looking for those with higher Klout scores, and recent Tweets of their own. At the least, we never follow anyone that has not Tweeted within the last 24 hours. If the purpose of Twitter is to engage with likely customers, if they are not Tweeting they are not likely to engage.
13. It goes without saying, or should – never try to sell anything in your Tweets. Your only job is to build a large group of targeted followers, who want to hear what you have to say.
14. As a matter of preference, we never put links to our website or Facebook page in Tweets. Periodically, about 2% of the time, we write an article on our blog/website and Tweet a link to that article. 98% of the time, we are Tweeting links to articles written by other thought leaders that should appeal to our followers, and that ratio works well for us. Once you have gained credibility and trust among your followers, they will want to become patrons of your website, and will be open to becoming your customer.
15. Every day we Tweet between 35 and 75 articles. We make it clear to our followers that we are hand-selecting these articles with an understanding of their needs and interests. This may seem like a lot, but in the last year we have had only one follower complain that we were smothering his Twitter stream. The actual result has been that the more we Tweet, the more Re-tweets we receive and the higher our Klout and PeerIndex scores rise.
16. Of course, we also ReTweet articles from our followers that seem newsworthy, but we don’t count those ReTweets as part of our daily total.
17. For efficiency reasons, we use the StumbleUpon add-on and the HootSuite add-on (Hootlet), to organize our daily Tweeting. Since our target market is entrepreneurial, and they tend to be very interested in “Marketing”, we use the Marketing category in StumbleUpon to find likely articles. We then use Hootlet to Tweet the resulting articles to our three Twitter accounts, our business and personal Facebook pages and LinkedIn.
18. We pay close attention, (within our main Twitter account), to our Tweets that are retweeted, our @mentions and Direct Messages. This is an important monitor of your progress. Also, we watch the articles that are retweeted and occasionally after 15 days or so, we will Tweet the same article a second time.
19. As a matter of course, we follow back those followers who follow us, provided that they are not bots or spammers, and that their subject matter is appropriate to our follower base and target market.
20. Since we have been above the 2,000 follower threshold, where Twitter is most stringent and concerned about formulas, we follow 750 to 1,000 new individuals per day (including followbacks), or .095% of our current follower base, which ever is lower.
21. We follow a Twitter regimen, based upon empirical results, of placing the greatest activity on Thursdays and Fridays. History has shown that our following is most receptive at the week’s end. On Mondays, we unfollow followers who are not following us back, and then begin looking for new followers.
22. We are always respectful of our followers, value their time and attention, and show appreciation when they engage with us.
23. The upshot of all of these tools and tactics, is that our following grows, and as an ancillary advantage of sending quality Tweets, we are always learning from the same articles we Tweet.

WHERE ARE WE GOING FROM HERE

Since our weekly increase in followers is now well over 1,000, by this time next year we expect to have in excess of 100,000 loyal followers.  We will continue to provide them with up-to-the-moment information and will continue to give them the respect and attention they so richly deserve.

 

TRAJECTORY IS COMING SOON.

My new book, Trajectory, will be published in January, 2012.  If you found this article useful, you will love the book.  You may read the first chapter, The Perfect Trajectory, by clicking here.

Trajectory Information

Anticipated Final Publish Date: January, 2012.

Anticipated Price: $24.95

AVAILABLE ONLINE: In addition to the book itself,  buyers will receive a password to the Client Login section of this website at no additional cost, where they can view the book in its entirety online, read supplementary materials and use expanded tutorials.  Importantly, as the Social Media landscape changes, additional material not available at the time of publication will be available here.

 

Any questions?  I am here to help.

If you are a businessperson searching for answers, or you know someone who is, I am very easy to get in touch with and I am eager to help.

Don’t be shy, be effective instead.  Take action.

Simply call the number below.  During normal business hours, (8 AM – 5 PM Scottsdale, Arizona time), it is my direct line.

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If you would prefer to exchange email I would love to here from you.   Just email michaelstewart@jerichotechnology.com or click the email badge below.   I promise I will get back to you within 24 hours.

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