SU!How much do you value your Twitter followers? If the answer is “a lot”, then here are some general guidelines that you should consider following if you’d like that latest follower to continue following you for the long run.
1. Be Consistent with your Tweets
People oftentimes follow a fellow Twitter user for a specific reason. Before you begin tweeting, establish a reason as to why you’re tweeting and what kind of people you want following your tweets. Then, stick to that plan, making sure to keep at least 75% of your tweets directly related to that original reason.
For example: if you begin tweeting about social media marketing, make sure to continue tweeting about social media marketing. 9 times out of 10, people are following you for your insight and news regarding the social media marketing industry. They more than likely do not want to hear about you getting ready for bed, using the restroom, going out with friends, etc. These are all very common activities that most people do, so what makes you think that most of your followers (who again, followed you for your insights regarding social media marketing) really care about day to day activities in your personal life? They probably don’t.
Bottom line: If you establish yourself as a social media marketing Twitter user, then restrict yourself to talking about social media marketing. If you want to throw in a few personal tweets a week, do it, but don’t go overboard. You’ll lose followers, and you’ll annoy your subscriber base.
2. Quality is Greater than Quantity
If you find yourself tweeting on a minute-to-minute basis or several times an hour, then you probably need to take a step back and reassess the quality of your tweets. Before you tweet, ask yourself if your followers will find the tweet useful. If the answer is no, then you may want to think about keeping it to yourself. One of my biggest reasons for unfollowing people is because they tweet way too much. Seriously, this isn’t a competition. Who cares how many times you’ve tweeted! Lower is better, in my opinion, as it immediately lets people interested in following you know that:
- you aren’t going to clog up their Twitter feed with completely useless information
- you know that quality is greater than quantity
If you find yourself tweeting as much useless information to your followers (who are following you primarily for professional/business-related reasons than personal ones) as the guy in this video, then chances are you need to reassess the quality of your tweets and slow down a little bit. Hey, I’m sure you’re an interesting person – just slow down a little!
3. Separate Accounts for Personal/Family and Professional/Business
I wish more people would follow this suggestion. If you find yourself tweeting about your personal life quite often but have people following you for professional/business-related reasons, then do yourself (and your followers) a solid favor and create another Twitter account which can be used for personal use.
Separating your personal tweets from your professional tweets is a guaranteed way to retain more followers and not annoy people. As mentioned above: if people are following you for your insight on social media marketing, then they don’t want to hear about each time you’re stepping away from the computer, taking a walk outside, or walking your dog. Again, these are very common activities that nearly everyone participates in, usually quite often.
Bottom line: if you have people very close to you who would be interested in up-to-the-minute tweets about your personal life, then why not make a personal Twitter account to share these updates? And if you do want to make your personal Twitter account available to the public, write a brief blurb in your bio explaining the common information that you’ll be sharing with this account. This way, people will be getting exactly what they want. You could even make your personal Twitter account private. Finally, add a link in your professional Twitter account linking to your personal account, and vice-versa.
4. If Posting Links, Provide Commentary
Since millions of people are using Twitter, it’s important to try to differentiate yourself from the pack. All too often, people just ReTweet and post links to articles without including any commentary or information on why they posted the link. Make sure that if you’re going to post links on a regular basis, provide brief commentary as to why you posted the link or what you think about the link. After all, Twitter is more than a link sharing service.
5. Balance Self Promotion with Sharing
One of the single greatest complaints I see from people using Twitter is that some users tend to promote themselves way too much. Self promotion is perfectly fine, however, don’t go overboard. Use self promotion in moderation. The phrase “pay it forward” goes a long way. Promote other people (who you can vouch for) and if they know you as well as you know them, then they will most likely return the favor.
Being promoted from another reputable source other than yourself is far more advantageous and beneficial, anyways.
6. Maintain Good Twitter Etiquette
Just like in the real world, most people are immediately turned off by people who exhibit and practice poor etiquette. Here are some ways that you can practice a top-notch etiquette on Twitter:
- Observe your Follow to Followers ratio: People who have a few followers but are following hundreds or thousands of people immediately come off as a spammer. Ideally, you should have more people following you than the number of people you’re following (this really applies to a professional/business account; a personal account with friends and family does not apply to this rule as much).
- Don’t Twitter in an altered state: Unless you’re a known drug/alcohol user and people generally expect raunchy, misspelled, and offensive tweets, avoid tweeting when you’re under the influence. You can inadvertently hurt your image which may lead to people losing respect for you which then may lead to people unfollowing you.
- Small conversations should be kept private: Embrace direct messages over using @ when transmitting information that only a single person needs to read (for example, making plans to go out to eat with someone). Again, most people don’t care that you’re going out to eat, unless you’re going to a really interesting restaurant (a restaurant that your followers would find interesting, that is).
- Generally, what’s rude in the real world is rude on Twitter: If your tweets are not private, then anyone in the world can view what you are saying. If you’re being rude, mean, or just plain nasty to people, eventually people are going to catch on and start calling you out on it. Trust me, you don’t want to be a public enemy on Twitter. Just be nice. If you disagree with someone, just tell them that you agree to disagree (or say nothing) and move on.
- Avoid correcting small accidental tweets: If you make a small spelling mistake, avoid following up with a brief tweet correcting yourself. People generally accept and understand the simplicity and speed behind tweeting and will more than likely just dismiss (or completely miss) the spelling mistake.
- Try to keep within the character limit: If you’re new to Twitter, the limited character limit can take some getting used to. That being said, try your best to send a complete thought in one tweet. Spanning a thought across multiple tweets can oftentimes confuse (even annoy) followers.
Here is a great article I found on Twitter etiquette that lists a few more important points that you should try to follow.
7. Avoid Controversial Topics
A great way to lose tons of followers very quickly is to tweet your opinion about a very controversial topic – especially if your opinion lacks any factual information, maturity, or intelligence. Share your controversial opinion over DM. I have unfollowed a number of people simply because I wasn’t following them for their political insight, but for some reason, they felt compelled to share it. The one exception is if people are specifically following you for your opinion on controversial topics.
If your Twitter account is primarily used for professional/business-oriented use, then you most certainly want to avoid tweeting your opinion about controversial topics. Not only may you lose followers, but your professional image/business may be tarnished.
8. Interact with your Followers
I make an effort to respond to every person who contacts me via Twitter. For some people with tens-of-thousands of followers, this may be unrealistic. However, if you only have a few hundred/thousand followers and/or receive a few @’s or DMs a day, then it really isn’t too difficult to respond to everyone. Most people are using Twitter as a tool for interaction. If you’re not going to interact with someone when they initiate communication that warrants a response, then what’s the point of them following you?
9. Direct Message Etiquette
First impressions are everything. If a stranger decides that he/she wants to follow you (and you follow them back), send them a brief DM thanking them for taking the time to follow you. Also, let them know why you decided to follow them back. If you’re really serious about following someone, then I believe it is extremely important to take a second to communicate with them. Briefly get to know who and how they are. It will make their tweets much more interesting to you. In addition, the follower will be less likely to unfollow you in the future – especially if you, from time to time, engage in conversation with them via DM.
Avoid self-promotion during the first few DM’s. Twitter users are very skeptical of people who promote themselves via DM within minutes/hours of following someone.
10. Try to Tweet on a Daily Basis
As with blogging, tweeting on a fairly consistent basis is important. This isn’t to say that you want to tweet just for the sake of tweeting (remember, quality is better than quantity). However, people tend to unfollow people who haven’t tweeted for a while (”a while” is completely subjective; to some people, “a while” is a few weeks; to others, it’s a few days).
If possible, try to tweet one relevant, interesting, quality tweet a day. Can’t do it? No big deal. But quality tweeting done on a consistent basis will help you build quality followers over time.
Hey Matt.
I must say that this is really good and informative article on maintaining one twitter followers.
Appreciate the good insights. RT for you.
Thanks Roseli, glad you found this article useful. Thanks for the RT
Some of it seems so obvious and yet suprisingly, many people fluff the basic rules of interaction online on a daily basis.
Nice, def RT material.. now if only I can remember how I got here….
Matt – Funny, isn’t it? Many of these suggestions are just plain ‘ol common sense. However, I think people believe things need to be more complicated than they really are with today’s various technological innovations.
Great article, I agree with nearly everything and think every twitter user should read this! I have “unfollowed” a number of people because they do not follow rule #2 (Quality not Quantity!). Even if the content is good, I don’t want a tweet a minute from anyone!
The only rule I would dispute is DM’ing strangers who you link up with. What I like about twitter is the way you can informally link up with people of similar interests in a non-intrusive way, getting DM’s from everyone saying why they’d followed me would be quite irritating, and probably no more personal as they’d most likely just be copy and paste messages.
ian – Glad you like it!
Perhaps you have a point with regards to the DM’ing strangers suggestion. However, I think that by DM’ing people and just saying hello, you make a good first impression with the person whom you followed. This may keep you on their follow list for a longer duration since they have actually interacted with you – you’re no longer a stranger (it’s a lot easier to unfollow a stranger whom you’ve never communicated with on a personal level).
But, I do agree that it may be a bit obtrusive if you’re getting a very high volume of DM’s. So, I guess it depends entirely on the volume of the Twitter user’s followers, with it being more difficult to adhere to this suggestion for those whom have more followers, which will consequently yield many more introductory DM’s.
Good tips. #3 and #7 I’m not sure about though.
The personal and professional worlds are meshing together at an accelerating rate. Be you all the time. Don’t hide certain things from certain people because then you’re just wrapping yourself up in lies that are hard to maintain. Be authentic always.
Your stance on controversial topics accentuates you as a person. If you’re the kind of person that likes to sit on the sidelines, fine, don’t participate. But if you’re a go-getter that wants to make an impact, participate. You’re going to have haters. We all do. But you’ll also win the support of those that truly matter to you.
Tim – Thanks for commenting. I think that you have a point, however, since the point of this article is to offer up suggestions on how to keep your Twitter followers around, there need to be some limitations with regards to meshing personal and professional tweets into one account. Again, why are people following you? Is it for personal reasons, is it for professional reasons, or is it for both? Chances are, it’s one or the other (unless someone knows you personally). Therefore, I really believe you need to pick or choose. That’s not to say that you can’t insert your personality into your professional/business-oriented tweets, however, tweeting about doing common day to day activities will hurt you in the long run. If you feel the need to discuss that stuff, then just create a personal account and go wild.
Regarding controversial topics: if people are following you for your controversial opinion, then that’s fine. But if people are following you for your professional opinion, then that’s going to cause a problem. Again, the point of this article is to offer up suggestions as to how you can keep your Twitter followers. Twitter is a great platform for discussion, but again, if you’re at all interested in keeping loyal followers around, then you need to proceed with caution when it comes to sounding off on a controversial topic. You may lose quality followers from your industry, which may end up hurting you in the long run. Again, this might be a great reason to setup a personal Twitter account: people are following you for updates about you, your life, and even possibly your controversial opinion.
What’s your definition of loyal followers? Loyal followers might be people with your views, your opinions, and welcome your sharing of your (and their) side of controversial issues.
The point of it all here is there’s no right answer. Twitter is a medium with many possible uses for everyone involved. Your 10 ways of keeping following might be totally useless to some people and extremely useful to others.
Agree to disagree, Tim
. Thanks for the feedback!
Also, tweeting about personal day to day activities will NOT hurt you in the long run. Look at some of the highest followed people (since numbers is your measurement at the moment). These people pepper in some everyday stuff so that we relate to them as people. Don’t overload with day to day crap but let us know that you do like to see movies, that you enjoy going to the park, and that you loved that amazing restaurant on 5th street.
Again, using these kinds of updates in moderation is fine. However, I’ve followed some people who literally mimic the animated tweeter in the above video and it is absolutely ridiculous. That kind of abusive tweeting will in fact hurt you in the long run – at least for professional tweeters.
And the number of followers doesn’t mean much to be honest. With apps like TweetDeck that can filter via groups, a person’s tweets may never even show up in a Twitter user’s stream. It’s all show, really. What matters is what you contribute, and what your followers expect you to contribute. Again, I’m talking from a strictly professional point of view.
As for the highest followed people on Twitter – that is the exception to the rule. These people…celebrities…have lives that many, many people are interested in – lives usually much more interesting (at least to the general public) than the average Twitter user’s life. People love it when someone like Oprah says that she is going to brush her teeth with a toothbrush made out of gold. On the other hand, you tweet about brushing your teeth to an audience that is interested in professional/business-oriented tweets, and you’re going to lose some followers. Again, these could be good followers…good connections….people who have large audiences that could potentially help you down the road. Is losing them as a follower worth talking about brushing your teeth?
I don’t know, I’m just speaking from personal experience and the experience of others in my life. When someone expects professional, give it to them. Don’t sacrifice your personality, but don’t bombard people with useless, day to day information. The key word is “bombard”. I occasionally tweet about something personal, but I do it in moderation. If I ever feel the need to be more transparent with my personal life, I will create another account and fill it up with my opinion, day to day activities, and things of that nature. That way, when someone follows me, they get what they expect. I’m just trying to be realistic here.
All IMO…
Having just signed up for a Twitter account, the timing of this article couldn’t have come at a better time. Thanks for the tips and advice.
Thanks Matt, this is good info for the novice twitterer such as myself
thanks for sharing
al
I’m still relatively new to Twitter but I have enjoyed the experience so much since I signed up. Many thanks for this insightful blog entry which I’m sure will help me to retain followers. Rgds Vince
Hey Matt,
Terrific post! And thank Mashable for RTing. Your idea for different accounts is so true. I follow folks who are sticking to their reason for tweeting and provide what I am looking for. All have great information and etiquette. I don’t mind the few personal asides they may throw in on a weekend when I am not tweeting much and it gives me a little insight into their person.
Thanks again!
Barbara
Hi Barbara, thanks for the comment. I agree with you 100%! Using personal tweets from time to time with a professional/business-oriented account is perfectly acceptable to me. As a matter of fact, I welcome it. Moderation, moderation, moderation!
Great tips. Definitely a lot of people who should read this..I retweeted it! As someone with nothing to sell and getting a lot of followers (well to me I know it’s all relative twit gods out there), I definitely agree about communicating with followers and answering replies. Except of course for the dreadful auto DM. I don’t answer those. Do you guys? Thanks for the spelling mistake tip. Never know what to do on that one..amazing as a tutor I can’t always get 140 words right. Anyway, thanks for the article.
@Bonniestwit
((Hugs)) and
Hi Bonnie. Thanks for the RT, and I’m glad you found the article useful. I definitely do not answer auto DMs!
Thanks Matt, saw this via Mashable, I found this very valuable info’. I wondered why I had other twitters following me, now I know why. I’ll continue to maintain that for them. I always DM and thank others for their follow and comments, it’s good manners as you say. A twitter for almost 5 days I have learnt a lot from your blog, thanks for the time you took to share it!! Chanty aka Chantified.
Hi Chanty. I don’t want you to believe that you are using Twitter to “serve” your followers, because it shouldn’t be like that (at least I don’t think so). You should try to give them what they expect, though, the majority of the time…that is, if you value them following you.
Honestly, just be yourself. Don’t act a certain way just to try to attract more people. If your account is geared towards professionals, then just focus more on professional-oriented tweets (but don’t forget to throw in an occasional personal tweet). Twitter is particularly great because it really gives people the opportunity to be transparent.
Some people just have a hard time distinguishing between an interesting bit of personal information and a common, everyday emotion or event that everyone feels or experiences!
Don’t worry Matt, I will always be myself. I am more affirmations or what I call my “Chantologies” and some insights to loyal followers when I respond to them.
Some good common-sense suggestions there, although rather weighted towards the concept of Twitter as a promotional tool rather than a “keeping in touch with friends and interesting strangers” tool.
The one I’d disagree with, though, is #9… that’d just be plain annoying.
Adrian, you’re right, this article is weighted more towards using Twitter, not necessarily as a promotional tool, but as a professional tool instead. However, I also advocate using it as a personal tool by creating a personal Twitter account for friends and family.
Regarding #9 – it’s not for everyone, however, some people sure like the idea as it is a nice way of getting to know those interesting strangers. Rather than have a list of people who you know nothing about and have never personally interacted with, you have a list of people who you’ve briefly gotten to know. That sounds much more useful (to me at least).
Hi Adrian,
I think it is good manners to validate someone who takes the time to acknowledge you and wishes to follow what you have to say. Its a nice way to view someone else’s Bio also and it allows us to be less narcissistic, which in the long run makes us better human beings and more open to others, regardless of how we meet them. DM has helped me to gather further insight into those who have selected to follow me, and isn’t that what ‘twittering’ is all about? Just my opinion. Chanty
It may be because we see Twitter’s purpose differently… you possibly have a more formal approach than I do. I just throw my bilge out there, and if people want to read it (the crazy fools!) they have every right to do so
Thanks for this great post! I think it is truly vital for those who are just starting on Twitter. Will RT!
Controversial may get you more followers no?
I dont see it that way, its pretty binary for me.
Those who are proper twitter users are less likely to leave you, unless they are sick of twitter and the noise, in this case they will reduce to their core followers, in that case your only chance is to have had a few personal twitter exchanges. Those who are in it to acquire followers will leave you no matter what if you don’t follow them back.
great article, now I know the usefulness of twitter and how to use it, thanks for sharing the information.
Thanks, I like your advice. I’ll enjoy reading your comments.
Make it a great day. Patty
How do you handle spammy followers? I often just block them, but often just don’t have the time, don’t know what else to do ? Is blocking the answer ?
I think the quality of the people that follow you count for a lot as well…not the numbers.
Alan, I could not agree with you more. Quality followers is definitely greater than quantity. Twitter seems to be more about numbers than quality, unfortunately. But that’s okay.
Spammers usually have their accounts deactivated pretty quickly – Twitter is evolving in that respect I think.
What really makes me laugh are the people who are following thousands of people. There is no way that a human being can keep up with that many people. Using applications like TweetDeck which filter only the people you want to receive updates from sort of defeats the purpose of following those who you are filtering out.
Yeah, as Matt says, you don’t usually have to worry about actual spammers… they usually disappear from the system pretty quickly. What annoys me more is the people who follow me (and THOUSANDS of others) without ever interacting. Why? Check out their profiles, and look for the word “marketing” somewhere, because they’re looking for trends and keywords. I block those people… ok, they’re not actively spamming, but I object to unwittingly being someone’s marketing tool. They can pay my consultancy rates if they want that
My 2 cents on filtering spam users
http://samerforzley.com/2009/02/03/twitter-follow-back-basics/
I was wondering how a Cap on the # of followers/follow (1000?) would work out? I can see all kinds of problems with that though, but if twitter keeps on going the way it is, we will see people with millions following and millions follow.
As great as that sounds, I don’t think it’s going to happen. Capping the number of people that can follow you wouldn’t make a lot of sense to be honest simply because the number of people following you has no real impact on how you’re using Twitter (at least in my experience).
Perhaps a cap on just the number of people you can follow would make more sense. Following over 1,000 people just isn’t practical. No one can possibly keep up with that many people. There’s no way!
Good idea!
A cap wont do it, there is a cap now and its easily overcome by software like hummingbird. Twitter needs a rating system
Yeah, I absolutely agree with all the given points!
Twitter should be a beneficial tool for all users. You should separate your personal tweets with the business or official one. Some Twitter users just mix all the things up and it’s annoying. I had unfollowed some users because some of the reasons that had been stated above.
Sincerely, Twitter had gave me a lot of benefits since I started using it. They’re are a lot of interesting and useful links to articles, site, tutorials and pages that had been shared through Twitter. And I feel so sad and annoyed when some users tend to tweet the same things for 10 times and above.
Twitter rocks!
Nice article, and I was wondering, what sort of plugin do you use for the digg, delicious and SU add at the top of your page (I know that the tweetme plugin is twetmeme probably so that’s not a problem) and where did you get them? Thanks for the response …
Hi Njave. Those are actually not plugins. I just went to those social media sites and followed the instructions on adding each of the components to the template. For example: for Delicious, go to http://delicious.com/help/tools and find the “Tool” that works for you. The step by step instructions make integration pretty simple.
I have to say great article in whole, but I would have to agree with Tim Jahn to an extent when he says “be yourself”. I mix personal with business with ease, because I feel that’s just who I am. I joke around with friends, I participate in certain trending topics, because that’s what interest me. I’ve lost followers because of that and it’s no problem with me, because Twitters main stand point is simply “What are you doing”. With the abundant amount of users on Twitter, I don’t mind a few not seeing eye to eye with the way I do things, because ultimately I’m there to be me and whoever would like to follow and participate, you’re more than welcome. Also my main deal for unfollowing people IS the fact that they’re either not updating, spamming, or simply too cookie cutter clean. It goes both ways I guess.
Great article again!
Hi Jeff. I certainly agree with you on the “being yourself” part. This article doesn’t necessarily advise against being yourself; however, it does remind you to keep in mind that, if retaining your followers is important to you, then you should at least think about some of the points mentioned in this article before you tweet. Most of this stuff is common sense.
The majority of the people that I’ve un-followed have been un-followed not because they were being themselves, but instead, they tweeted 20 – 50 times a day. It’s just too much (and I’m only following < 20 people!). I can’t imagine how difficult it must be for people who are following hundreds of people to follow people who tweet that often.
It all depends on what types of followers you want to have, and what you want to get out of Twitter. As I had previously mentioned, is it worth it to risk being un-followed by an invaluable contact due to excessive tweeting? I have formed some very strong, rewarding relationships based off of my Twitter usage. Again, I’m using Twitter more for professional/business-related reasons than personal ones, so it’s important for me to set some limits in order to get the most out of Twitter.
Thanks for your perspective!
Hi, just wanted to ask you, about the del.icio.us, twitter, digg buttons on top of the page, are they added to the “SinglePost.php” file and displayed in that way, and what code do you have for it? It would be nice to post it or contact me by mail, thanks once more for this.