Dream Systems Media Blog

How Do I Get More Followers On Twitter

I’ll get right to it – I am always getting asked how to get more followers on Twitter, which to be honest I think is funny because I really don’t think I have a “TON” of followers myself. However; I am sitting close to 1100 followers and feel I have a pretty good idea of how to make Twitter work for business and marketing purposes.  I want to help those who are asking me this specific question understand how I got, and continue to get more followers on Twitter.

Experiment Time:

Before I get to answering the question, I was wondering what other people who follow me on Twitter get asked the most.  It appears my number one question is not the number one question of most of the people following me.  Most of the people following me seem to get the “WTF is Twitter” in some form or another!  Check this out:

Twitter how to get more followers on twitter, Twitter

People You Need To Follow On Twitter

I love getting feedback from my readers. I especially love getting questions; and do my best to help at any opportunity.  The other day I received a question from “Lise” about using Twitter.  She had some valid questions and points of concern regarding Twitter that I wanted to address in a blog post.  To do that, I thought I would bring in some Twitter “gurus” to help me answer this question.

I really appreciate these amazing Internet marketers taking the time out of their very busy days to answer these questions.  I really think this can benefit a lot of people and hope you will feel its worth the read!

Here is the comment & question that “Lise” asked me:

So Mat. I am really enjoying your blog and have started following you – with thanks to Gerald. But I have a challenge that no one seems to be able to help me with – perhaps you can.

General, Matt Siltala, SMX aaron wall, Alysson Fergison, andy beal, ann smarty, Cameron Olthius, Dave Wallace, mat siltala, Michael Gray, Nate Moller, Twitter

Twitter in Active Moms Magazine

I love when I see businesses who are using social marketing to its fullest potential.  I particularly love to see them incorporating their social media marketing into their offline promotions.  It is fun to see things I had not yet thought of.  I will typically write these strategies down and keep them in my bank of ideas that I think are cool, because I know at some point I might be using the same technique for myself or a client.

Offline Twitter Use #1

Twitter offline marketing, Twitter

I have been blogging for several years now and am a big proponent of blog use. In fact, last week I was conducting a webinar and got carried away preaching about the importance of company blogging. During the webinar I was asked again if having a blog was “essential” for a company. The questioner wanted to know specifically why I felt having a blog was important and wanted specific examples and ideas of good blogs so they had some direction in their blog planning. In other words – don’t just tell me to have a blog because its important, but tell me why it is important and give me specific examples and ideas of blogs who are doing things the right way. So, I gave my spill of answers. But then I got to thinking if the people who are following me on Twitter had the same or similar answers – and they did! (BTW, I appreciate all of you who answered me).

Blogging Blogging, blogs, business blogging, Twitter

Everybody has heard about this by now, but I am wondering what real people that use Twitter think about Mark Cuban getting fined 25k by the NBA for Twittering bad stuff about the refs?  I am not interested in what the media (most of whom have never even used Twitter) think.  I am not one to defend Mark Cuban, but this is lame and I can’t believe they fined him.  About the only good thing that has come from this is hearing that “You can make money from Twitter now” – that is if you are the NBA.  Funny.

This kind of stuff damages the NBA – my father in law and I were talking about how we have stopped watching a lot of NBA because of all the ref scandals of years back.  We were talking about so many games we were wondering how come so many bad calls, and now we know … they were all fixed.  So why not call out the refs?  Are we sure they are not pulling the same crap?  We need to keep them in check and that’s all Mark Cuban was doing.

Twitter mark cuban, Twitter

I kept seeing people that I follow and admire tweet about removing your Twitter feed from your Facebook because (they feel) its just one big duplicate Twitter site.  I have thought there is confusion sometimes myself, but for the most part I am never on Facebook, but I have lots of friends and people who only check up on Facebook.  I usually just get annoyed at people responding to my Twitter updates on Facebook when I would rather then respond on Twitter.

Kenny Hyder Hates Twitter on Facbook

With all that said; I am at a loss because I want those people (on Facbook that are not using Twitter) to see what I am up to, but I do not want to have to go and update two “status” places.  That could get annoying real quick (why I no longer Plurk).

Twitter Facebook, Twitter

Its no secret that I love Twitter, and can’t live without it (in fact – feel free to follow me).  Even other people, like I found on Twitter today, share my addiction of Twitter and may need Twitter interventions:

Are You Addicted To Twitter?

I went on to answer @SEOAly that it was not possible because I had tried several times, and failed.  It leads me to ask the question though about what kind of chatter you are monitoring Twitter for?  I love following other people in my industry, and it helps me find and stay on top of all that is going on.  This is one of just many uses I have for Twitter.  Are you using Twitter search as a part of your online reputation management?  I am not going to go off and say its the next big search engine or anything silly like that, but are you using it to see what things people are saying about you and your business?

Twitter online reputation, Twitter

Just do a tweet with the word Skittles in it,  (LOL) even if the link will only last for about two seconds … Ok, so that part of this post is a little bait and joke, but Twitter is venturing into the world of social media and I want to know what your thoughts are about it?

I woke up this morning to Skittles Twitter explosion buzz.  Skittles.com has changed its home page to nothing more then a Twitter search for “Skittles” and a little navigation graphic for the rest of their site.  They even have a friends page that redirects to their Facebook friends page.  Here is the screenshot I took of my Twitter comment showing up on the home page of Skittles – So technically I had a PR 5 link from Skittles … haha  – because its the Twitter search, and people are buzzing so much about this today – in about 10 min my tweet was more then 10 pages deep.  Still funny though.

Twitter Facebook, skittles, Social Media, Twitter

During SMX West 2009 Andy did a great job live blogging the sessions he attended, and a comment came through on one of the posts he did asking for ideas, or “out-of-the-box” marketing tactics that could work for physicians offices:

Creative Marketing Tactics for Physician Offices?  I would like to know of any creative “out-of-the-box” marketing tactics that anyone has used when marketing services to physician offices, medical facilities, etc.  Thanks in advance.

Here goes: The thing you must realize about viral marketing ideas in regards to any specific business is that it does not have to be a perfect match.  Services that a physician offers in itself is not the kind of content that is worthy of “going viral”.

Social Media digg, reddit, Social Media Marketing, Stumble Upon, Twitter, viral, Viral Marketing

5 Ways To Sniff Out Twitter Spam

1. Crappy name
2. Boasting about making money
3. following crazy number of people
4. only a few following back
5. One Update

Amazing folks, just amazing!  And – yes, its the combination of all 5 things listed here that SCREAMS Twitter SPAM!

UPDATE: 2/2/09

Just wanted you to know that I checked on this account today (its been a few days only) and it has been suspended.  So again, this is a great way to sniff out Twitter spam, and don’t waste your time following someone back who has an account that looks like the one above – cause this picture below is what will happen:

What Happens When You Spam Twitter

Twitter Twitter, twitter spam