inside scoop: I use all of these Twitter following hacks myself

There are many ways to fluff your Twitter following. Just like there are many ways to cheat in golf. Neither gets you anywhere so why do it? Here are 10 Hacks to build your Twitter following with people that will actually engage with you!

1) Engage with other people
News flash, people care about themselves, so show interest in what they are talking about (if you have a similar interest – don’t interject on things you know nothing about, unless of course you want to learn about it). Ask questions, give them credit, make comments. Engage!!!

2) Follow people that seem to follow back
If you see someone with 5,000 followers and only follow 200 people back there’s a 99% chance they aren’t going to follow you. Now by all means, if this person offers something of value in their tweets, give them a follow. You shouldn’t just be looking for an audience on Twitter. You should be looking for people to listen to. But if you don’t see that in this person, then why follow them because they have no interest in following you back based on their follower to following ratio.

3) Use the app Crowdfire (free version)
Track those cheaters that follow you only to unfollow you. Yes, this is real. People will follow you with the sole purpose of getting you to follow them back. And once you do, goodbye! And this is hard to track unless you have an app that allows you to find these people. Crowdfire will sort out those who have recently unfollowed you. This “Recent Unfollower” list will include these people and people that just for whatever reason decided to unfollow you. Don’t worry about it. Just unfollow back anyone you don’t want to follow anymore.

4) Continuing with the Crowdfire app, find non-followers.
Now here is where you find people like Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber. Chances are they aren’t following you back. But that’s okay. You want to know who you have followed recently (in #2 above) that decided not to follow you back. Here you can then unfollow those people. Of course, if they are giving you value, by all means, keep following them. The goal isn’t to only have a list of large followers, but to have people you follow that provide you something that you want.

5) Search “thanks for the follow”
If you type that phrase into Twitter search and then click “All Tweets”, you are going to see people tweeting this out left & right. 1 second ago, 3 seconds ago and so on. Now, of course, some of those tweets are automated which is a bit bogus because automated tweets, besides posting a blog post on Buffer or Hootsuite, is not genuine at all. But nonetheless, you can then look at these people’s followings to see if they have anything of value on their timeline or profile. If so, and if their ratios line up, give them a follow. Good chance you will get a follow back and even someone saying, “thanks for the follow”. Then after several days have passed, apply #4 above to #5. Got it? Okay, moving on…

6) People who like or retweet you deserve a follow (well most of the time)!
If someone takes time to like or retweet something you put out there, then follow them if their ratios line up and if they aren’t spam. (Yes, you will see spam accounts and 90% of the time these will be easy to spot.) These people for the most part like what you have to say and took the time to give it a little love. Give back by following them. And watch them follow you back.

7) Use Twitter Search to find people talking about a topic you like
For example, say you like the Ohio State Buckeyes (like me). Search for something to do with Ohio State. Click “All Tweets” and there you will see people chatting about the topic at that very moment. They are active on Twitter at that very moment. You like Ohio State and chances are they do too. Check their ratios and if they seem like someone of value, click the follow button. They will see this follow come through as they are online and they will follow you back.

8) Create quality content, promote it and become a person of value
#6 above works best when you apply this idea. If you have a blog of some sort, send out an article and, the better the content, the better the chance it has of being liked or retweeted. Then you apply #6 above. Articles, pictures, videos are more likely to be liked, retweeted or commented on then some regular comment. Create, promote, then follow those who give it a look.

9) Like & Retweet other people
If you like a blog post, an image or a tweet of any variety that came from someone else, prove it by liking or retweeting it. You would want this done for you so do it for someone else. It helps that person, it shows what you like, and it will lead to people finding you more easily on Twitter (more follows). And by liking or retweeting someone else’s tweet, they will see this too and chances are will follow you back. It also helps promote the good stuff of twitter.

10) Follow back!
It’s that easy. When you open your Twitter app, you will see your notifications at the bottom. Located here, you’ll see people who have recently followed you. These people are either interested in what you have to say or are pulling a fast one on you. But fear not because you are now armed with #3 above and will know who is trying to pull these stunts. So find out who followed you and if their ratios line up and if their value is in line with what you are looking for, follow back.

If you want to build a Twitter following, it takes time. An advantage with Twitter is you can do this while watching a game or taking a break. Put in the effort and over time you will find an engaged audience. And who knows maybe one of those people that follows you will be your next client. Good luck!

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Image of the Follow the Leader was taken by Walter Baxter under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 license