It started off with
Jonathan Ross talking to
Stephen Fry about it on his show, and suddenly every man, woman and child in the UK is using Twitter.*
Since then, celebs like
Phillip Schofield,
Andi Peters and
Chris Moyles have joined the party, broadcasting their Twitter names on TV and radio so people can 'follow' them.
The whole country is on Twitter now, following these celebs and asking "Now what? Is there more to Twitter than stalking Schofe?" Well yes there is, but unless people are following you it's unlikely you'll see the benefit. How do you remedy this situation? How do you get people to follow you on Twitter? Here's my three-step guide to getting followers on Twitter:
1. Be interesting.
Twitter was designed to let you answer the question, "What are you doing now?", but does anybody care? Nobody wants to know what you had for breakfast. Instead, read it as "What are you thinking about now?", and share your insightful thoughts, links to interesting stories or even ask questions of others. What would you like to read? Give the same back. Once you've written or shared something worth reading you can move on to the next step.
2. Find people with common interests.
Somewhere out there in Twitterland there is somebody who shares an interest with you. Whether it's online stalking of one of the aforementioned celebrities, or more benign hobbies like trading
knitting patterns or
sky diving. Maybe you both live in the same town, or support the same football team. Whatever your reason for wanting to connect, use the power of
Twitter Search to find them. Simply visit
https://search.twitter.com/ and type in something you're interested in. You'll get a list of recent Tweets mentioning that phrase and can see who is talking about that. Try following some of those people and, if your Tweets are interesting (which they are because you completed step 1 above), maybe they will follow you back.
3. Join in the conversation.
Hey, it's just like real life - you talk to people and they talk back. To reply to someone on Twitter just start your message with an @ sign and their username at the start of your Tweet (e.g. "
@Schofe That's my hedge!") and they will be able to see it in their
Replies tab. If you're funny and/or interesting they may reply back to you and may even follow you. Just remember that most people also have a life outside Twitter and might not be at their computer 24 hours a day waiting for your next Tweet. Their reply might take a while to arrive, so keep an eye on your Replies tab. Also, try using the search feature to look out for your username in case they don't reply with the @ sign or don't put it at the start of the message.
With these three simple steps you should be well on your way to making friends on Twitter. If you like this site,
follow me (@surferbill).
*Footnote: In case you've been living under a non-social networking enabled rock for the past year (or two), Twitter is a microblogging platform where people share what they are doing (or their latest insightful thoughts) by 'Tweeting' each other with messages of 140 characters or less ('Tweets').
Labels: howto, twitter
