Twitter offers an efficient, easy-to-use tool that allows anyone who is willing to put in the time and energy the ability to bolster their platform. Building your personal platform and brand - whether it be for an author, community manager, YouTube personality or the like - is not easy, as I covered in a blog earlier this week. But here are five tips I have picked up along my journey that have let me build a stronger platform with Twitter.
1. Flesh out your profile.
You would think this would be straightforward. Most places that let you have a profile often get you to fill it out right away, but a lot of people have a tendency to skip what they can. Get a good profile picture of you, fill out some personal information so we know you are a real person, and make your 160-character bio the best it can be. Then scrap that and make it even better. I also found that taking a half hour or an hour to make your personalized header image has a great impact on people’s willingness to connect with you. There are a multitude of websites where you can make a great image in no time, so make sure you invest that little bit in making your profile pop.
2. Put Keywords and Hashtags in Your Bio.
Remember that perfect bio you just made? Well let’s go back to it. If you put specific hashtags in your bio (i.e. #indieauthor, #amwriting, #vlogger, etc.) then you will have greater exposure when people search for those hashtags. One of the most important aspects of building a platform is how searchable you are and this does not just mean through Google. You include hashtags in your tweets to get them exposure, so why not do yourself the same service?
3. Pin a Tweet. Not Just any Tweet.
And not just that one tweet that you made once that was hilarious and got 100 likes. Pinning a tweet is important because, aside from your picture, header, and bio, it is the first thing that someone will see when viewing your profile. Make your pinned tweet something that can describe you while simultaneously promoting engagement. Take my pinned tweet, for example. It reinforces the notion that I am a writer, what sort of story I wrote, and actively asks for people to engage with me. That being said, my pinned tweet is a tad old now and does not reflect that I am rewriting my novel and am looking for second round beta readers. Perhaps it is time to update it!
4. Link Your Website (and Your Content).
Twitter is a powerful tool, but it cannot be the only place where you are building your platform. You need some property that is entirely yours, something that you own and is not subject to potentially crippling policy changes in the future. But you also want that property, your website, to have something worth visiting for. Invest your time in content creation to drive traffic to your site and build your brand. It is so easy to share that content to Twitter and your growing legion of followers. This also gives more validity to your platform, which makes it more likely that people click the follow button!
5. Look at Your Followers' Followers.
This is actually a new tactic I have found, one that I discovered when reading about the tool Crowdfire. One of the best ways to gain followers is to follow those who can be part of your network, those who are on the same journey and are likely to follow back. This is extremely important for platform building for those who might not be able to attract true fans yet. But the best way to get these people to follow back is not through searching for keywords or scanning through the Suggested Contacts. Take a look at accounts in your niche who have retweeted or liked your tweets. Go to their profile list and look at who is following them. Here you have a treasure trove of accounts who are clearly interested in people like you, and the likelihood of them following back is astronomically higher than searching for them yourself. How much higher is astronomical? At least two or three times the normal likelihood of following back.
These are not the only things that you need to do in order to see successful growth in your Twitter, nor do I want to sound like a snake oil salesman and claim that this will get you hundreds of followers overnight. These five tips are a great place to start gaining followers, growing your network, and building your brand. They are things that you should keep in mind to better grow, but it will still require a lot of effort from your end.
As always, feel free to reach out and connect with me via email, Twitter, or Google+. I would be happy to talk about this or a ton of other topics. And add to my list by leaving your tip to growing your Twitter base in the comments down below! I am, after all, learning all along this journey as well.
Thanks for stopping by, and be sure to come back this weekend for a new indie book review! Until then, my friends.