How To Get More Twitter Followers [From 5 Influencers Smashing Growth]
If you’re trying to find how to get more Twitter followers, you’ve probably come across this article after failing several times already.
Here’s why this post is different:
- You’ll hear from five Twitter champions I’ve personally interacted with.
- I don’t spend long on unproven strategies.
- Each Twitter influencer has provided actions for you to take as next steps.
So, read on for some of the basic Twitter growth strategies then keep reading for opinions from some of the smartest Twitter users out there.
Or jump straight to the influencers by clicking this link.
Basic Twitter growth strategies you can start without thinking
Documented in nearly every Twitter growth post are these basic strategies that don’t really work. If you super scale them, you stand a chance of growth. But you’re only growing random followers. There’s little engagement gleaned.
Still, you might want to give them a try:
- Follow loads of people and hope they follow you back.
- Be strategic with who you follow. One Twitter growth hack is to follow accounts that are following more accounts than they have followers. Theoretically, there is a higher chance of these accounts following you back.
- Pay for followers. These are often bots. Twitter doesn’t allow this and you will likely get banned. But some people have done this successfully.
- Post your Twitter handle on other social media platforms. People won’t know you have Twitter until you tell them.
- Post your Twitter handle (or a link) on everything. Your website, your email, whatever.
- Ask people to retweet your tweets. There is a correlation between retweets and Twitter growth.
Next up are experiences shared by a hand-picked selection of Twitter accounts that have experienced radical growth. This is the section worth reading.
Tom Hirst, 22k Twitter followers
Tom Hirst is a “builder who sells”. I first met Tom (online) when I suggested we swap services. (I write blogs; he builds websites). Operating as a freelancer, Tom has put together viral tweets and threads specific to his own niche.
As a result of this, Tom has grown thousands of followers in the space of a few months. Even more impressively, his Twitter analytics are almost always in the hundreds of thousands of engagements.
Sure, Tom’s follower count may seem small in comparison to “influencers” with millions of followers. Don’t get drawn into vanity metrics. Engagement is a better success measurement on any social media platform.
Tom says that Twitter can change your life.
“More sales. More business. More friends.”
What’s unique about Tom is that he’s documented the process of writing compelling tweets and writing viral Twitter threads.
I purchased his bundled course Writing Tweets Daily + Crafting Viral Threads and was blown away by the simplicity behind a viral Twitter thread.
In his course, Tom runs through his process for capturing ideas, turning them into tweets, and doing something with them. If you’re anything like me, you’ll have tons of notes on your phone and ideas that never see the light of day.
What’s more, Tom has recorded live composing a Twitter thread that is sure to get tens of thousands of interactions. His Twitter process is compelling. And anyone can replicate it.
It’s probably not more Twitter followers you need. It’s expert guidance like this.
Tom’s course gets my highest recommendation.
Masooma Memon, 8k Twitter followers
Masooma Memon is a freelance writer for B2B SaaS and someone I look up to as a queen of Twitter networking.
I first met Masooma (online) during a Twitter chat for UK-based content marketers. This was a few years back and I’ve since seen her follower count triple.
As a follower, I recognize Masooma’s Twitter feed as niche. She tweets about writing and freelancing. These are her specialty areas and people look to Masooma to help them out as they progress their freelancing or writing career.
Aside from sharing advice on what works for her, Masooma is a regular guest host or participant of many Twitter chats.
What is a Twitter chat?
A Twitter chat is a scheduled conversation, usually Q&A-based, that takes place at a regular time on Twitter.
These are often weekly or monthly chats where a host (or guest host) poses several community-based questions to their followers.
Twitter chats are held by both business and personal accounts.
And it’s other people’s Twitter chats where Masooma regularly stands in as host — and gains followers.
Don’t chase followers
Aside from hosting chats, Masooma says that joining in existing conversations gains her a good number of followers.
“Don’t chase followers. I never do. Focus on building relationships instead by commenting on others’ content. You not only gain new followers but grow your engagement which is where all the gold (read: conversions/sales and opportunities) is.”
Mustafa Khundmiri, 24k Twitter followers
Mustafa is a B2B content writer but mixes his tweets between personal and business. This is proof that you don’t need to limit your Twitter account to just the serious stuff.
If you scroll through Mustafa’s tweets, you’ll see a few patterns:
- Almost every tweet is text-only
- Almost every tweet has hundreds of likes
Does consistency lead to consistency?
I posed three questions to Mustafa around his Twitter growth to extract some pearls of wisdom. His advice is so good that I’ve included it all word for word:
1. Twitter’s native scheduling tool helps me schedule tweets. It’s only available on the web app.
2. Make more friends and engage with their content. When you’re small on Twitter, you’re invisible to the algorithm.
3. When you exchange DMs with other people at your level and engage with their tweets, two things happen:
a) Twitter starts showing your tweets more to the people recently engaged with you via DMs. After sending hundreds of DMs, it’s something I can confidently say. I’ve observed it many times.
b) They’ll be more willing to engage with your tweets because they know you.
Do this consistently and you’ll find more engagement coming your way. Of course, you have to show up every day and create quality tweets to get results.
4. Do things that don’t scale. Leave lots of comments on others’ tweets, send cold DMs to new people, DM every new follower, etc.
That’s what gets you noticed and helps you get more followers.
Andy Crestodina, 35k Twitter followers
Andy Crestodina is the CMO and Co-Founder of Orbit Media Studios, Inc. As a digital marketing agency as prevalent as Orbit, you’d expect the CMO to have a solid following.
But, when I first started following Andy on Twitter two years ago, he only had 14k followers.
“Only.”
Andy shares the anatomy of the perfect social media post:
I wondered how Andy has achieved more than 100% growth of an already impressive profile. Was it through following this template time and time again?
No better person to ask than the man himself:
“It’s hard to know where followers come from. Occasionally I’m added to a list (like this one) which I’m sure helps. I’m not really doing any special self-promotion on Twitter. When I get the chance to tell people how to connect, I always suggest our newsletter and LinkedIn.
Twitter is definitely a “rich get richer” platform. Twitter often recommends following accounts with large followings. Also, people seem to be more likely to tag/engage with big accounts. And then there’s the lists/roundups I mentioned. So there’s a feedback loop.
My best tip would be to use a tool like Coschedule to keep your best content in social media rotation. If you have a high-quality body of work and you (automatically) share it regularly, and your posts are informed by what’s had good engagement in the past, you’re destined to grow your following.
Other tips: mention people whenever possible, which should be easy if you include contributor quotes in your content.
And make friends with community managers at brands with big accounts. The SEMrush team often shares our content (I met them at a conference once; they’re wonderful) and that goes a long way.”
Kevon Cheung, 6.5k Twitter followers
Kevon has gone from 0–6,000 in the space of a year after not using his Twitter account for 11 years.
How?
“My #1 tactic is making Twitter friends. An audience comes from human interactions and the foundation of all is friendships.”
Obviously, making friends with everybody is impossible. And making friends (and gaining followers) in the wrong circles only inflates your follower count without focusing on bringing in followers who will interact with you.
Kevon has become so passionate about making the right Twitter friends that he’s put together a free email course.
I’ve started Kevon’s course while writing this post and am already impressed.
Kevon does open with a word of warning:
Do you have the time & commitment to do this in the next 7 days?
If you don’t then this course isn’t for you.
However, everyone I’ve interviewed for this article has given you many nuggets of Twitter wisdom that you can read through again and action their advice as and when you please.
Summary of advice
- Buy Tom’s course: Writing Tweets Daily + Crafting Viral Threads
- Focus on building relationships instead by commenting on others’ content
- Exchange DMs with other people at your level
- Use Coschedule to keep your best content in rotation
- Sign up to Kevon’s email course: Making Twitter friends
One last thing…
Please follow me on Twitter 😊 @DomKent