The person with the most Twitter followers wins, right?

Isn’t that what we are all told? It’s what most of us believe.

Here’s how you do it:

• Follow absolutely everyone you can find on Twitter so they will follow you back, do this every day. (And to be extra annoying, unfollow them after they follow you, so your number of “followers” is always higher than your number of “following”)
• Keep doing this until your following is higher than your friends (remember the follower count is all you’re after)
• Post at least 100+ times a day posting link after link of whatever. It doesn’t matter what you post – your goal here is to border on spam.
• Don’t worry about offering anything of value, that takes too much time, your follower count is all that matters, keep repeating this cycle for at least six months.
• When your follower count is higher than your friends, you win the game!!

Now what?…

Here’s the problem with the above method; you have been playing a game, not growing a brand.

None, and it is probably precisely zero, of your followers feel any connection to you or your brand. And what does it say when you have 100k followers who do not engage with you at all?

So, which is better? A large following, or an audience that cares?

It all depends on your goal, I guess. I’d rather have 500 followers who engage with me and care about my brand then 1M followers who do not.

If your goal is to build and grow an authentic brand, you need to grow slowly and deliberately. But how?

If you are Jennifer Anniston, it is simple, join the platform. (When Jennifer Anniston joined Instagram, she gained 8.6M followers in one day.) But for the rest of us, there are a few things we can do to build a stable, supportive Twitter following that grows over time.

Before I lay out my daily method, something to keep in mind is you never know what and when something you post will explode and go viral. As long as you continue to post valuable content, the potential is always there. And the more you post valuable content that engages your followers, the better your chances of catching fire.

Ok, here are 10 slow-grow steps I recommend to build a supportive and engaged following on twitter in 2020:

1. Create empathetic content that brings value to those you wish to serve and keep it somewhere. This can be a blog, podcast, video, website, etc., you just need a home base for your content.
2. Share your best content on Twitter.
3. Create empathetic and thoughtful posts that bring value to those you wish to serve.
4. Engage in Tweet Chats for your industry. You can find these on twitter, and there are a few online databases like this one: https://www.tweetreports.com/twitter-chat-schedule/
5. Authentically engage with influencers in the tweet chats (hosts and guests), replying to their posts and retweeting posts that are helpful to you. Remember, hosting a tweet chat takes a lot of work, and the hosts will be very engaging if you are supportive and interested.
6. Follow the influencers in the tweet chats and turn on their notifications so you can build a relationship afterward through retweets, likes, and comments. IMPORTANT: do not engage with influencers unless you are authentic, you do not want to spam them, you want them to support you eventually.
7. Retweet 5-10 posts per day from different influences in your network. On each repost, include your comment and tag the influencer. Make sure your contribution is valuable. Sometimes a question has the best result.
8. Learn the hashtags for your industry. Use 2-3 per tweet.
9. Search the major hashtags from your industry and retweet 5-10 posts per day from others using the same hashtag.
10. Set up google alerts for the hashtags you follow on twitter and tweet any relevant articles that you feel align with your brand, and be sure to include the appropriate hashtags.

Ok, that’s it. That’s my method. These are tried and true steps I use for my clients and myself with excellent results. It is slow, but your followers will be authentic. If you grow your following using this method, I promise you will be pleased with the results and the engagement you receive. And remember, the more engagement you have, the quicker you will grow!

And who knows, you might eventually beat that friend of yours after all…

Ok, that’s all for today. Good luck out there!

#CreateSomethingGreat

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