How to Get 2,000 Twitter Followers in Less Than a Week

Hey

So, this is the method that I use to get Twitter followers really quickly for my clients.

I will warn you ahead of time, it's SUPER time consuming. So much so that I haven't even used it on my own accounts. LOL. But it works, if you do it.

(Incidentally, if you don't know the basics of using Twitter for marketing, get Dana's Twitter report - because for seven dollars, it's a total Twitter education. You could turn it into a livelihood by using the method for yourself and your clients, if you choose to take on clients. What I'm about to share isn't meant to replace it, it's just an added trick I use to go faster...)

The trick to this is that you only follow people who are virtually certain to follow you back.

When I start off a brand new client's account, the very first thing I do is schedule an hour with them to train them on using Twitter - how to check and send DMs and @Replies, how to tweet, how often they should Tweet, what kinds of things to Tweet, the percentage of Tweets that can be self-promotional without being obnoxious, etc. I'll also get their cell phone set up with their account while I'm with them.

Also, right from the beginning, their profile should be filled out - a custom background, link to their website, clever little bio, etc. The majority of my clients are in the entertainment and music industries, so they usually have photos and things to work with already.

I also set them up at Tweetlater to auto follow new followers and send back an innocuous, non-promotional DM. Well, if they're a musician, it usually has a link to a free mp3 or ringtone. But nothing without real added value.

The first round of follows I do are people from the Twitterholic top 1000 list. I look for people who have "friend" counts roughly equal to their "follower" counts. These are people that follow back. Getting your client on these peoples' lists on the first day will pay off in passive follows because a lot of people follow twitter alpha users' followers - so they will automatically follow your client.

After this, I search in the clients' niche or look at the follow list of big users in their niche, and I vet those users. I'll open up a whole page of search results at a time in new tabs and look at each and every single profile (except for those without photos, I don't bother with those...). I'm looking for people that meet the following qualifications:

- Have at least a few hundred followers
- Are following at least a couple hundred more people than are following them
- Have a bio and preferably a website
- Have a history of tweeting, preferably with @replies mixed in

These are people that are virtually certain to follow back. I add about 400 a day. Over 95% follow back.

If your client is particularly concerned that you only follow people that will pay attention to their tweets (I've had a couple of musicians concerned that I only follow people who had actual, real potential to become fans), then you choose not to follow people who are following more than 1,000 or so people. That way your clients' tweets have less of a chance of getting lost in the noise.

But I still explain to them that the main key, once you have these followers, is to be witty, interesting, and engaging - that's how you get and keep their attention and loyalty.

Anyway. It takes a few hours a day to do. If you have an outsourcer or intern who you trust enough to let them into your or your clients' accounts, it would be a perfect job for them.

Hope this helps!

*melanie