Short #Twitter Guide. Promoting a new account
Not so long ago, I wrote an article on my blog about methods how you can get free traffic to your website. This time, I decided to dig a bit deeper into one of those methods – Twitter marketing. One of my favorite social networks. It's a sympathy that developed through many years of using this platform.
I will try to keep this tutorial as short as possible without digging too deep into every detail. I want to leave some space for your own opinions and imaginations. I will provide only basic tips on what should be done and what should be avoided to promote your Twitter account successfully. Anything else is left for your creativity. I hope I will succeed. So, let's get started.
Forget words like “fake”, “spam”, “bot”, etc.
I believe most of you already understand how evil it is. But still, I want to remind you one more time that by any means don't buy any fake followers from third-party websites and don't make your Twitter account a spamming tool. It is the fastest way to failure. In that case better don't waste your precious time and find more useful activities. There cannot be any doubts about that, if you want to build a loyal community around your product. Twitter is overloaded with information, so users are becoming more cautious when choosing what to follow and what not to. Every account could be checked to see how many fake followers they have. So, don't ruin your brand by doing nonsense.
First step – your profile
When creating a new account try to provide as more information about yourself as possible. Every detail should be a true fact. No fake information. Always use pictures related to yourself. If you are participating as a person then use your personal photo. If it's a brand or a company then use your logo. No fake or stolen pictures, no fancy images (unless it is you logo) and no nudity (unless it is your niche
). And, by no means, don't leave an egg 
In order to be recognized as much as possible, use the same photo you are using in every social media channel.
Also, don't forget to fill the “About you” section. Provide a short 1-2 sentence description about yourself and what you do. You can use a popular hashtag related to your niche or a link to another company account if you are an employee or representative of it. Here's some examples of good Twitter profiles:
Make sure you use the header area very wisely. It is a great chance to promote your new product/service, event, a book, etc. As you see above, exactly that is done in these examples.
Preparation
This part is very important. The better your prepare, the easier it will be to work. Here's the list of tasks you need to do:
I strictly advise using Twitter lists to organize and follow different types of accounts. You can make as many lists as you want. Later, you will be able to read the feed based on each list. For example, you can organize your lists like this:
This kind of preparation will allow you to easily follow everything that is happening around you.
Tweeting
Few things you should know before posting your first tweet:
My advice would be to leave some tweets just after creating an account before promoting your profile. It will be easier to convince people to follow you because old tweets will show what kind of information could be expected from you.
Here's some advice how you should behave on Twitter in order to develop a good impression about yourself:
80/20 rule
Some very smart people have proven that in order to be successful on Twitter, you should apply a 80/20 rule to your strategy. It means that 80 percent of the messages you share should be others content and only 20 percent should be yours.
Personally, I don't always agree about this rule. When you have a new account then yes, you should stick to this rule. At this stage you need to get noticed in order to earn some respect. So, sharing others content could be a very effective strategy.
However, when you have built some authority, it is not very wise to use this rule anymore. You should be promoting your own products more often. But don't be too over-promotional. Make sure your tweets are not boring. Mix up different types of messages. Post links to your blog, offer free products, organize contests, etc.
Ok, we now have some knowledge how you should behave on Twitter. So, it is time to jump into our next part – attracting followers to your account.
Follow/Unfollow
It is probably the most popular technique. You follow other Twitter accounts hoping that they will follow you back. My advice would be to follow about 50-60 accounts per day (if you like taking risks, you can try following up to 100). If you keep following even more (200 and more) then your account will probably be banned very soon.
Follow accounts only that are related to your niche. There are few methods how it can be found:
It's also important to know that you cannot follow more than 2000 accounts. As soon as you reach this limit, the system will start looking into your ratio between the number of followers and people you are following. In order to increase this limit, the number of followers should be more than 80% of the number of people you are following. For example, if you want to follow more than 2000 accounts, then you need to have over 1800 followers.
In order to avoid this limit, you need to unfollow accounts that are not following you back. It is best to use a third-party tool. My favorite is Manageflitter. It is free and allows to unfollow up to 100 accounts per day. This process of unfollowing should be done regularly. If you are not followed back in 4-7 days then such account should be unfollowed.
Favorite
This one is my favorite I found out about it only this year. It's a great way to use that hashtag list you have prepared at the beginning. The tactic is very simple. Put one hashtag in the search field and you will get a list of messages that are using this hashtag. Scan through the feed and if you see a message related to your niche press “Favorite”. And, trust me many people will follow you back.
Engage
The best way to attract followers is by engaging with other people. It is not enough to post good quality tweets. Engaging with other people will help you get noticed more. People will start to recognize you, they will visit your profile and maybe will follow you. Some advice how it should be done:
JustRetweet
This platform was built exactly to help growing your audience on Twitter. Register using your Twitter account. You will see a long list of messages on the dashboard. Each message has a number of credits. If you share that message on your Twitter profile, those credits will be transferred to your account. Later, you will be able to use these credits to promote your own tweets.
Viral Content Buzz
This platform works almost the same way as JustRetweet. The difference is that all your messages must be approved by administration. So, you should read the rules very carefully before promoting your own tweets. Also, I noticed that many well-known people have been participating in this platform. Recently, I received few retweets from respected blogger in my niche. I benefited a lot from them.
Twitter chats
Twitter chats have become really popular. Usually they are organized by some influencers or well-known brands. Everyone can participate in those chats. The most important thing is that you have something to say. It is an incredible possibility to get new followers and even build some new connections. I really advise you to try it out. You can find a long list of chats with schedules here: ChatSalad.
Final words
Ok, so this was my short (maybe not so short) guide towards becoming a Twitter celebrity. I want to remind you one more time that there are no secret formula how to build your Twitter audience fast. It requires some effort and patience. If you are dedicated to it, the results will definitely come. It may be difficult at the beginning, but when you reach a decent amount of followers, your audience will start to grow much faster.
Also, do not forget to experiment and observe your audience. When you notice that the number of followers is rising organically, you can stop using some of the techniques listed above and concentrate more on providing high quality content.
And, do not forget that Twitter has a powerful analytics tool: https://analytics.twitter.com. Analyze your followers, your most popular content to find out which tweets are having the most success and when your audience is most active.
So, good luck to everyone. If you have questions, comments or something to add up, feel free to write.
I will try to keep this tutorial as short as possible without digging too deep into every detail. I want to leave some space for your own opinions and imaginations. I will provide only basic tips on what should be done and what should be avoided to promote your Twitter account successfully. Anything else is left for your creativity. I hope I will succeed. So, let's get started.
Forget words like “fake”, “spam”, “bot”, etc.
I believe most of you already understand how evil it is. But still, I want to remind you one more time that by any means don't buy any fake followers from third-party websites and don't make your Twitter account a spamming tool. It is the fastest way to failure. In that case better don't waste your precious time and find more useful activities. There cannot be any doubts about that, if you want to build a loyal community around your product. Twitter is overloaded with information, so users are becoming more cautious when choosing what to follow and what not to. Every account could be checked to see how many fake followers they have. So, don't ruin your brand by doing nonsense.
First step – your profile
When creating a new account try to provide as more information about yourself as possible. Every detail should be a true fact. No fake information. Always use pictures related to yourself. If you are participating as a person then use your personal photo. If it's a brand or a company then use your logo. No fake or stolen pictures, no fancy images (unless it is you logo) and no nudity (unless it is your niche
). And, by no means, don't leave an egg 
In order to be recognized as much as possible, use the same photo you are using in every social media channel.Also, don't forget to fill the “About you” section. Provide a short 1-2 sentence description about yourself and what you do. You can use a popular hashtag related to your niche or a link to another company account if you are an employee or representative of it. Here's some examples of good Twitter profiles:
Make sure you use the header area very wisely. It is a great chance to promote your new product/service, event, a book, etc. As you see above, exactly that is done in these examples.
Preparation
This part is very important. The better your prepare, the easier it will be to work. Here's the list of tasks you need to do:
- Make a list of your competitors
- Make a list of influencers in your niche
- Make a list of the most popular hashtags (keywords) in your niche
- Analyze your competition and prepare a strategy of your own Twitter marketing
I strictly advise using Twitter lists to organize and follow different types of accounts. You can make as many lists as you want. Later, you will be able to read the feed based on each list. For example, you can organize your lists like this:
- Competitors
- Influencers
- Engaging accounts
- Partners
- Other specialists in your niche, etc.
This kind of preparation will allow you to easily follow everything that is happening around you.
Tweeting
Few things you should know before posting your first tweet:
- Don't use Twitter's native Retweet button. If you want to share something, better copy a message and mention an author at the end:
- Do not mention other accounts at the beginning of the message because your tweet will be visible only to people you mentioned. Leave at least one other character at the beginning or move a link to the end of a message.
- Every message is limited to 140 characters
My advice would be to leave some tweets just after creating an account before promoting your profile. It will be easier to convince people to follow you because old tweets will show what kind of information could be expected from you.
Here's some advice how you should behave on Twitter in order to develop a good impression about yourself:
- Schedule your tweets. It could be done directly on Twitter, or you can use a third-party tool. Personally, I use TweetDeck. You can easily schedule all your tweets ahead. You can use multiple accounts. And, you don't need to login every hour to post a new message. It will definitely save your time.
- Use images in your tweets. Images make your message much large and it will definitely stand out from other tweets. These kinds of posts reach much higher engagement.
- Don't post more than one message per hour (approximately, 24 tweets per day). Too many messages irritate people. It is not a strict rule to post exactly 24 messages per day. You can definitely post less. Actually, you should experiment and find your own interval of tweeting.
- Don't post plain links without any text. It is important to create an eye-catching title. Good titles increase a chance for message to go viral.
- If you are retweeting someone's post, always mention him in your message. Very often people will thank for that by mentioning you back.
- Don't forget about popular hashtags. Use no more than 2-3 hashtags in one message. Personally I noticed that tweets with at least one hashtag have a twice higher reach than a plain message.
80/20 rule
Some very smart people have proven that in order to be successful on Twitter, you should apply a 80/20 rule to your strategy. It means that 80 percent of the messages you share should be others content and only 20 percent should be yours.
Personally, I don't always agree about this rule. When you have a new account then yes, you should stick to this rule. At this stage you need to get noticed in order to earn some respect. So, sharing others content could be a very effective strategy.
However, when you have built some authority, it is not very wise to use this rule anymore. You should be promoting your own products more often. But don't be too over-promotional. Make sure your tweets are not boring. Mix up different types of messages. Post links to your blog, offer free products, organize contests, etc.
Ok, we now have some knowledge how you should behave on Twitter. So, it is time to jump into our next part – attracting followers to your account.
Follow/Unfollow
It is probably the most popular technique. You follow other Twitter accounts hoping that they will follow you back. My advice would be to follow about 50-60 accounts per day (if you like taking risks, you can try following up to 100). If you keep following even more (200 and more) then your account will probably be banned very soon.
Follow accounts only that are related to your niche. There are few methods how it can be found:
- Use your list of competitors. Go into their profiles and follow their followers
- Find a very popular article in your niche, copy the link and paste it in topsy.com. It will show all accounts that shared that link. It means that they are interested in your niche, so follow them.
- Use Twitter search. Enter keywords related to your niche and many tweets using this keyword will be provided. Follow people that are using these keywords.
It's also important to know that you cannot follow more than 2000 accounts. As soon as you reach this limit, the system will start looking into your ratio between the number of followers and people you are following. In order to increase this limit, the number of followers should be more than 80% of the number of people you are following. For example, if you want to follow more than 2000 accounts, then you need to have over 1800 followers.
In order to avoid this limit, you need to unfollow accounts that are not following you back. It is best to use a third-party tool. My favorite is Manageflitter. It is free and allows to unfollow up to 100 accounts per day. This process of unfollowing should be done regularly. If you are not followed back in 4-7 days then such account should be unfollowed.
Favorite
This one is my favorite
I found out about it only this year. It's a great way to use that hashtag list you have prepared at the beginning. The tactic is very simple. Put one hashtag in the search field and you will get a list of messages that are using this hashtag. Scan through the feed and if you see a message related to your niche press “Favorite”. And, trust me many people will follow you back. Engage
The best way to attract followers is by engaging with other people. It is not enough to post good quality tweets. Engaging with other people will help you get noticed more. People will start to recognize you, they will visit your profile and maybe will follow you. Some advice how it should be done:
- Share other tweets and mention authors
- If you see a high quality tweet, don't be afraid to comment it. Avoid short and meaningless phrases like: “good article”, “I liked it”, etc. It is better to write why you liked this tweet or even ask something related to the topic.
- If someone shares your tweet, don't forget to thank him. Also, you can ask an easy question to keep the conversation longer.
- Post tweets with questions. That way you will have an opportunity to start a conversation with other people.
JustRetweet
This platform was built exactly to help growing your audience on Twitter. Register using your Twitter account. You will see a long list of messages on the dashboard. Each message has a number of credits. If you share that message on your Twitter profile, those credits will be transferred to your account. Later, you will be able to use these credits to promote your own tweets.
Viral Content Buzz
This platform works almost the same way as JustRetweet. The difference is that all your messages must be approved by administration. So, you should read the rules very carefully before promoting your own tweets. Also, I noticed that many well-known people have been participating in this platform. Recently, I received few retweets from respected blogger in my niche. I benefited a lot from them.
Twitter chats
Twitter chats have become really popular. Usually they are organized by some influencers or well-known brands. Everyone can participate in those chats. The most important thing is that you have something to say. It is an incredible possibility to get new followers and even build some new connections. I really advise you to try it out. You can find a long list of chats with schedules here: ChatSalad.
Final words
Ok, so this was my short (maybe not so short
) guide towards becoming a Twitter celebrity. I want to remind you one more time that there are no secret formula how to build your Twitter audience fast. It requires some effort and patience. If you are dedicated to it, the results will definitely come. It may be difficult at the beginning, but when you reach a decent amount of followers, your audience will start to grow much faster.Also, do not forget to experiment and observe your audience. When you notice that the number of followers is rising organically, you can stop using some of the techniques listed above and concentrate more on providing high quality content.
And, do not forget that Twitter has a powerful analytics tool: https://analytics.twitter.com. Analyze your followers, your most popular content to find out which tweets are having the most success and when your audience is most active.
So, good luck to everyone. If you have questions, comments or something to add up, feel free to write.