How to Increase X (Twitter) Followers: 13 Brilliant Techniques

Here’s the thing about X (formerly Twitter): it’s really fun. Ok, that’s not the only thing. In addition to being fun, Twitter can be a valuable part of any marketing strategy. It’s a conversational medium that’s ideal if you want to better connect with your audience.

Also, there are stats to back up Twitter’s power as a marketing tool. 69% of Twitter users have bought from an SMB they have seen or engaged with on Twitter and 93% are planning to purchase from one.Want to know how to increase Twitter followers? Well, you need a strong, active, engaged audience of real people connecting with you on Twitter. How do you do that? After all, Twitter has 152 million daily active users. There are millions of tweets going out every day. It’s kind of hard to grow your audience when so much is happening on the platform.

Like most social media platforms, Twitter is most powerful if you have genuinely engaged followers. And we’re not talking about a massive following of bots and fake accounts. Seriously, don’t buy followers. It’s a surefire way to ruin any marketing strategy.

Luckily we have tested and tried tons of Twitter tactics to grow Twitter followers, and we’ve learned what you should try and what you should skip (looking at you, buying followers).

How to Increase Twitter Followers

1. Make Time for Engagement

Like we mentioned above, Twitter is a conversational platform. Twitter’s design and functionality are structured towards conversations more than any other platform. You have to make time for engagement, whether retweeting, liking, or replying to other people’s tweets. It’s almost impossible to get more Twitter followers if you are not active on the platform. We recommend dedicating 5-10 minutes every day to engaging with your community. It doesn’t matter what time of day it is but spend some time responding to comments, thanking users for their retweets, retweeting other people’s conversations, or replying to other tweets and joining in on their conversations.

If you’re worried about getting stuck in the black hole of Twitter when engaging, our next tip is for you!

2. Use Twitter Lists to Engage

Twitter lists are an underrated tool, but they can make you much more effective at engaging on Twitter if you embrace them.

Twitter can get overwhelming, especially if you follow a lot of people. It’s easy to say you’re going to engage on Twitter for 10 minutes, and before you know it, you’ve spent hours just scrolling through Twitter reading everyone else’s tweets (....not that we’re talking from experience or anything ;) ).But if you use Twitter lists, you can easily segment all your followers so you can engage with just the right people on a regular basis. You can create Twitter lists based on any specific group that is important to you. Here are a few list options:

• Customers/Clients
• Competitors
• People who retweet you
• Partners
• News Sources
• Influencers
• Prospects
• Twitter chat participants or hosts

When you create Twitter lists, you can easily make sure you’re engaging with the audiences you want to be engaging with regularly. For example, our customers and clients are our highest priority, so we engage with that list every day. Influencers and partners are less of a priority for us, so we engage with them only 2-3 times a week. Competitors are among our lowest priorities, but we still like to see what the competition is doing, so we check that list periodically.

If you are engaging with highly relevant people to your business, you will get more followers on Twitter in no time.

3. Join Twitter Chats

Of all the options on this list, we think Twitter chats are the most fun way to get more followers on Twitter. Twitter chats are like virtual meetups around specific topics. Each Twitter chat will have its hashtag, and the host will ask questions. Then Twitter chat participants can share their answers, comment on other participant’s answers and, in general, chat about the topic.

Many hosts hold their Twitter chats on a regularly recurring basis, such as every week or month. We recommend finding a few Twitter chats you like to attend regularly so you can get to know the host and the other regular participants.

If you want to know how to get more followers on Twitter from Twitter chats, make sure you follow the other participants and engage with them outside of the set Twitter chat time. This is how you build those lasting relationships. Twitter lists can help with this!

4. Tweet Regularly

This is kind of a no-brainer, but it’s worth adding. Unlike Facebook or Instagram, where you can get away with posting 1-2x a day, most tweets only last a matter of minutes on the timeline, so you have to increase your frequency to give your message a chance of being seen.

There’s no set number of tweets that you should post every day. There seem to be some conflicting studies about what the correct number is. We saw everything from tweeting once to tweeting 50 times a day!

You don’t need to tweet 50 times a day, but you should aim to tweet more than 10 times a day. It’s easier to use a scheduling tool like MeetEdgar to schedule a few tweets every day; then you can use your engagement time to tweet a few more natively. That gives you a good balance of content and keeps you consistent. The more frequently you post, the more likely you are to get followers for Twitter.

5. Optimize the Time You Post

As well as the amount you Tweet, the time you post is also important. Check Twitter analytics to see when your audience is most active and most likely to engage with your Tweets. For example, is your audience busy professionals? Then they will be unlikely to engage during working hours. Try to post during the evenings when they may have more time to engage.

6. Curate Content and Tag Others

We’re going to give a quick lesson on how the Twitter algorithm works in 2021. Someone doesn’t have to be following you to see your tweet in their feed. The first section of the Twitter algorithm is based on relevance, and this can include tweets from someone you're not following if it’s been engaged with by a user you do follow or engage with.

We often say if you want to know how to get Twitter followers, focus on engaging your current audience. These next few tips fit right in with that.Content curation is an intelligent way to keep a consistent flow of content. If you tag the original creator or author of the content you curated, you’ll increase the chance that they’ll like, retweet, or respond to their tweet. All of this makes your tweet more engaging and increases the likelihood your tweet will show up on the timeline of someone who doesn’t follow you but follows the original creator.

A little extra tip here: make sure you’re engaging with other people who share your content. Retweet their tweets, thank them for the share, and like it.

7. Tag People & Start Conversations

If you have been joining Twitter chats and actively engaging on Twitter, then you can start creating your conversations with your followers. One popular way to do this is to ask about your industry or niche or even just a fun icebreaker and then tag your Twitter friends to answer. This will start a threaded discussion.

The trick to starting conversations is that you can’t do it without building up some rapport with other users first. If people have never interacted with you before, they’re not going to immediately start answering questions. It’s essential to build up that rapport with other Twitter users so they are familiar with you before you start asking them to join in on conversations.

8. Post Visual Content: Images, Videos & GIFs

Adding some eye-catching visuals to your tweets is another way to grab some attention and possibly increase engagement and your reach. Don’t just take our word for it. Check out these stats:

• Tweets with video are some of the most engaging content on Twitter and get 10x more engagement.
• Tweets with images get 150% more retweets than tweets without images.
• Tweets with GIFs get 55% more engagement than those without.

Just make sure your video, image, or GIF relates to the content your tweeting. Don’t bait your followers into engaging by using an unrelated visual!

9. Format Your Tweets to Be Eye-Catching

Twitter moves fast. 500 million tweets are sent a day, which is about 6 tweets per second. It is a crowded, busy place.

One way to get your tweets noticed and possibly retweeted is to play with the formatting. Space out your tweets, experiment with capitalization and emojis. You may only have 280 characters, but that doesn’t mean you can’t get creative with how you format those 280 characters!

10. Live Tweet an Event

Events, such as conferences or summits, usually have their own unique hashtag, and tweeting your experience is a great way to reach new accounts. You can also do this for virtual events, like webinars. Sharing your takeaways, aha moments, and lessons learned.

Combine this tip with Tip #7 and include a selfie of yourself or an image from the event itself. Don’t forget to tag the event host in the tweet to get a retweet and some engagement!

This is also a great way to connect online with people you meet at events. Continue the conversation you started at the event via Twitter. Tah dah, you get followers on Twitter through meeting people in real life (or in 2021, more likely on Zoom!).

11. Test Your Tweets

Experiment with everything. Test your tweets to see what formatting, visuals, phrases, or content work best. Twitter analytics will show you the impressions and engagement on every single one of your tweets. Pay attention to which tweets have the most engagement and highest impressions.

Or, if you’re an Edgar user, you can use our variations tools to split test your tweets. Edgar’s history tab will show you which variation received the most link clicks.

Use the formula for your most rated content to create new Tweets. Remember, though, not everything you post has to be unique. There will be plenty of people in your audience who didn’t see a Tweet the first time around. You can share the same Tweet several times, especially if it is a timeless statement or piece of information.

12. Spring Clean Your Profile

Want to know how to get more Twitter followers with very minimal effort? Keep your profile up to date. Use an eye-catching image and banner, have a thoughtful bio that demonstrates the value you will add to a potential follower’s feed. Use your brand colors and logos on your profile. Your social media profiles are like your shop front. You want them to be as inviting as possible for potential customers.

13. Invite Your Followers From Other Social Media Platforms

Don’t forget another super-easy way to get new followers is to cross-promote your social media profiles. Tell your Instagram and Facebook followers to check out your Twitter page. Encourage them with a competition or giveaway. If you already have an audience on other platforms, don’t forget to utilize it!

Which Trick Will You Try First?

There you have it, our best tips for growing your Twitter followers and increasing the overall engagement of your Twitter page. Try all 13 tips for ultimate growth and don't forget to let us know how you get on!

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