What is Your Twitter Strategy for Following Someone?

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Are you on Twitter? How do you use it? How do you decide who to follow? I recently was in conversation with a potential client and we were talking about the value of building a fresh current website and featuring a blog. I was explaining how blogging is a great opportunity to build brand awareness and to drive traffic to his website. I then went on to explain how he could use social media websites such as Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter to connect with existing and potential clients and  be seen as an authority in his field. His response to me was “Twitter is for Twits”.

Of course this was said with a laugh and then an admission that he really doesn’t understand the value of Twitter but he’d be open to it. I believe that the question most people have when they first think about tweeting is what would they tweet about? No serious business person wants to tweet about what they had for lunch.

What Can You Tweet About?

Well, to me, it always comes down to who are your customers, clients and blog readers? What are they interested in and what value can you bring to them?

If you’re building an online community (an effective way to build awareness and drive traffic), then you can use Twitter to share blog posts and quality content. Find great articles and tweet them. Also, retweet their tweets and thank people. It’s a conversation. Join it.

How Do You Start Getting Twitter Followers?

Most of us start by following our friends and people we know. We also find people with great content and follow them. Something that I did when I first started blogging was that I looked for bloggers who I could learn from. I followed them. I commented on their blogs and I tweeted for them. I tweeted a lot for them.

My strategy was to get on their “radar screen” in the hope that they would notice me and follow me back. Then (by writing good content myself), hopefully, they would start tweeting for me. This strategy, “Stalking the Popular Kids and Getting More Traffic” worked.

Who Do I Recommend to Follow on Twitter?

A lot of who you should follow depends on what your blogging/business niche is. Find other bloggers who are sharing information that compliments yours. One of the first people who I start following (and sharing content for) was John Paul Aguiar.

@JohnAguiar quickly became my go-to person for Twitter tips. In addition to learning a lot from John Paul, we also became online friends and we often share each others content because we truly do find value in what each other writes. An extra bonus for me has been that on Fridays, John features bloggers who he recommends connecting with and I’ve been lucky enough to be mentioned more than once. (To me, this is proof that my strategy to engage people online can really help build awareness of your blog/business and bring new readers.)

Reciprocating and Engaging – (Part 2 of my strategy)

The Friday after I was mentioned in John Paul’s article, I followed everyone on that list (who I wasn’t already following). I also sent them a tweet letting them know how I found them. Almost everyone followed me back. This was a win-win for everyone:

  • That person got a new Twitter follower.
  • That person and John Paul got a @TwitterID mention.
  • I now am following someone new who adds value to my tweets by providing good content.

How do you find people to follow on Twitter? Do you have tips to share with us? Feel free to leave the Twitter ID of someone who you follow on Twitter in the comment section and tell us why you think we should follow them too. Are they really knowledgeable on a particular topic? Are they the go-to person in a particular niche? (Don’t forget to leave your Twitter ID too.)

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Author: Sherryl Perry

Welcome! If you're looking for help building an Internet presence that fits your needs and works for you, you're in the right place. I blog common sense articles about WordPress, social media and SEO. My goal is to help small business owners and entrepreneurs understand their core business. Together, we can develop and implement business strategies that make sense to you.

106 thoughts on “What is Your Twitter Strategy for Following Someone?”

  1. I tend to ignore the obviously automated or blind process driven followers. I’m interested in sharing my content, and also engaging with potential customers and people of interest so I try to keep that at the back of my mind when new followers arrive. Sheer weight of follower numbers doesn’t interest me!

    1. Sounds like we’re both on the same page as far as our Twitter strategy goes Mottaret. Your comment about “blind process driven followers” resonates with me. Lately, I’ve been paying more attention to how people are obtaining their followers. I used to give more weight to the ratio of followers to following but lately I have been seeing so many people who are being followed by @BuyBulkFollower that I have made an effort to not follow these people back (unless there are other compelling reasons to follow them). I don’t want to (knowingly) be associated with Twitter accounts that condone buying followers.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..Sitizens Online Social Game – My Top Referral Traffic SourceMy Profile

  2. If you plan to follow someone you should be able to bask in the same limelight that they have by using their tweets, but not in the bad kind of way. You can use it in a different way by curating content through it. You can also have your followers follow them and make a deal to have your name tweeted so that you will be able to increase your popularity and followers.

  3. I follow those people who share great information that helps me in marketing and managing business. I also follow those who also follow me.

    1. Danica,
      Somehow, I missed this comment that you left for me back in March! I always try to reply quickly but it happened. I think your strategy for following someone on Twitter is very similar to mine and others who have left comments here. Thanks for weighing in on this. It’s good to hear from everyone.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..Is Your Email Address Part of Your Brand?My Profile

  4. To gain more genuine followers on twitter, I must try to increase my popularity by interacting regularly with people. I must rather look for things in which others are really interested. I must post important news and useful updates relating to my field and encourage people to re-tweet them.
    🙂

    1. What you need are the right followers Aman. The best strategy is to build a community of bloggers who are in a niche similar to yours. If you share similar readers, write good content and help promote each other, you don’t need huge numbers of followers to drive a sizable amount of traffic to your blog.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..The Rise of the Cyber Cold WarMy Profile

  5. Awesome tips! Twitter is a very friendly and open community… if you make a little effort you can definitely find a lot of followers quickly. Thanks for sharing!

  6. Best strategy for “quality” followers:
    Check a twitter-account of your niche and look at its lists. You can follow then the whole list with “tweepi”. Works great, many of them follow back.

  7. Hi
    i am not much of a twitter fan.but as it is one great resource for bloggers to share and to interact with people of same interests, I do want to increase my twitter activity & really found this post helpful specially “stalking the popular kids and getting more traffic strategy” seems like a nice strategy to me.

    1. Hi Umar,
      That stalking strategy really worked for me by consciously developing ongoing relationships with several bloggers. Good luck if you try it. Hopefully, you’ll see results similar to mine.

      1. Most clients come through referrals from previous clients and so locality wasn’t a factor, but as far as twitter goes I find the local connection does help (haven’t been actively using Twitter for long though).
        Paul recently posted..Web design kentMy Profile

  9. Many times, I will follow someone because I like their blog, or it’s a blog that falls in line with something I’m interested in While some may follow for the sake of “following”, it’s impossible to keep up with all that noise.

    Sometimes I’ll do a standard twitter search or hashtag search to find people to follow also.

  10. I don’t really have a certain strategy. I just browse for hashtags to find new blogs and if they’re interesting enough, I follow the author. Simple as that.

  11. Great information. I really like the concept of follow Fridays. It not only encourages social interaction but it represents a task or something to get accomplished and that is motivating for me. So you are doing two things at once.

    thanks

    sean

    1. I’m leaning away from the follow Fridays and engaging people more in one on one conversations. Some of the conversations that I’ve been following are indicating to me that in my niche, it’s losing some of its perceived value. Twitter is definitely not a one size fits all. It’s good to recognize what is working for you and not follow everyone blindly. Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..Marketer vs Marketing: What Difference Does a Keyword Make?My Profile

  12. Hey Sherryl,

    Perfect timing (for me – reading this article) because I deleted my old twitter account and started a new one. I did that for two reasons:

    I did use automated and other black hat methods to gain some of my followers,
    and I didn’t engage with many of them.

    So, I started another one (Yes, I do realize that it is hard to engage with all your followers, but I hope to make my activity better with my new account).

    I agree with all your points. It is important to engage with others and build our followers based on that. And Yes, John is a great expert with Twitter (thanks for mentioning him, because it has been a while since I checked his blog).

    Anyways, thanks for the post

    Jeevan Jacob John

    1. Thanks for letting me know that you found my post valuable. Good for you for starting with a new account. Sometimes, that is the best course of action and it’s good to hear from people who have done this themselves. The benefits of creating a Twitter following strategically is bound to pay off for you. Good luck with your new account. (I’m following you. 🙂 )
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..Utilizing Social Media to Build Brand Awareness and AuthorityMy Profile

  13. I am quite new for twitter and this resource is quite helpful for me. Thanks for sharing with us.

  14. hey Sherryl Perry
    the information which you have provided is great, lots of people dont provide such a great information, i am gonna tell all my friends to bookmark this site, hope you update your site regularly by providing such usefull information to the visitors you have. thanks will keep in touch with your posts

  16. Hi Sherryl,
    thanks for this interesting post. Twitter and Facebook are one of the most popular social networks. However, in think that the best way of attracting new followers is to share some contents from other bloggers which are in the same niche as me. This is the easiest and smartest choice! Do you agree?

      1. Yes Sherryl, Following and interacting with same field of blogger helps you to enhance your knowledge too.

  17. Before I knew anything about Twitter, I started to do a keyword search to find profile of various audiences for a client. It worked out pretty well. I started to engage industry experts and even got her a couple of blog talk radio interviews and offers to be a featured blogger as well.

    I also used list to keep common profiles together so that I could target tweet and tag people.

    Engage. Engage. Engage.

    1. “Engage. Engage. Engage.” – Great advice Coretta! It’s about building relationships not collecting followers. I’m not at all surprised that you had a strategy for Twitter. It seems to be the people who just jump in and follow a bunch of people who end up having to abandon their Twitter accounts and start again.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..4 Simple Steps to Building Your Brand OnlineMy Profile

  18. This is a very good marketing strategy, it can get boring following people all day and waiting for a followback, but in the long run once you get your followers up you can start a good marketing infrastruture from twitter. Great tips.

  19. Hi Sherryl: Great post as always.

    As you know, I love Twitter! I find it to be an amazing platform on which to expand my networks. I kind of have 3 main niches: writing (as I am a writer), and chocolate and travel as I primarily am writing and blogging about chocolate travel these days.

    Twitter has provided me with the opportunity to connect with people in all 3 of those groups with whom I likely may not otherwise have connected.

    I’ll generally follow anyone in any of those 3 categories providing they are not totally into self-promotion. And then I’ll follow others (like you!) who tweet interesting content, are supportive, and are willing to engage in meaningful conversation.
    Doreen Pendgracs recently posted..books of a lifetimeMy Profile

    1. I appreciate your following me Doreen. I follow a diverse group of people too. I follow you and other authors because it usually leaves to blogs and posts that I would never find otherwise. I think it helps to keep my grounded. I I only followed bloggers who blog on business, blogging and strategy, I think I would get bored (and boring) quickly.

      Thanks for taking the time to drop by. I just realized I haven’t read your most recent post. I’ll be by soon.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..3 Steps to Develop a Branding Strategy for Social MediaMy Profile

  20. When it comes to finding people to follow on Twitter I have tried to find people by keyword for areas that I am interested in. Twitter is just like the web though in my experience, as sharing good content is what its all about. Seems like the fastest way to get un-followed is to market all the time without sharing useful information. Thanks for this.

  21. We were recently working with a union that was getting ready to start bargaining for their new contract. We were explaining social media to them and how to use services such as Twitter to spread their pr information quickly. Their response was:

    “We can’t explain all this in two sentences, Twitter is useless for us.”

    Shocking. I’m still amazed that even though Twitter is now a juggernaut that has it’s logo virtually everywhere that people at businesses and and organizations still can know nothing about how to use this tool. Because that’s what it is in the hands of a competent marketer; an incredibly powerful tool. Enjoyed this, thank you!

    1. Thanks for letting me know that you enjoyed my article Charles. Good luck convincing the “powers-that-be” at the union to embrace the new technology. People are sometimes afraid of what they don’t know. The point is to engage their members with Twitter and direct them to the information that they’re currently paying to print and distribute manually. Maybe if they were to look at it as a cost-saving measure, they would feel differently.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..Utilizing Social Media to Build Brand Awareness and AuthorityMy Profile

  22. Sherryl.. first great post and I agree with your strategy, since I see it working for you every day.

    Second a BIG Thank U for mentioning me in your post. I’m glad that I have helped you on Twitter.

    Some awesome comment on here too.. I have to say that Twitter strategies vary from people to people.

    Example.. there are things I can do on Twitter that work great, but if you do the same things, it may not work.. and vice versa.

    Each strategy also depends on each persons, engagement and follow thru, and whether they have the right type of followers.

    I tell people to take what you learn from people and even from me and test it. I share what is working for me and a few people I share it with, but that doesn’t mean it will work for you.

    So test test test everything your told.
    John Paul recently posted..Follow Friday Top 10 Week 29My Profile

    1. You’re welcome John Paul. I meant everything I said. I think you summed up a lot of your strategy when you said “engagement”. You’ve used Twitter as a tool to build a community and I believe that’s the key.

      As you say, it depends on each of us and we need to figure out what works for us. What I didn’t mention in my post is how active you are on Facebook also. I’ll often see posts that you’ve shared there and I’ll tweet them for you. Twitter is one social networking tool among many. Thanks for taking the time to come over here and share your thoughts with us.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..What Can You Do if Restoring Your WordPress Backup Doesn’t Work?My Profile

      1. It it all about engagement and sharing and being there.. you need to do all 3.

        Yea I pot into FB lol Not my fav place to share, but you gotta use the tools that are available.

        But as you know even doing all 3 things perfectly wont bring results right away.. it takes being consistent over time.. but once the balls rolling the results come pretty quickly.
        John Paul recently posted..Follow Friday Top 10 Week 29My Profile

  23. Sherryl — this post is perfect for me right now! I’ve been trying to explain the value of twitter to a client and you summed it up beautifully. Many thanks for that 🙂

    Reciprocity and connection is Key (I believe) to getting visibility with the right audiences on twitter. And, we can never underestimate consistency — consistency & new content are king & queen of twitter.

    Thanks!

    Heidi & Atticus

  24. Great tips Sherryl!

    I’m not sure that since I’ve worked up a good following if I have a strategy anymore. When I started with Twitter I did a lot of what you shared here, I followed some of the people in my niche that I felt I could learn from and from there would follow some of the people on their list as well.

    The problem I found over time is similar to Facebook. You are advised to follow as many people as you can so that they will see your tweets and posts accept I can’t have a relationship with everyone and it’s hard enough to keep up with the people that I am connected with.

    I love to share great content and I’m always happy to help other’s spread theirs. People have to actually ask me to follow them these days because I have no idea when someone follows me now. I just know I enjoy connecting with people who are interested in what I share and therefore, I become interested in seeing what they share.

    I know, horrible isn’t it! No real plan anymore but all I know is I get a lot of traffic to my blog from Twitter so I must be doing something right! lol… I still have to laugh at myself sometimes. 🙂 I’m STILL a work in progress.

    Thanks for sharing your strategies with us.

    Have a wonderful week Sherry!
    Adrienne recently posted..How To Set Up Social Media Icons In WordPress Using SocializeMy Profile

    1. Hi Adrienne,
      Thanks for dropping by. I think you’ve done a great job of gathering Twitter followers. You have three times as many followers as you do following and we both know it’s not about the numbers any ways.

      Twitter is not the source of referral traffic for me that it once was. Do you get a large percentage of your referral traffic from Twitter? I’m thinking I should revisit what I’m tweeting.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..End of the Year Recap – a Time to ReflectMy Profile

      1. You are so right Sherryl, it’s not really about the numbers. It’s about the connections. 🙂

        Referrals from Twitter is my #3 traffic source actually Sherryl! Facebook is right behind that as #4 so it’s a fabulous source of traffic.

        I would definitely revisit that Sherryl because I have no doubt you can start getting a lot more traffic just from Twitter alone.
        Adrienne recently posted..Are You Pinging Your Content?My Profile

        1. Do you mind if I ask what your #1 source of referral traffic is? I just checked my GA and Twitter has gone up to my 2nd source behind Facebook. Interestingly, networkedblogs is coming up 3rd and I don’t believe that’s ever been in the top 10 before.

          When I first started blogging (and I implemented my strategy for Twitter), it had consistently been my top source. I did experiment with what I was tweeting for a while and now, I’ve gone back to what I was doing before. As for Facebook, I am sharing more articles and being more present there. BizSugar is my 4th source.
          Sherryl Perry recently posted..What is Your Twitter Strategy for Following Someone?My Profile

          1. Google is my #1 source of traffic so most of it comes from Googling my name and then keywords I’m ranking for. Yey!!!

            That’s great that Twitter and Facebook are moving up the ranks. I love that people are visiting your through the networked blogs app as well, that’s fantastic.
            Adrienne recently posted..Are You Pinging Your Content?My Profile

  25. Hi Sherryl,

    My twitter strategy for following someone is something special i follow only my business related person and give them chance to follow if they follow me so it’s there welcome otherwise I make unfollow to them.I always make balance between following and followers that’s my technique to following people on twitter.

    1. Thanks for sharing your strategy with us Rizwan. I do follow some people who don’t follow me. Some of the influential people in my niche strive to keep the ratio of people they’re following vs followers very low. They seem to believe that’s a measure of their authority. If their content is valuable to me, the fact that they won’t follow me back isn’t an issue for me.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..Create an Online Presence – Be Seen Out ThereMy Profile

  26. Hi! One of the tricks that I use is to follow the followers of someone who has a similar interest (or sometimes similar geographic location if I’m looking for local contacts). I have found this to be helpful!

    I tweet about a lot of things, but like finding cool quotes.

    Great article! Thanks!
    Laura Sherman recently posted..How to Publish a BookMy Profile

    1. Hi Laura,
      I do the same thing that you do. Sometimes, my problem is stopping. One good blogger leads to another and the next thing I know, I’ve spent way more time surfing the Internet than I had planned. Thankfully, most of the time, I learn something that makes the time spent well worth it.

      I rarely tweet quotes. Do you think that engages people?
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..3 Steps to Develop a Branding Strategy for Social MediaMy Profile

          1. It requires a lot of work. You must follow and unfollow on a very regular basis. However I do think it has helped me sell copies of my book and every now and then I get a new writing client. One wonderful person from Twitter paid me to consult with her about chess for her story! That was a lot of fun!!
            Laura Sherman recently posted..How to Publish a BookMy Profile

  27. I have been using Follower Wonk to find some awesome people to follow in my niche. I find it is easier to connect with other bloggers who are at the same place with me. Similar follower count and influence. I look to this individuals to collaborate with and grow together. I have been creating videos about my strategy for Youtube to help others do the same.

  28. I never thought I would need business advice again, but my endeavours to help animals, dogs in particular, has turned into a business of sorts. Ordinarily, I just post my blog to Twitter and leave it at that. But this article has me rethinking that strategy, if you can call it that. Thanks for always opening my eyes to the possibilities, Sherryl!

    Bill austin Howe

    1. Hi Bill,
      What you’re doing as an advocate for animals is commendable. Have you checked out Pinterest? I just shared a post on my Facebook wall that Leora Wenger wrote about Pinterest. One of the things she talks about is building a Community Board. That may be a great opportunity for you to help find homes for some of the dogs that you foster.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..Create an Online Presence – Be Seen Out ThereMy Profile

  29. I would also recommend John and he is very generous person helping others. I am actually rethinking what I do on Twitter as it is very noisy and most people do the same thing. It is a bit like everyone who does a TV ad has pretty much the same creative and only the brand name changes so they all blur into each other. Hope that makes sense.

    I have never automated and I wait about a week before following back to see if they are genuine or just want a follow back. It is surprising how many unfollow you if you do not follow back within hours.
    Susan Oakes recently posted..Oh No, The Well Is DryMy Profile

    1. I don’t have anything automated either Susan. I do check who has followed me every day just in case there is someone who I would like to follow back. If I wait much longer, I won’t go back and I’ll miss the opportunity. I don’t follow everyone who follows me but lots of time, I’ll find someone with great content and then they follow me because I shared it or left a comment for them.

      As for a lot people sharing the same thing, I do find that among the core group of bloggers who I follow but I think that’s okay because even though we may have seen those posts, the majority of our followers haven’t. Even though some people follow a few of us, I think there are a lot of people who don’t. (That makes sense in my head but it may be confusing the way I just said it. – I think I’m calling it a night. 🙂 )

  30. I remember writing a neat post on twitter strategy to get the most out of it. For me its all about data, so I need to get a good ROI. Good insights. You also need to remember, that you need to experiment to see which strategy works best.

    1. Exactly! I don’t spend a lot of time analyzing which tweets work best but I did experiment with tweeting news stories for a while. That definitely had a negative affect. For now, I look at my referral traffic in Google Analytics and the simple analytics page in Buffer. That’s pretty much it. I think the biggest benefit for me from Twitter is the community building aspect.

      Do you have any recommendations for gauging the ROI of twitter Eddie?
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..4 SEO Tips to Optimize your WordPress BlogMy Profile

      1. Many companies measure ROI as money. I measure ROI as traffic. Because for me Traffic = Leads = Money 🙂 Right. When it comes to social media marketing, you cannot measure direct ROI because that might never workout in your favor. This is just once concept of measurement.

  31. I follow people with the same interest on my niche. That’s the only way that i can relate to them and start a discussion.

  32. Great post Sherryl. Used to do what you suggest. But recently I don’t reach out because plenty of people follow me, most likely after reading my blog.

    Look at who they are, what they are doing, how many people they follow and how many followers they have. You learn a lot from that. If for instance, someone is following 850 people but only have 15 followers something is wrong. And if they are involved with something I don’t approve of I don’t follow them back.

    Mainly use Twitter to tweet new articles on my site and re-tweet my friends’ posts.
    Catarina Alexon recently posted..Get the energy to succeed!My Profile

  33. Following people who have same or some of your interests is effective. A strict follower strategy will empower you to influence more. Thanks for the post.

    1. I think having a strategy for all of our online activities is important. Even when we’re using a site for fun, we have to keep in the back of our minds that unless we are confident that the conversation is private, that what we’re posting reflects back on us. (Can you tell I’m thinking of the Facebook timeline?)
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..What the Heck is an RSS Feed?My Profile

  34. I tend to follow people with similar interests, but not solely. I used to be kind of particular, but lately not so much. I am open to following most people as long they aren’t associated with inappropriate content. I figure you never know when you might learn something or see something that you didn’t know about regardless if they have the same interests or not.
    Ray recently posted..5 Online Tools to Check Page Load SpeedMy Profile

  35. Hi, You wouldn’t believe I got a Twitter account since last year but never was able to reciprocate nor follow a certain person there. This being someone who works in a financial company from 9-5 and got 4 kids who I tend to daily. Now I got sideline online which really got me into social media (though I never tried yet except FB), I feel I need to do this. Feel free to advise of of people you follow on twitter and will try my luck there. Thanks for your interesting post.

    1. Hi, I can relate to juggling a full-time career and a family. I did check out your website quickly and I have a couple of suggestions for you if you’re serious about wanting to use social media to drive traffic to your website.

      For starters, I recommend using your real name when you comment on blogs. When you use a name that is simply keywords (like “branded items”), it gives the impression that you could be a spambot and not a real human. Also, the link I’ve attached to this reply is an article that I wrote that should really help you. As for who to follow on Twitter, if you’re looking for help promoting your blog, you could start by following me @keepupweb and the read some of the articles that I tweet. If they’re helpful, follow that blogger too. Good luck!
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..Create an Online Presence – Be Seen Out ThereMy Profile

  37. I am one of those bloggers who “started over” with their Twitter account. My criteria for following is very stringent. I usually only follow people who share my interests, which are blogging, technology, career, Villanova basketball. On top of that I usually will only follow people that I know or if someone that I know “vouches” for them.

  38. Hi Sherryl.
    I have to hang my head in shame on this one. I have really neglected this vital area. As you know I have been working flat out since July getting my blog off the ground and optimised for certain keywords that are targeted to my business.
    This is something that I really must do soon. I still have the same old takky background, people keep following me and I don’t follow back. My profile picture is lovely but different from the one I use everywhere else and it’s shameful.
    I think I better re-visit this post, get some advice and get my finger out.
    Steve recently posted..AN Easy Way To Check On Page SEOMy Profile

    1. Hi Steve,
      Thanks for taking the time to drop by. I know you’ve been extremely busy and I truly appreciate the time that you take to comment here and on Facebook. It doesn’t go unnoticed.

      All of us struggle with the same issue of time. I’m not thrilled with my Twitter background either but when I look at my to-do list, it’s just noa priority for me. As for using Twitter, it becomes a habit and does not have to be time consuming. I know a lot of people here highly recommend Hoot Suite but I’m quite happy with Buffer. I use the free version and I can schedule up to 10 tweets at a time. (You can use it for Facebook too.) They even have simple analytics built in. So, you can see how many people click on your tweets, the reach you have and the time your tweets are being interacted with. It’s fairly simple.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..3 Tips for Building Awareness & Getting Your Website on TrackMy Profile

  39. Hey Sherryl,

    Somehow I have been meaning to come to your blog but never really commented.. so here I am.. 🙂

    I really don’t have a strategy. I “follow” a person through their blogs for some time; if I like what they are saying and their posts interests me then I follow them on Twitter. I do follow people on recommendations but very rarely. Unless I understand that following them would benefit me and I would actually have something to learn from them. I do follow people but that is when I have interacted with them through their blogs and so.

    The reason I don’t like follow fridays, is that sometimes there are just too many people to keep up with. It is not necessary that I always like all of the people my friends like; so that logic applies to my twitter rules as well! 🙂

    However, it remains that I have been introduced to some amazing bloggers via recommendation. I do like John’s FF; and I make it a point to check all of them once in a while!

    Reading about your strategies was fun. Looking forward to being here often! 🙂

    Have a lovely weekend!

    1. Hi Harja,
      Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment! I always recommend to people to check out the comments here because this is becoming a great community where people are free to share their ideas and experiences with each other. I’m a huge advocate of learning from each other.

      I’m sensing that the consensus is that follow fridays is a bit of a waste of time. I don’t usually send them unless I’m RT’ing for someone and I know (and recommend) everyone in the mention. I think there is an intrinsic value to the mention even if the delivery is a little contrived.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..Create an Online Presence – Be Seen Out ThereMy Profile

  40. I used to follow everyone back in my early days of Twitter, bad idea that though, stacks of DM Spam and rubbish on my timeline, now I only follow those that I do find of value so my Timeline isn’t packed 😉

    1. I consider myself fortunate to have been warned (by bloggers like you) to not get caught up in following everyone back before my Twitter account got out of control. It can be cleaned up but I know bloggers who have actually scrapped their accounts and started new ones due to spam. If you’ve branded that Twitter ID, that would be a tough “pill to swallow”. Thanks for dropping by and leaving a comment Karen.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..Utilizing Social Media to Build Brand Awareness and AuthorityMy Profile

  41. Sherryl, I’m leaving another comment because I just read a terrific blog on “Firepole Marketing” about how to use the hashtag to increase views of your posts and keep them high on the list of streams for that hashtag. Here is the url. I highly recommend that you and your readers hop over and read the post. A tip I never thought of. Always something new to learn!
    Jeannette Paladino blogging, branding recently posted..A Couple of Neat Search Tips Using Google+My Profile

    1. Nice article Jeannette. Using hashtags is a great tip. Months ago, I started doing that when I was trying to influence my Klout score (something I no longer pay attention to). I wasn’t happy with the “topics” that Klout was scoring me on and I made a conscious effort to give people a chance to +K me in social media. By using the hashtags #sm and #socialmedia, that topic quickly popped up on Klout.

      This goes hand in hand with SEO. My Google Analytics indicate that I am steadily getting an increase in organic traffic. Using hashtags on Twitter and keyword rich headings in my posts are the two efforts that I attribute this to. Thanks for sharing.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..Does Your Klout Score Fit Into Your Social Media Strategy?My Profile

      1. Thanks for sharing your experience with hashtags, Sherryl. Twitter used to be one of the top sources for my posts, but I don’t get any now and my IT consultant is scratching his head to figure out why the feed isn’t working. Is a puzzlement. My top source, by far, is search engines followed by direct traffic. I think something we overlook is the amount of time people spend on your site and not just hits. Unfortunately, visitors who come from search traffic spend the least amount of time.
        Jeannette Paladino blogging, branding recently posted..A Couple of Neat Search Tips Using Google+My Profile

  42. Sherryl, a post with great tips, as usual. When I first joined Twitter, I also looked at the people following my friends to find people I could follow. But I also starting following social media mavens because they often have content I want to retweet. I added a stream with that name in HootSuite so I could find them easily. We each have our own strategies for Twitter. Many people schedule a week’s worth of tips in advance. But I prefer to retweet timely information so I’m on the lookout every day for great content I can share right away. I use Buffer to post to both Twitter and Facebook simultaneously, and also to have my tweets posted at intervals during the day.

    Unfortunately, there are people on Twitter who are going for quantity – they want the world to see they have thousands of followers, so I get a lot of spammy requests to connect from dubious people and I don’t hesitate to block them.

    This is important because a potential client could look at your followers to measure your social media influence and you don’t want them to see someone promoting off-color services.
    Jeannette Paladino blogging, branding recently posted..A Couple of Neat Search Tips Using Google+My Profile

    1. Following “social media mavens” is a good idea Jeannette. This is especially true for bloggers like you and I who are looking for good content to share with our readers.

      I use Buffer too but I haven’t started using it to post to Facebook yet. I’m not sure whether that would work well for me. Facebook is now my biggest source of referral traffic and (to be honest) I’m not totally sure why.

      I do know that I engage more and share from my FB connections and that could be part of the reason. Also, a lot of the people who tell me they like my FB shares are friends and neighbors who I know aren’t on Twitter. (Many of these people are launching home-based businesses.) So, I wouldn’t want to bombard my FB page with the same tweets that I schedule with Buffer.

      Now that you have me thinking about this, I believe I’m connected with some of the same people on both sites but I definitely have connections on FB that are not on Twitter. Interesting! Thanks for making me think! 🙂
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..4 SEO Tips to Optimize your WordPress BlogMy Profile

  43. I must also admit, that lately I was tired and a bit bored to follow people on Twitter. Although I realize that it is a good strategy for online business and marketing.

    1. Hi Anna,
      I don’t consciously look to follow people but if the opportunity arises, I will. I certainly don’t recommend building up numbers. I only want to follow people who bring value to me and my blog by tweeting good quality content. Thanks for taking the time to comment.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..What the Heck is an RSS Feed?My Profile

  44. Hi Sherryl,

    I’ve got to admit, I’ve been pretty slack on following people on twitter lately….ie not proactively seeking people out. Time…*sigh*…you know how it goes lol.

    When I do follow someone, its usually because I have a keen interest in what they are doing, or it may be someone who has been kind enough to share my work on a number of occasions. People who reach out and make contact, pretty much assure themselves of a followback.

    I do segment who I follow into lists, and manage through Hootsuite, I just find this easier to manage, RT, and keep engaged and up to date.

    Now as for picking one person to recommend to follow….boy thats a tough one, there are so many great tweeps out there.
    I’m going to go with David Siteman Garland @TheRiseToTheTop.
    Why: Great interviews with interesting people. Dosen’t flood twitter with inane crap or sales pitches. Replys to tweets. I think he does a pretty good job on twitter.

    Looking forward to reading the other recommendations from your readers 🙂

    1. “Time…*sigh*…” – oh yes. I know Jackie. I just ranted a little in my comment to Leora about that.

      I’mg glad you mentioned lists and Hootsuit. I still don’t use that. Although so many successful bloggers recommend it that I often think it deserves a second look. For now, I’m keeping it simple with BufferApp. (Maybe when I whittle that “to-do” list down a little, I’ll give it a second chance.)

      Thanks for recommending David. I just checked and I do follow him but I honestly haven’t reached out to connect in any way. Thanks for bringing him onto my “radar screen”. 🙂
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..Utilizing Social Media to Build Brand Awareness and AuthorityMy Profile

  45. “depends on what your blogging/business niche is” – yes, that’s why those Follow Fridays aren’t very useful – just because you connect well with person X, doesn’t mean someone else will find that connection valuable.

    I used to look for knowledgeable technical people to share information on Twitter. Then I decided to concentrate on local – I met many people in my area that way, especially since I have met some of them multiple times in person. Now I concentrate on those who are responsive; if someone knows about marketing or blogging or WordPress AND likes to converse on any of those topics, I’m happy to tweet, talk, respond to that person.

    I find it easier to connect with people I’ve never met on Twitter than on other platforms. Google+, however, is increasingly becoming another platform where it’s easy to make new connections.

    My advice to someone new to Twitter: write valuable tweets, and you will get followers. Respond to those who follow you and get to know them a little better, 140 characters at a time.
    Leora Wenger recently posted..Tips for Beginning BloggersMy Profile

    1. I agree Leora. It’s nice to see a #ff mention and I’ll thank someone for them and sometimes I’ll RT it (if it’s around a community that I’m active in) but in many ways they add to the “noise”.

      I’ll have to check out what you’re doing on Google+. Becoming active on there has been on my “to-do” list for a while but so has been addressing my FB timeline, updating my LinkedIn business page and changing my Twitter background.

      Thanks for weighing in here. Your advice is always valuable and welcome.
      Sherryl Perry recently posted..Create an Online Presence – Be Seen Out ThereMy Profile

    2. I agree Leora, I tend to follow people who are willing to actually talk to me rather than constantly tweet content but never converse.

      Your last paragraph sums it up beautifully, networking is all about getting to know people and Twitter is no exception. I don’t follow thousands of people because I like to build a relationship with the majority of people I do follow.

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