I get the impression that quality of followers is important, not quantity. I would also assume it helps when quality followers retweet or reply. Anyone have any advice for building authority to your twitter account?
There isn’t really a silver bullet, but a few tips would be to:
- Pick a focus topic (like PHP) and tweet largely useful stuff in regards to this topic, or the industry you’re in
- See how authoritative folks in your field are using Twitter to get the word out
- Follow folks who are considered authoritative, or well-regarded in your industry (if your tweets are useful to them, they’ll spread the word)
- Join the conversation, contribute and tweet about new content on your blog/site/Github, have fun!
Again, there’s no quick way to surround yourself with interesting, relevant folks on Twitter, but if you have something relevant and original to say (esp. regarding dev projects), then you’ll find that a lot of these folks will simply come to you. Good luck and enjoy!
You’re assumption is dead on with studies that prove it… 2 million followers who don’t have their own networks, don’t share and don’t contribute is little compared to having a tenth of that made up of highly connected users.
It’s hard to force a certain type to follow you but the adage “give to get” is generally your best bet. Make good contributions, repost and engage with the contributions of other leaders and you’ll see the right people starting to follow you as well as learn who the right people are for you to follow.
As roshodgekiss said, pick and stick to a defined topic so you remain relevant. It’s ok to get personal to a degree, go off here and there but you also want to remain focused enough that someone following you for say php doesn’t get upset after your 50th tweet in a day on movies; if it’s not relevant people don’t want it in their stream.
Also be sure to follow the right people back. Twitter is very much about relationships and being influenced as much as influencing. If someone follows you find out who they are and see if they warrant it back, if they do, see who they follow. It’s ok to be behind while you build visibility.
Find a subject that you know a lot about - and go to its #hashtag. Spread your knowledge, give advice, earn RTs from othe people from what you say.
Check the blogsphere and see what #hashtags are popular and get involved. The fact is Twiter is a community - you have to be involved to gain any type of authority.
Followers are all about quality - if they’re not Rting or talking to you, or anything like that, then they might not be real followers.
I noticed that since I began tweeting more (with personality & humor) and retweeting, that I’ve been getting more and more followers and @ mentions. So: tweet often, and make those 140 characters count! You’ll gain quality followers. @spanaway @shearerpainting @annabgiles
Good advice. People follow people with real opinions and personality not just RTs and links.
So true, people like to interact with others. Especially if you’re interacting with someone with more followers than you, that’s a good way to get more followers.