6 steps for writers on Twitter to get 100 new followers in 2 days

I’ve technically been on Twitter for over 10 years, but I never really understood how it worked. I amassed 300 followers in 2011 and this didn’t change until three days ago.

Regardless of how much I tweeted into the void, I couldn’t increase my follower count.

That all changed on Monday when I learned the niche follow-back method.

Keep reading to learn the 6 steps I followed to get 100 new followers in 2 days and start building a community on Twitter!

Step 1. Prepare your profile

First you need to make sure your profile is presentable.

In the same way you would shower and dress up before attending a party, you shouldn’t network on social media without a little preparation.

Consider updating your bio to align with the niche and give people a better understanding of what your interests are.

Share some excerpts of your latest work. It’s good to show off your writing, so people know you’re serious. It also gives other users a sense of your work quality and lets you bond with one another.

I personally tend to stay away from writers who stray too far away from writing topics.

I don’t mind a tweet here and there about your favourite sports team, but that’s not why I followed you. In the long-term I tend to unfollow this kind of profile.

It’s also good to have a nice mix of original tweets and retweets on your profile to show that you’re an active promoter of other people’s content.

Step 2. Build a 2-way community

Unless you’re a celebrity, people don’t just want to follow you. They want to build a community with you. Think of yourself as a part of other peoples’ communities as much as they are of yours.

That’s the whole point of social networks.

Like-for-like. Follow-for-follow.

Unless you already have a significant following who help make your tweets go viral, it doesn’t hurt to follow back your own followers.

Especially when they’re in your niche!

That’s why I’m now an advocate for following writers on Twitter.

Step 3. Focus less on your own tweets, engage more with others in your niche

I just spent 6 weeks tweeting daily about the latest trending topics which got me 10 new followers.

Looking back now, I feel I was tweeting into the void.

It makes sense that you should build an audience before you spend all your time producing content.

Otherwise, you’re limiting your potential in reaching the people who will actually engage with you.

Engage with your community

On the flip side, you should engage with other people’s content. That shows you’re an active member of the community.

Here’s a few ways I engage with my community:

• Like the tweets you resonate with.
• Retweet the tweets you love and don’t want to forget.
• Reply to people’s messages & join in on the discussion.
• Quote retweet other people’s tweets to put my own spin on the original tweet. The original user might even retweet it themselves!

I enjoy finding new hashtags for my niche that indicate a sense of community.

When your community gathers around a specific thread, it becomes a good place to interact and meet new people.

Step 4. Make it clear that you follow back people in your niche…

Once you’ve found people in your niche looking to expand their network, introduce yourself!

Let them know you’re building your community in the niche and you follow back people in your niche.

Highlight the fact that you promote each other and help each other out.

That’s what communities do!

Step 5. Then start following people

The easiest way to grow your following is to follow other people first.

My strategy for finding new people to follow is:

Starting with the followers of your followers.

The reason is that they’re more likely to follow back. After all, we’re already in the same community.

If they visit my profile, they’ll see the person they’re following already follows me. This is a great leverage for trust.

When you’re just starting out, you can start by following a few people and see which follow back.

Once they do, you can start using their lists to find new people to follow!

Remember it’s fine to unfollow people later if they don’t follow you back or if they just don’t post quality content.

Step 6. Rinse & Repeat

This is my current community-building strategy. I’ll do this a few times a week for the next few weeks and see how it evolves.

My goal is to hit 1000 followers by the start of June.

Then I’ll see how my reach with individual tweets has changed.

A final note…

This strategy is about building a following and engaging with your niche’s community.

Of course, quality is more important that quantity.

But I think my content hasn’t been resonating with people because I don’t have the right sounding board.

I’ll have more things to say over the next few weeks as my Twitter tactics evolve.

Follow me here on Medium to stay in the loop.

Or follow me on Twitter!