HOW I DID IT

How I Got 235K Impressions on Twitter in One Month

Twitter has 330 million active users each month and 152 million active daily users. There are 500 million tweets tweeted daily. You may be wondering how you can get noticed by anyone with so many people tweeting each day. I used to think the same thing and almost gave up and deleted my Twitter account. However, I did my homework and figured out how to make my mark on this platform.

I got 235K impressions on Twitter last month and I increased my following from 2,500 to 14,200 in one year.

It’s not hard to do.

However, you need patience.

You also need determination.

My Journey on Twitter

I opened a Twitter account in March of 2010. My main objective was to promote my fiction novels. I barely spent any time on this platform. I was too busy writing and working on freelance projects.

I used an automated tool, TweetAdder for following people and posting automated tweets.

However, as reported in Search Engine Journal, in 2018:

“Twitter made changes to its API which will limit users’ ability to perform coordinate actions across multiple accounts. These new guidelines are being put in place, Twitter says, ‘to stay ahead of malicious activity targeting the crucial conversations taking place on Twitter’.”

I was slightly annoyed because now I had to make a decision to close out my account or try to be more active. The automated tool has made things easy. Tweets were imported to the system and automatically tweeted each day and people were followed based on keywords and set parameters. Yet, I hadn’t seen significant growth in my following.

The new Twitter API changes were a blessing in disguise for me. They forced me to step outside my comfort zone and become active each day on the platform.

Huge Waste of Time

I was worried that being active on Twitter without using the automation would be a huge waste of time. If you’ve spent any amount of time on Twitter — especially these days — you likely know how easy it is to get sucked into the black hole of the Twitterverse.

Responding to replies to your tweets.

Commenting on interesting tweets.

Trying to avoid Twitter arguments.

And dealing with trolls.

I didn’t want any part of that. I have writing assignments for clients that I need to complete each week. My newest novel needs to be edited. It’s a catch 22 situation. I figured out that I need to spend time on Twitter to promote my books and online magazine. However, I don’t have time to deal with some of the drama that goes on there, and I don’t want to waste time scrolling through the newsfeed when I should be writing and editing.

So, I got to work. I did my homework. Read what the social media experts advised and created my action plan. I’d like to share that with you. Just remember that it was a year-long journey for me. It didn’t happen overnight. I took it one step at a time and built my online brand on Twitter. You can do it too.

Engage With Followers

One of the best things you can do is engage your followers in conversations on Twitter. Having a love fest for yourself is a surefire way to turn people off and you’ll lose followers — unless of course, if you’re already a celebrity. But then, I guess you wouldn’t be reading my article if you were.

You need to give people a reason to follow you. They have no idea who you are. Why should they follow you? Just be yourself but engage with people.

Tweet status updates, share inspirational quotes, and share links to your articles.

However, most of my impressions (views) on Twitter have come when I’ve asked questions.

With the recent quarantine life due to COVID-19, I’ve been trying to engage with people.

In one recent tweet, I asked what the first thing is my followers would like to do when the stay-at-home directives are ended.

In my experience, the majority of my followers are people who have created a Twitter account to engage with others. They are not there to promote themselves or their work.

When I first joined Twitter, I followed a lot of writers, authors, and bloggers. That’s one reason why I wasn’t quickly increasing my following. I was sharing links and tweeting to other people who were doing the same thing.

Now, 80% of my followers are not in the writing field. They are teachers, truck drivers, retired people, accountants, foster moms, parents, business people, and entrepreneurs.

How do I know this? Because I have been actively engaging with my followers during the last year and have gotten to know them. That cultivates a rapport and they are happy to follow me.

Cultivate Relationships With Followers

The best way for me to share how you can cultivate relationships with your followers is to share an example of a connection I’ve made with someone on Twitter. I’m not going to share their name or username to maintain their privacy.

Mrs. A is an interesting woman I connected with on Twitter. She lives on the West Coast and we share similar views. We seemed to have an instant connection online. We’ve sent DMs several times and she is one of my followers that always replies to tweets. Because I spent the time (gladly) in cultivating a relationship with her, she subscribed to my online magazine, reads my articles, shares links often, and has encouraged her friends to read my content.

This would never have happened if I had not taken the time to connect with her. I could have blown her off because I was too busy, but then I would have missed out. She has a big heart and has been a huge encouragement to me.

If you want to significantly increase your following, you need to cultivate connections like that. Sure, you won’t connect the same way with everyone. I don’t and it’s impossible with so many followers. However, you need to stay open to experiencing those connections.

Support Others in Your Field

Know who your friends are and support them. Of course, you should be nice to everyone, but it pays off in the long run when you help others in your field. In my case, that means supporting writers, authors, and bloggers.

For example, I recently checked out one of my author friend’s online interview links and commented. Then I tweeted about it. I didn’t just share the link, but also shared what the link was about and why I enjoyed it. It got picked up by someone’s online daily paper and she got added exposure.

True, my twitter profile link showed up and I got exposure with that — but that was not why I did it. I had no idea the tweet was going to get picked up and gain added impressions. I simply wanted to help my friend out. She’s helped me many times with free exposure and we — and all my other writing friends — actually enjoy helping each other out.

It’s a dog eat dog world out there, but it doesn’t have to be. I can’t change the circumstances or the toxic environment that occurs much too often on Twitter and other social media platforms. However, I can be proactive, motivational, network with others in my field, and be supportive of others.

Create Quality Content

Good content is vital to success. People follow leaders, not followers. Are you a leader? Are you giving people a reason to come back to hear what you have to say or are you only giving them a hard sell to buy your book or click links to your articles? The latter won’t work in giving you a loyal following.

True, it does take about seven times for someone to hear about your product, book, or website before they buy it or click links you share — of course, there are exceptions to this rule. However, live by the 80/20 rule. Engage with followers 80% of the time and only promote 20%.

I admit that since I’ve been more active on Twitter the last year, I have unfollowed some authors who post links to their books continually throughout the day. If that annoys me, I can only imagine how it must annoy other Twitter users.

Keep Persevering

This may sound like trite advice, but never give up when the going gets tough. Believe me, I know how tough marketing your books, blog, website, podcast, products, or services can be. It’s difficult getting exposure for your content.

However, writing is my life. It’s taken a long time, but I get to work my dream job of being a freelance writer. Yet, I still need more exposure to promote my magazine website and sell books. If you’ve made it to the end of this article, it’s likely that you want to increase your following on Twitter and get more exposure for whatever you’re promoting.

In Summary

This advice can work for you if you follow it and don’t give up. I did it and it worked for me.

· Engage with followers.

· Cultivate relationships.

· Support others in your field.

· Create quality content.

· Keep persevering.

Keep tweeting and working towards accomplishing your Twitter goals each day!

Joanne Troppello is an author, writer, and poet. She is the publisher of the online Christian lifestyle magazine, Mustard Seed Sentinel. Connect with Joanne on Twitter and join in cultivating positivity in your life and sharing it with others by subscribing to the Sunflower Quest Community.