Summary

The author discovered a successful strategy to significantly increase their Twitter following by focusing on niche-specific engagement and mutual support within the writing community.

Abstract

After struggling with minimal growth in their Twitter following for a decade, the author recently experienced a breakthrough, gaining 100 new followers in just two days. This surge was the result of implementing the 'niche follow-back' strategy, which involves identifying and connecting with a targeted community—in this case, fellow writers—by following and supporting their work, and in turn, encouraging them to reciprocate. The author emphasizes the importance of being part of a niche to foster growth and engagement on social media. They utilized specific writing-related hashtags such as #writingcommunity, #writerslift, and #writersontwitter to find and engage with writers actively seeking connection and support. By following a strategic approach to networking within the niche, including following the followers of their followers, the author highlights the significance of creating genuine connections, which is foundational for community building and mutual growth on social platforms.

Opinions

The author believes that social media is crucial for content distribution and that targeted networking is essential for audience growth, especially for non-celebrities.
Engaging with specific niches using tailored strategies, like the 'niche follow-back' approach, is deemed more effective for growing a following than broad engagement.
Writers, due to their commitment to their craft and the mutual support within their community, are seen as an exemplary niche for testing social media engagement strategies.
Using hashtags such as #writingcommunity is an efficient way to locate and connect with like-minded individuals in the writing niche.
The act of following back, messaging, and retweeting other writers' work is considered a valuable method for establishing meaningful connections and fostering community support.
The author advocates for the reciprocal exchange of feedback within the community as a means to strengthen connections and contribute to the growth of its members.

The One Thing You Need to Know to Grow Your Twitter Following

I joined Twitter in March 2011. And for 10 years, I had around 300 followers. It started to feel like it was never going to change. Then I took a long hiatus from social media.

But now as I focus more on writing, I realize the importance of social media in distributing content.

And that’s why…

I’m back on Twitter

For 6 weeks I’ve been getting back into the groove of Twitter. And the first thing I noticed is that my legacy following is no longer active on Twitter.

I spent the past 6 weeks producing daily tweets and a few threads. I got lots of likes and retweets. But I only made a dozen new followers over this period.

That’s no way to live!

There’s an easier way to build an audience that I just figured out.

I call it the niche follow-back strategy.

I used this technique to get 100 new followers in the last 2 days.

And I can boil the strategy down to 4 key takeaways…

Takeaway 1: Find your niche

Unless people already know you, it’ll probably be easier to build a following/community around a niche. Unless you’re a celebrity or have a significant following somewhere else, you’ll need a niche.

I chose writing as my nice and aimed to connect with new writers on Twitter. Later on, I’ll aim to niche down further. But for now I’m just trying to build my initial audience.

Writers take their craft seriously and everyone wants to build their own community. That’s partly why I’ve had such success the past 2 days.

Takeaway 2: Find your initial followers.

It’s easy to find writers because they tend to mention it in their bios. There are different advanced search options on Twitter to find people from any nice.

Once I found the first few writers to connect with, I stumbled across a few #writing hashtags. The three best ones I found were:

#writingcommunity
#writerslift
#writersontwitter

Writers used these hashtags to signal that they’re looking to connect with other writers.

It’s common for writers to ask others to share their work in these tweets.

This is a great place to introduce yourself and promote your own work. I also used this opportunity to mention that:

I follow back writers
I support writers as much as I can

These two points help other Twitter users understand my social value.

Takeaway 3: Follow your follower’s followers

The easiest method I’ve found to get new followers is to follow your followers’ followers.

They’re more likely to follow me back, especially if they’re writers themselves. After all, there’s mutual benefit in supporting your network.

At this step, it helps that you can see people’s bios when you’re looking at a user’s follower list. I follow several writers at a time in a matter of seconds.

And they’re all relevant to my niche.

That brings me to my final tactic…

Takeaway 4: Create a meaningful connection with people

It’s free to follow someone, send a direct message and retweet their work.

Once you follow someone, take the opportunity to send a quick message or promote some of their work that you find interesting.

It’s free and it instantly makes people remember you. It also makes people more likely to promote your work.

My next step will be to ask for feedback from other writers. In return I would, of course, offer my feedback.

Why shouldn’t we help each other?

After all, that’s the whole point of a community.