Twitter Marketing: How to Grow Your Twitter Followers to Attract More Leads

• Last updated September 3, 2019
• lead generation

When used in the right way, Twitter can become a major long-term source of new, often high-quality leads for your business. But it won't do much for you until you've attracted a good number of followers.

So how does this work? How exactly do more followers on Twitter equate to more leads for your business?

And how can you grow your Twitter followers effectively?

This post gives you the answers you need, including eleven key strategies for growing your Twitter followers.

How Do You Get More Leads By Growing Your Twitter Followers?

There are three main ways this works as follows.

Attract More Leads Via Your Twitter Profile

The more followers you have, the more visible your Twitter profile becomes (and I'll show you below how to optimize your profile to attract followers).

To convert visitors to your profile into leads, provide opportunities within your profile for people to head to your website and leave you their contact details.

This means including a CTA (call to action) with a suitable link:

• In your profile header image. You can't include a clickable link within the image itself, but you can show some text referring to your domain or a simple URL they can type into a browser to find out more about you.
• In your bio text. As well as adding a separate link to your profile, include a link within the bio text itself to encourage click-throughs.

In addition, try pinning a lead-generating Tweet to your profile. For example, pin a Tweet to some content that contains Lead Magnet offers (LMOs) or offers a free resource via a lead gen page such as a Landing Mat.

Attract More Leads Via Your Tweets

With more followers (particularly those you attract using our recommendations below) your Tweets will attract an increasing number of impressions.

This effect is accelerated when your followers retweet your Tweets and help you reach wider audiences.

In addition, the traffic you attract from Twitter to content on your own site helps boost your visibility on search too, further increasing your ability to generate leads.

How does this work?

When Twitter users click through and decide to share your content as well, it increases your "social signals" (a positive SEO indicator) and also encourages other content creators to link to it.

See the following article for an in-depth post on how to get more leads via your Tweets.

Recommended: 12 Ways to Get More Leads with Organic Tweets

Attract More Leads Via Social Proof and Authority

As the number of your Twitter followers grow, so does your level of social proof, authority and credibility in the marketplace, all helping to attract new leads to your business.

Once you've amassed a reasonable number of followers, here are some ways you can use your follower count to your advantage:

• Refer to your follower count within the copy of Lead Magnet offers (LMOs). It adds social proof, builds authority and indicates your level of influence. In brief, it increases conversions.
• Your follower count gives you credibility when reaching out to influencers, increasing your chances of a positive response. As you grow, you'll likewise find other Twitter users reaching out to you with opportunities to collaborate that may be of interest.
• It can attract opportunities to contribute to larger publications, offline and online, and helps your own proposals for content contributions get taken seriously.
• Similarly, it can attract invitations to be interviewed on popular podcasts. It works the other way around too. If you run a podcast, it makes it easier to attract high calibre interviewees, growing your audience and building your authority.
• Writing a book? Contacting publishers? Publishers nowadays want to know you'll be able to help shift copies. Books are powerful lead generation tools—a healthy number of followers on Twitter can help land deals with well-known publishers.

So hopefully we're agreed. It's clear that growing your Twitter followers is a powerful catalyst for generating increasing numbers of leads.

But how do you grow them?

Here are 11 key strategies...

11 Key Strategies to Grow Your Twitter Followers

1. Optimize your Twitter profile

Use your Twitter profile to help attract followers to your account.

Make sure you have the basics in place like your icon image and main header image.

Your icon image is a branding mechanism that will be shown with every Tweet you publish, gaining recognition and familiarity over time.

Your header image should help illustrate what you do, and, combined with your bio, help prospective followers know whether you're a relevant account for them to follow or not.

Optimize your bio so it briefly states what you stand for, such as your mission statement. Use keywords and hashtags so Twitter users interested in your content can find your account.

Remember to include a CTA with a link back to a lead gen page in order to help convert followers into leads.

Here are some examples of popular Twitter accounts you can use for inspiration:

MIT Technology Review

ReadWrite

Atlas Obscura

2. Follow other Twitter users

You can follow up to 400 accounts per day.

For best results, follow active accounts who are retweeting and liking Tweets related to your niche. These are engaged Twitter users, obviously interested in similar content to your own, and therefore more likely to follow you back and engage with you.

... it’s important to remember that having fewer, more readily engaging followers is better than having lots of false or paid-for followers that are largely inactive, as this does little to increase the effectiveness of your posts regarding marketing ability.
Nate Masterson, Maple Holistics

Try to keep your followers-to-following ratio low or your account can look a bit spammy and put potential followers off.

Twitter itself imposes an initial limit of 5,000 accounts that you're able to follow. That's only relaxed based on maintaining a health followers-to-following ratio.

It's generally fine right at the beginning as other users will know you're simply trying to get started. But then you should keep it in check as much as possible.

One way to do this is to alternate periods where you're following accounts, with periods where you're unfollowing as well. This involves going to your list of accounts you're following, scrolling right to the bottom and unfollowing those where they're not following you back.

However, you do need to take it steady to avoid falling foul of Twitter's rules on "follow churn", the violation of which can lead to account suspension. They specifically prohibit "following and then unfollowing large numbers of accounts in an effort to inflate one’s own follower count".

After all, the last thing you want is for your account to end up looking like this:

But how "large numbers of accounts" is interpreted is unclear. My own approach is simply to:

• Avoid hitting the max each day.
• Have periods where you're either doing one or the other.
• Have other periods where you're barely following or unfollowing any accounts.

I also don't use any automated means of following or unfollowing users as this can increase the risks of account suspension.

One way to build followers without following others is to...

3. Use lists

Lists on Twitter enable you to group Twitter accounts together into categories. You can create your own or subscribe to those created by others.

Access them via Twitter's sidebar menu:

By clicking on a specific list you've created or subscribed to, you can view all the Tweets coming from those Twitter accounts.

Create a new list by clicking the icon top right of the Lists page.

How do Twitter lists attract followers?

Use Twitter lists to attract followers without having to follow them directly yourself. This is a great way to build up your account while keeping your followers-to-following ratio in check.

• By adding other Twitter accounts to one of your lists, they get a notification and may follow you back as a result. This can work particularly well if the name of the list is complimentary in some way, e.g. Thought leaders on [XYZ...]
• Subscribe to other people's lists—again, many will follow you as a result, and maybe add you to the list as well (giving you more visibility to other Twitter users).
• Use lists to keep a close eye on what your audience is engaging in. Get involved in conversations yourself, and craft similar content to attract their attention.

4. Tweet regularly

It goes without saying you need to tweet regularly in order to be successful on Twitter.

Tweeting your own content keeps you visible, builds your authority over time and helps attract followers.

Your profile shows how much you've tweeted, and therefore how active and potentially interesting your account is to others.

The more you're tweeting, the more attractive your account will be to followers.

It doesn't all have to be your own content. Retweet the content of other relevant accounts too. Become a filter for your industry by curating and sharing the best content.

5. Tweet visual content

As with all social media, the more visual your content is, the more engagement your Tweets will attract, bringing you new followers.

Do the following:

• Tweet images directly. Relevant quotations over engaging backgrounds work well.

• Use the same button to upload and share videos on Twitter, to be played via their native player (this attracts higher engagement than e.g. YouTube videos).
• Share YouTube videos, and SlideShares.
• Use Twitter card tags on your website to show an appropriate image when your content is shared.

6. Optimize the times you Tweet

Tweets will perform better with your audience at certain times. Use this to your advantage.

The times that attract most engagement on Twitter tends to be early morning "before work" times, and in the evening.

But you need to assess this for your own audience. To do so, go to Twitter Analytics. The following is a useful article showing you how to use this data to find the best time to Tweet:

Best Time To Tweet — How to Find Times that Works for You

7. Engage with others

By retweeting and liking Tweets, replying and adding useful comments you increase the visibility of your account and attract followers.

Often the account you're retweeting or liking a Tweet from will follow you out of courtesy and as a reciprocal gesture.

8. Use Twitter Ads

Use Twitter Ads to promote your profile.

Promoted accounts show up in the sidebar, making it really easy for users to follow you.

Use their ad options to target the exact audience you want to reach. For example, you can target people based on who they follow.

9. Use hashtags

Hashtags are a way to group conversations together on Twitter and find related content. They also help to clearly indicate at a glance what your content is about without having to read the whole Tweet.

By using hashtags within your own content, you can help people find it, engage with it and connect with you.

Here's an example of a Tweet employing hashtags to attract engagement:

Are you using #Twitter yet for #leadgeneration? Here's a slide show with 10 top ways to put it into action and get more leads for your business [please share]. https://t.co/NELGIR3oje #emailmarketing #DigitalMarketing #leadgen #businessgrowth

— optinopoli™ | Capture & Convert (@optinopoli) July 9, 2019

10. Add follow links to your website, blog and other content

Don't forget to make it easy for people to find you on Twitter and follow you.

Add links to your profile from your website, blog and other content. Cross-pollinate from your other social media profiles.

You can even add a Twitter follow link to the header image of your YouTube channel.

11. Roundup post

Finally, a neat way to attract lots of followers to your profile, though admittedly one I've yet to try!

Organize a "roundup post" where you pick a subject and then ask people with sizeable Twitter followings to contribute. For example, ask for a paragraph or two with their top tip on a particular topic.

Let them know their reward for a few minutes of their time. As well as linking back to them, and sharing repeatedly on social media yourself, the post will be promoted by other contributors across social media.

Once you've got the contributions together and published the post, let them know and ask them to share on Twitter. Provide a link they can click to share it really easily where the Tweet includes your Twitter handle.

As well as likely attracting a flood of new followers, roundup posts attract a lot of traffic, boost your authority and help build relationships with influencers who can become friends.

To Conclude

Finally, it should be noted that, while the rewards are high, growing your Twitter followers can be a slow process. Sure, these strategies speed it up, but patience is needed.

Fortunately however it does begin to accelerate as your profile gains momentum and your authority builds.

Start investing in your Twitter followers now with regular, consistent activity, and you'll be richly rewarded in due course, not least with the increasing numbers of leads your business will be able to attract.

steve shaw

Steve Shaw is the CEO of optinopoli™, next-generation lead capture and sales conversion technology—click here for more info.