twitter search

Strategies for "Who to Follow" on Twitter

So far I have taught you whether you should be tweeting as a business and how to maximize your tweets. Now I am going to discuss who you should be following as a business.

Now when you "follow" someone on twitter, their tweets are show in your Twitter stream. Through their tweets you can learn more about your followers. It is through this insight from your followers that you are able to learn about your brand advocates and build an ever stronger loyal customer base.

Strategies to Find People

Initial Twitter "Who to Follow" Feature

When you first sign up for Twitter, you may have noticed a feature that suggested to you who to follow. Even after you have finished your initial Twitter set-up, you can still access this feature from your Twitter stream on the left-hand side in the widget called, "Who to Follow." You can choose people in certain categories as well and it is recommended to follow people who are experts in your field.

Follow Experts and Though Leaders

As expressed in the section above, following experts and thought leaders in your industry is vital for your Twitter following. Not only does it give you credibility that you know who are the experts in your field, but it also gives you the chance to learn more about your field. These experts will also be a valuable source of content to pull from and to retweet later.

I am a large advocate of utilizing Twitter lists as well, which is why I suggest when you follow "thought leaders," that you create a Twitter list showcasing your experts. If your Twitter following becomes extremely large, using the list of organized experts will come in handy when you want to grab quick content.

Twitter Search is akin to Google Search for Twitter. It allows you to look for certain people, topics, and phrases. The results will show you people whose description match the words you entered and people who have recently tweeted with the words you searched for. This tool is fabulous to find people who are potentially tweeting about your product, service, or industry.

Follow Hashtags (#) and their Participants

You have have seen large events having a certain hashtag for events around the globe. A perfect example of this would be the Social Media Marketing Wold Conference I attended back in April. The event hashtag was #SMMW13 and when people attending the event were tweeting about the event, things people said, or observations they would type the hashtag. You can search and follow hashtags so you can see what is happening at the events in your Twitter stream.

Chances are if you are attending or are interested in a large event, that the people attending or tweeting about it have something in common with you. These are the perfect people to follow.

Follow Follower's Following

You that is slightly confusing, but look at the people you are following and see who is following them. If you have taken the time to follow an expert or someone whose tweets you like, go ahead and see who they are following and then follow those people as well.

Extra Following Tips

Below are a few extra tips when you begin developing your follower base:

Don't follow too many people at once. According to @Hubspot, a best practice is to not exceed following more than 25 to 50 people per day. There is a lag time between when you follow someone and when they follow you back.
You do not want your Twitter ratios to be offset by you following large numbers of people at one time and having a small amount of people following back.
Follow those that are following you. If people have taken the time to follow you, go ahead and follow them back. This makes you seem approachable and relatable to your following. Obviously do not follow back people who appear to be spammers.

These basic tips should get you started on "Who to Follow" on Twitter. Always think about your business strategy when you are following people on Twitter. If you are wanting to project expertise, follow the other experts and people wanting advice from the experts.

If you need any help with your social strategy and Twitter, feel free to contact me at Kersten at Speakeasy Market Strategies dot com or leave a comment below. Don't forget to tweet at me at @SpeakeasyStrat .

If you have read this article and need help setting up your new Twitter Business Account feel free to send me an e-mail at Kersten at Speakeasy Market Strategies dot come. I do also have social media management programs available for those that need Twitter, but would like someone to manage it for them.