With Twitter having a total of 313 million monthly active users, standing out on the platform can be a tough task.
Especially if you don’t have many followers.
The good news is that I’m about to share 6 highly actionable tips that will help you identify and grow a targeted Twitter following. Why is a targeted audience so critical? You don’t want followers for the sake of followers… that’s a vanity metric that does nothing for your bottom line.
You want to interact with people who would potentially buy from you… who would be interested in what you’re saying and what you’re offering. Which is why I’ll also discuss some proven strategies to get your audience to engage with your content. By following my approach, you’ll grow your Twitter following effectively and be well on your way towards Twitter success.
BONUS: If done correctly, you may be able to rack-up over 2 million impressions in a single month, just like I did.
How To Find And Grow A Targeted Twitter Following
1. Identify The Audience You Want
The first step to having a targeted following is identifying who your target audience is.CLICK TO TWEET
First, you need to think about who would find value from your brand or business. What are the characteristics of your potential customers? What’s your niche?
For example, let’s say you sell college athletic gear. You’re going to want to interact with sports accounts, alumni accounts, influencers in the college or sports industry, etc. You can find some of this information by using a tool like Buzzsumo. It lets you find top influencers and large accounts in a particular industry.
Other ways you can identify your target audience is through the use of Twitter’s Advanced Search. Know that there are lots of other tools available for marketers. If you include some of these tools in your Twitter marketing strategy, you’ll see more success on the platform.
As you find Twitter profiles that relate your niche, it’s a good idea to also check out who they follow on Twitter, what hashtags they are using, etc. so you can join the conversation. One important thing you should remember is that you are after people who are active, engaged, and have a profile picture. Say “no” to the “default eggs.”
Once you’ve located a bunch of people/accounts that fit your niche, you should create a private Twitter list and add them to it. This allows you to easily remember those accounts, so you can go back and engage with their followers in the future.
Which brings me to my next point…
2. Utilize Twitter Lists
Now that you’ve identified your target audience, there are many ways to engage with them and get them to follow you. One way is by effectively leveraging Twitter lists. But before we get into this, let’s take a peek at how to create a Twitter list.
First, you’ll need to head over to the lists page by clicking on the drop down icon on your profile and selecting “Lists.” You can also do this by visiting your profile and clicking on the “Lists” tab.
Next, click on the “Create new list” button. You’ll need to enter a name for your list and a description of your choice. Choose whether to make the list public or private.
Once you’ve filled in the details and are happy with it, go ahead and save the list.
Adding and removing users:
Visit the user’s profile and click on the drop down icon.
Once clicked, you’ll see the option to “add or remove from lists.” Selecting this will then enable you to add or remove the user from your list.
Okay, so now that you know the basics of Twitter lists, you’ll want to use these to drive your target audience to your profile.
After all, when your list is public and you add a user to it, they will receive a notification saying they have been added to your list. Here’s what this looks like.
When the user receives this notification, they may be interested enough to click on the list…
…And then, who knows, they might even end up clicking on your profile and viewing your tweets. If they like what they see, they may even follow you. Keep in mind, that in order to ensure this strategy works best, you should come up with a catchy and meaningful title for the list.
For example, I have a list called “People to listen to.” This list is for professionals, industry experts and influencers. They are all people I want to connect to and build a relationship with. Sometimes, if the user notices I’ve added them to the list, they may tweet to me, which can then lead to a conversation and beginning of a relationship.
Another way to use Twitter lists, is to add people to a particular list when they mention a specific keyword or hashtag. Do this through the IFTTT (If This Then That) tool. If This Then That is a free tool that connects with many applications.
Head over to the site and create an account. Then, find or create a recipe that allows you to build a Twitter list from a specific hashtag. The app will let you enter the hashtag to search for. For example, I’ve entered the hashtag #ContentMarketing. This means that anyone who mentions that hashtag in their tweet will be added to my Twitter list.
3. Following Your Target Audience
Don’t be shy. If you want a targeted audience, be the first to follow. Chances are that if you’ve identified your target audience and engaged with them, they’ve noticed you and tweeted back. Now it’s finally time to follow them.
Unfortunately, doing that within Twitter can be quite time-consuming! The good news is that…
