# How to you build up a following on Twitter



## edsaav (Apr 7, 2011)

I created a twitter account a few days ago to promote my shirt shop and I'm not having a whole lot of luck gathering followers. I've been updating regularly and I've followed nearly 50 relavent users, but I've still only had a few people follow me back. I don't expect masses of followers to flock to a new user, but I was hoping to get a few more than this. Does anyone have any other tips or techniques beyond the basic follow method that might help build up an audience?


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## M3tees (Mar 28, 2011)

Hey Ive been having this same problem but am starting to overcome it. Im 95% sure this is the reason why your not having to much success. Most people join twitter or any social network to make friends and not be advertised too. Im very sure your advertising to the public on twitter rather than making friends. You need to act as a normal person and respond to peoples tweets and then occasionally throw in something about your business. Lastly, just give it time. Trust me.
CHECK THIS OUT!


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## teashirt (May 7, 2011)

My two cents. I agree with M3tees, but not sure how effective 'pretending to be a real person' will be either.

People join twitter to follow interesting people and celebrities and friends etc. It is choc full of spammers making friends with anyone trying to direct people to their sites for whatever reason (IMO).

Most people will not follow you just because you follow them, its easy to pick up lots of 'friends' like this (following people who follow you) and then my twitter account will not be something I enjoy reading but lots of spam about stuff I'm not interested in.

If you still want to go down this route then just play the numbers game, the more people you add the more will follow you eventually. 50 relevant users is absolutely sweet FA in the world of twitter (pardon my french), especially considering a lot of users will consider you following them a compliment and not be interested in following back. 

I'm not sure how a 'twitter following' will actually help you unless you are tweeting really interesting things to make your followers go to your website and then have tees that they will really want to buy immediately visible or on offer etc?


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## M3tees (Mar 28, 2011)

I agree and I in no way mean "pretending to be a real person" But rather have your business have a friendly face. Talk to the people and get involved with what they are talking about and then start to share about yourself. And friends are very important on twitter because then you can send them private messages which a lot of the time in my case there sure to respond.


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## outrageoustees (Feb 25, 2010)

I actually have pretty good luck on getting a (good) Twitter Following. My suggestions:

The MOST important:
- Respond TO the posts of others you are Following. Someone posts a good link, funny anecdote or whatever - tell them!
- When someone follows you, send them a direct message - Tanks for Following and maybe a bit more. Not too direct on spammy suggest they look at your site though. But - if you have the ability to do a discount, that would be a nice thing to offer in that DM

Then:
- Do NOT post crap like "Just at a PB & J for lunch!" nor post more than once or twice a day.
- Look at the Followers of those you are Following for more peopel who might be appropriate to Follow,
- Post informative, interesting or funny updates. Be careful about "selling" - no "Buy one get one Free!" especially before you have established yourself as a credible Twitter presence.

Then: 

Do Not Follow Every one - only those who provide quality content, and are appropriate to follow. Block the spammers. Get rid of the ones who post about their PB & J lunch and new sale every ten minutes.


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## outrageoustees (Feb 25, 2010)

Oh - RE: "real person" - Your "real person" IS you - acting as Social Media Director for your company. You can even post that in your profilw, if need be. 

Say your Twitter is ClimbAddict(that's me for my climbing t-shirt biz). You could have your profile say "Hi - I'm Happiegrrl, Tweeting for ClimbAddict Designs." Which is what I just changed mine to say....(I am very well known in the climbing online community as Happiegrrrl, so that is why I use that moniker).

Real Person accomplished.


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## PositiveDave (Dec 1, 2008)

...and why do you follow people? Probably not because they follow you/have something to sell.


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## jdean23 (Apr 15, 2011)

What I do is I have a personal account and a group of friends who will retweet most things that the company account will say so the word is spread far that way. We don't post alot but when we do we are reaching around 20,000 people with the retweets!!!Also it will get people excited about your brand because many people are talking about it !


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## outrageoustees (Feb 25, 2010)

excellent idea!


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## edsaav (Apr 7, 2011)

Thanks for all the advice. Beyond following good etiquette and keeping your tweets interesting, are there any other tips for giving your twitter feet a little more visibility?


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## Fur Face Boy (Mar 31, 2009)

Just be yourself. It's as simple as that.


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## edsaav (Apr 7, 2011)

I like the sentiment, but so far it doesn't seem to be quite that simple. I notice your doing pretty well on twitter, Fur Face Boy (I actually already follow you). Did you really get to 2000 followers just by being yourself and nothing more? If so, how long did that take?


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## AngrySpade (Feb 7, 2010)

I've been using twitter for my clothing line for over a year now and I just hit the 300 mark not too long ago. It definitely takes a lot of time, but part of my problem is I wasn't doing it right at first, I was just advertising I wasn't engaging with my followers and showing them that I care. Now I strike up regular conversation daily and I make friends with people. It works really well! I'm not "pretending" to be a real person, I AM a real person. I talk about food, sports, TV shows and everything that my followers and fans can relate to.

Another thing I occasionally do for a small increase in followers is find a brand that has a similar target market to mine and follow all the people who I think would like my brand(not all will follow back but some will), this is just guess work and its somewhat time consuming but hey, its a great way to reach new people and grow your network even more.

Other than that, yes, it just takes time to grow your following on Twitter or any other social media. But MAKE SURE there are links to your Twitter and Facebook page right on the front page of your website.


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## outrageoustees (Feb 25, 2010)

AngrySpade - The Follow the Followers of Similar to Me has worked very well for me. I don't blindly Follow ALL theirs, though, because they may have ones that actually aren't good for me. It does take time to vet each Follow manually, but it makes for a much better Twitterstream, IMO.


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## edsaav (Apr 7, 2011)

Angryspade, I notice you have separate accounts for yourself and your brand. Is that working out well for you? It seems like it could be a lot more work to manage two accounts at once.


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## AngrySpade (Feb 7, 2010)

@outrageoustees - Yes I do the same thing, I don't follow everyone, like I said I follow the people who I think would like AS.

@edsaav - Yes I have my own personal account for my friends and family, but it is completely separate from my Angry Spade one, I only have 100 or so followers on my personal account and a lot of them are probably spam accounts. Plus I hardly ever use it. So no, its not hard to manage two accounts. I actually "manage" THREE accounts because I have one for my blog, Tee Spotter as well. But if you install a program like Tweet Deck you can be logged into all of your accounts at once and keep everything organized in its own column, I never actually use the Twitter website.


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

I have to agree with Jen that Tweet Deck is an awesome tool. It's very useful and makes it easy to follow everything that's happening with your Twitter feed. I go to the Twitter website occasionally, but much less than I used to do. 

As for gathering followers, you've been given the best advice already I think. Be yourself, don't sell all the time, be strategic about who you follow, and be patient. Most of all remember that having a ton of followers doesn't matter if those followers don't care about your product or company. This isn't a competition where the person with the most followers wins. It's about influence, in other words can you get the people who follow you to do things. If you can do that, then you're successfully using Twitter.


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## shirtnewbie (May 24, 2011)

I will have to try that, sounds like a good idea, this twitter thing


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## ThreadBusiness (Jun 2, 2011)

Cracking the social media marketing code can be pretty tricky. The most important thing to remember is that social sites are social - people don't want to be blasted with marketing. They want to interact with real people with opinions and interesting stuff to say. I wrote an article on Facebook and twitter marketing cause it's a tricky topic. PATIENCE is the key. Focus on building relationships. You can look for "Top Users" to find the best people to befriend.


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