In an effort to reach more small business owners that need my design services, as well as good looking blog readers like yourself that sparkle like morning dew and smell like fresh laundry, I’ve been actively trying to increase my number of Twitter followers since December 2014.

I must be doing something right, because I’ve almost doubled my number of Twitter followers in just a few short months.

If you’ve been wondering how to get more Twitter followers, these five strategies have really been working for me. Try them out on your own Twitter account; make sure you come back and leave a comment on this post to let me know how much your own following has grown!

1) Link To Your Twitter Page

This seems like such a no-brainer. If you don’t ask people you’re already connected with to follow you on Twitter, how do you expect them to know you’re there?

Make your social media links somewhere easy to see on your website. Add the most important ones to the footer of your email signature.

And don’t be afraid to blatantly ask people on your other social networks to follow you on Twitter, too.

While we’re at it – won’t you follow me on Twitter? Thanks!

2) Get in the Conversation

You’re on social media to promote your small business, but remember – it’s not all about you out there. You should be hitting up your main Twitter feed on a regular basis and joining in on the conversation. Retweet some great tweets, weigh in on other’s questions and comments. Let the Twitter world know you’re there and you have a voice!

3) Optimize Your Bio

Hot tip: Hashtags in your bio help you show up in the people listing for that hashtag. So if you don’t have any hashtags in your bio, fix that right… now.

What’s a good Twitter bio look like? Think about your elevator pitch. Write something short and sweet that tells what you do, and sprinkle a couple of strategic hashtags in there.

If you’ll be at an upcoming event that has a specific Twitter hashtag, make sure that hashtag is in your bio so others attending the event can find you easily.
Check out my Twitter bio for an example.

4) Play the Hashtag Game

One easy way to get a little attention in Twitter is by playing the hashtag game. What’s the hashtag game? Hit up the trending topics, pick one, and write something funny about it.

My favorites, as you can see, are the actual hashtag games put on by @Midnight, where the whole point is to come up with the funniest answer:

Pirates of the Caribbean Cruise Dinner Buffet #LessInterestingFilms #stealAllTheSnacks

— Hearts & Laserbeams (@hrtsnlaserbeams) February 8, 2015

Three Cossacks and a Baby #MakeAMovieRussian

— Hearts & Laserbeams (@hrtsnlaserbeams) January 3, 2015

Mildly Disgruntled Against the Machine #CalmDownABand

— Hearts & Laserbeams (@hrtsnlaserbeams) December 29, 2014

But then, I also like to inject comedy into trending hashtags that aren’t meant to be funny at all:

World's largest ball of yarn #AmericaInFiveWords

— Hearts & Laserbeams (@hrtsnlaserbeams) December 29, 2014

And while you’re getting in on the hashtag game, don’t forget to use it to promote your small business! Get strategic, use hashtags that are super relevant to your services.

More #christmas #doodles – the #stockings were hung by the chimney with care… pic.twitter.com/2ZdAhISEjv

— Hearts & Laserbeams (@hrtsnlaserbeams) December 14, 2014

5) Follow (and Unfollow) the Leader

My single biggest tip for how to get more Twitter followers goes back to the old saying “to have friends, you need to be a friend”.

Meaning if you start following more people, you’ll get more followers. It’s that simple.

I like to mix up where I’m doing my following – I do some of it on the twitter site using my desktop pc, I do some of it via the Twitter app, and I do more targeted following through Crowdfire (formerly known as JustUnfollow). You’ll notice you get different kinds of suggested accounts in each of those three locations – lots of the ones that come up for me on the desktop computer are brands, which I find interesting.

One strategy that I’ve been using pretty aggressively is to visit Crowdfire every day or two and cut out folks I’ve followed that haven’t followed back. Then I visit the follow area of the site, put in a hashtag specific to what I do, like “design” or “smallbusiness”, and follow 50 of the accounts that show up. Why 50? That’s the follow limit for a free account and we haven’t shelled out the cash for a paid account yet.

Another cool feature of the Crowdfire site: You can put in a Twitter username, and see who they’re following. I’ve followed a bunch of accounts that way, and have gotten a whole mess of new follows as a result. Think strategy – who are your colleagues and competitors? Who are they connected to on Twitter? Get in on that action!

Bonus – Set up an autoresponder through Crowdfire to get additional traffic to your site. Make your message super nice and helpful, with a direct call to action, and people will have less of a chance to get annoyed by it.

Wanna Keep Your New Followers? Don’t Overshare or Oversell

The biggest turnoff in social media (to me, anyways) is one note brands that are sales robots. If you’re auto publishing a tweet that links to the latest thing you posted on Etsy, and that’s all you ever post on Twitter… Knock it off. It’s costing you followers, because no one wants to read that.

Now, listen – you absolutely can automate your social media a little bit. But everything in moderation. If you’re asking me to buy something every now and then, and you’ve got other interesting content sprinkled in, I’m going to be much more open to listening to you asking me to buy this thing or read that blog post.

Do you have more tips on how to get more Twitter followers?

I’d love to read them in the comments!