Getting a large following on Twitter could give you the necessary exposure to advance your writing ambitions. This could also be a great platform where you can share ideas and learn from the tweets or retweets of those who follow you. Here is a list of tips that can help authors get more followers on Twitter:
Create a good impression
Work on your profile; put up a picture where you are looking straight into the lens as this will reflect professionalism. Some people use their company logo, which is acceptable. A great number of people do look into the profile before they follow so a professionally laid out profile gives you an edge.
Compose thought provoking tweets. Potential followers will go only as far as your latest tweets to decide whether they want to follow you or not. Thus it would be in your best interests to always create tweets that are worth sharing and would entice the reader to share their ideas as well.
Tweet regularly to establish a presence in Twitterverse but not too often as to antagonize your followers.
Using hashtags lets you connect with people with the same interests. Create one or two hashtags that will be descriptive of your tweets. This way, people with the same interests will be able to see your tweets and make the decision to follow you.
Follow everyone worthwhile who follows you. The good thing about this is that when your follower answers you publicly, you gain the added exposure to their followers. On the other hand, if your follower sees that you did not follow back, this might be a reason for them to unfollow you.
Increase your visibility
Direct people to your Twitter account. In your blogs, e-mails, and all your social networking platforms, it would benefit you as an author to put a link Follow me on Twitter". Additionally, a counter that shows how many followers you already have can be encouragement for readers to follow you. By adding this link, people who may already be interested in the topics you are sharing, but are not yet followers, can easily follow you with just the click of a button.
Try to get celebrities with many followers to follow you. Using the @message will directly send the celebrity a message even if you don't follow them. Your tweet to the celebrity will show in your profile page. And on the off chance that your tweet gets the celebrity's attention and they reply or retweet your message, you would be on your way to getting more followers on Twitter.
Follow people who belong to your niche market, then follow their followers as well. This way, you are opening your doors to them about what you could share with them regarding topics of the same interest. This will enable you to have a good base of followers once you start publishing your book.
Request retweets. Putting RT requests occasionally on your tweets will remind your followers that you are asking them to spread the word for you. This practically pushes your exposure outside of your tweet network. Check on your twitter name and see which got the most replies and retweets. Try to retweet these one or two times more, spacing them from each other as this can give you more exposure in case some people missed your earlier tweet but without necessarily appearing to be spamming.
Manage your follower list
Regularly unfollow people who don't follow you back. By doing this, you make your list more manageable as you tweet only to people who see value in what you are sharing.
Follow people who autofollow you. Celebrities usually autofollow but, unlike spammers, they have the same number of followers as they follow. A celebrity autofollow can boost your exposure so again, it would be really important to do informative tweets to maximize this eventuality. Spammers do autofollow as well but, unlike celebrities, their followers do not number as many as those they follow. From a strategic point of view, you may follow the followers of the spammers as these would be the people who are following in return to boost their follow count.
Use keywords to search for tweets of people with whom you share the same topics of interest. If you have something in common, you may reply to their tweet to start a conversation so that if someone finds the topic interesting, they may reply back and eventually follow you.
These tips and tricks could definitely bring you more followers on Twitter. However, as you increase these keep in mind that there are certain "rules" that need to be followed so that you develop good relations with your followers.
