For many, having Twitter followers is the holy grail of being on Twitter. Others would think of Twitter followers as a by-product of successful community building. Regardless of the nature of motivation one has in having Twitter followers, one thing remains – having more followers means more people to impact or learn from. So, how do you get more Twitter followers?
You might not know it but the trending topics on Twitter’s trending topic list could very well be useful in gaining new followers. But while this is a fact, you need to first understand the reasons behind a trending topic. It’s not enough that you pick a hashtag topic from the trending topic list and start tweeting using the trending topic selected. You need to have a clear understanding of why a certain topic ends up trending.
A topic that is trending is one which people are talking about now more than any other time in the past. It could be a popular topic before that has become popular again now with a new group of people. Twitter explained that the Trends list includes not just what is popular or being talked about but all the hottest rising topics. In other or simpler words, Twitter captures novelty topics more than the popular topics. Hence, when using the trending topics, you should take advantage of this knowledge in order to increase your Twitter followers.
Rather than just sticking a trending hashtag topic onto the end of your tweet, you must make sure that your content is relevant to the trending hashtag topic. You can’t stay away from your niche or from the topics which normally define or characterize your tweets. The trending topic should be relevant – to your niche, and to your regular tweets.
The best way to illustrate this is by using a trending topic “#Vegetarian”. This trending topic will work well for people involved in restaurants, foods because it jives well with what restaurant or food people tweet about. The trending topic can be enhanced and made more interesting by sharing a recipe or photo of a dish, include the hashtag and send tweets to as many followers as possible. However, the same trending topic will not likely work for people involved in, say, social media marketing. It will take a high level of ingenuity to be able to make this work without looking or sounding “off” or awkward. And in terms of gaining new followers, it’s far from happening.
If you pick an unrelated or “non-relevant” trending topic, you might stand a chance of getting a few new followers, but these new followers are not likely to get interested in the contents you normally tweet. The likely scenario would be the new followers “unfollowing” you after a few days. The interaction stops right there.
In order to capitalize on the trending topics and use them to your advantage, you should focus on finding or selecting trending topics that are relevant to your niche or business. This will make your regular followers sticking by your tweets and new followers interested in the trending topic could be added to your existing follower-base. The new followers will get to know you and what you tweet about which most likely they will also be interested in.
When tweeting trending topics, make sure that your content is funny, unique and “novel” and interesting. The competition is stiff and a stand out tweet can easily get the attention of the readers or followers. A compelling tweet is likely to be re-tweeted. Make your tweets as mess-free as possible. There’s no need to over-stuff a single tweet with more than one trending topic. Not only will it look messy, it will also be mistaken as spammy. And lastly, when tweeting you must make sure that your tweet will be of help or be of value to those who will see it.
To know how to optimize a tweet and get more followers apart from using the hashtag and trending topics, click here.
