How To Increase Your Chances of a Twitter Follow Back
In my post on how I got 5,000 new Twitter followers in six days, I said the easiest way to get new followers is to follow them first. The hope is the person you’re following will follow you back. However, this doesn’t always happen. To increase the chances of a Twitter follower back, keep the following tips in mind.
Have Some Tweets Ready To Read
If you’re brand new to Twitter, the first thing you should do is seed your profile page with some interesting tweets. Put yourself in the other person’s shoe. You follow them and they come to check out your Twitter profile and see an empty page with no tweets. Would you follow that?
The concept works the same way with a blog. Before you do any promotion, you want to make sure your blog has some quality posts up. No one wants to see an empty blog and no one will follow a Twitter account with zero tweets. Well, maybe a bot will but who wants a bunch of bots following them?
Maintain a Safe Following to Followers Ratio
To help control spam, Twitter placed a limit on how many people you can follow. The limit is 2,000 or 110% of your followers, whichever is higher. If you have 10,000 people following you, you can follow a max of 11,000. If you have 10 people following you, you can follow a max of 2,000.
Just because Twitter allows a new account to follow 2,000 people doesn’t mean you should do it. While you can use auto following software like Twitter Snipe to follow a ton of people in one day, most will not follow you back if your following to followers ratio is out of wrack.
I’ve seen tons of Twitter accounts following 2,000 people but only have a handful followed back and those are probably bots. It’s pretty clear to a real person what is going on when he sees an account with 2,000 following and zero followers.
If your Twitter account is fairly new and you only have a handful of followers, the easiest way to destroy it is by suddenly following the maximum number of people allowed. Start off small and slowly add people on a daily basis. As your account gets bigger you’ll be able to increase the number and still maintain a nice following to followers ratio.
Upload a Picture To Your Profile
A picture is worth a thousand words. Putting a picture of yourself in your Twitter profile will greatly increase your chance of the person following you back. While there are Twitter marketers who will post a photo of a hot babe or some strange avatar, I really recommend you post a picture of yourself. This helps to build trust. The exception to the rule is if the Twitter account is a corporate one. In that case, a company logo will be fine.
Have a Great Bio
The first thing a user is going to read when he visits your Twitter profile is your bio. Chances are, the decision to follow or not will be based on what your bio says. Don’t just put up any old thing. Spend some time to write a really nice bio that tells the reader what you’re all about. Originally, my bio had some smart ass remark about making money online by telling people how much I make online. Since then, I have changed it to the following.
I am best known for showing the income power of blogging by taking my blog from zero to over $40,000 per month in two years. Visit JohnChow.com for more info.
In addition to the bio, you should make sure everything else is filled in. This is especially true for the link to you blog. Your Twitter profile can be a source of great traffic. A good percentage or users checking out your profile will click through and check out your blog. My Twitter profile sends almost 1,000 referrals to my blog everyday.
Get a Custom Twitter Background
If you really want to make a good impression, then get a custom Twitter background. A custom made background will help separate you from the millions of Twitter users using the default background. My background was created by Twitter Image. They did a great job on it and their prices are very reasonable as well.
A custom background by Twitter Image cost $100. If it worth it? How much is 1,000 referrals per day worth to you? For me, it’s worth far more than $100.
Interact with The Followers
This is the big one. You want people you’ve followed to follow you back? Start talking to them! Send them a reply introducing yourself and why you’re following them. Retweet a few of their tweets that you find interesting. The more you show up on their Twitter streams, the higher the chance that they’ll follow you back.
Now, you can’t do this if you suddenly follow 2,000 people. This is why I recommend you start small and add 50 to 100 at a time. This will give you time to interact with everyone and have them get to know you better. The truth is, most people will follow you back if you interact with them. I follow anyone who sends me a reply to any of my tweets.
If you follow the above advice, you should see a very high percentage of follow backs from the people you follow. Good luck and if you haven’t already done so, follow me on Twitter.
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Trackbacks
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Following those who reply to your tweets is definitely a better plan than auto-following everyone that follows you.
Steven-Sanders’s last blog post: 7 Ways To Make Money Online
Definately awesome tips.
You shouldn’t autofollow everyone that follows you
then you just end up with too much
Yeah. I don’t just follow anyone.
TYCP Entertainment Magazine’s last blog post: Courtney Van Dusen Interview
Hi Steve,
i think you are right because i have tried following every one that follows me without results
okey nwoke’s last blog post: A Day In The Life Of An Affiliate Marketer
Nice tips, John. I will put them to good use. And thanks for following me first. It was pleasantly surprised when I saw a mega blogger like you initating it. Lol!
Clement’s last blog post: Ashton Kutcher should just send the 10,000 nets to Africa without preconditions
ooops! I meant to say “….initiating it”.
Clement’s last blog post: Ashton Kutcher should just send the 10,000 nets to Africa without preconditions
That is all well and good John, but if I have to follow 10000 people in order to get say 9000 following me, then I can’t see the point. I mean even if 10% of those followers tweet once a day while I’m online, that’s 1000 tweets I have to wade through, and I have better things to do with my time.
I use twitter to keep an eye on people I am interested in. Sure I would like people to follow me, but only if they like what I have to offer, not because I followed them first.
Sire’s last blog post: Passive Income With Your Own Online Store
You use Twitter to keep track of people you’re interested in and many people do that. However, many people also use Twitter as a marketing tool and that’s what these tips are aimed at.
Sorry John, I reckon I should have put 2 & 2 together; Twitter + marketing = John Chow
Sire’s last blog post: The SEO Importance Of Permalinks
If all of those tweets overwhelm you, you can always use TweetDeck.
Separate those you enjoy following and talking to on a regular basis into special groups.
This helps make following specific twitter users so much simpler.
Steven-Sanders’s last blog post: 7 Ways To Make Money Online
I really like TweetDeck. Greg Ellison
Greg Ellison’s last blog post: Where to Find Mig Welders
Hi Steven, thanks mate. I actually have got tweetdeck but haven’t started using it yet. I think that now is a good time to blow the dust off of it.
Sire’s last blog post: The SEO Importance Of Permalinks
Right.Twitter really a good place to increase blog traffic and i think if somebody have fresh tweets,people could through search find him.
Bati’s last blog post: 50 best wordpress plug-ins
Another great tip john. I’ll keep that in mind. And thanks for following me on twitter. I did not expect you’ll follow a small tweeter and aspiring blogger like me, once again, thanks!
regie’s last blog post: My First Artisteer Wordpress Theme
I have stopped following people but radher I will follow back does who followed me.
It’s quite tiring to unfollow people who don’t follow you.
Using the automated follow/unfollow software have gotten my account suspended.
I guess doing things manually works best but slow..
Great post John. I think the number one thing that has worked for me is interacting with the people who I follow. It becomes easier if you truly feel engaged to the other person’s tweets. . . that’s why I try to follow people with similar interests or whom I actually find interesting.
It makes my day when someone @replies to one of my tweets so I can only assume that others feel the same way. I try to comment on every tweet that I connect with somehow. . . you know the feeling: it’s like a double-take when you check out an attractive girl in the distance.
I also try to give back. For example: I made an amazing BBQ dinner this past weekend so I offered to give out the recipes. Low and behold, a person DMed me and asked for a copy of the recipes for her brother. It’s not magic guys.
Hope that helps!
-Philip Nowak
Philip Nowak’s last blog post: Picture of the Day: Broadway Liquors Cold Beer-Wine-Pops Low Rate
I really enjoyed your thoughts here regarding Twitter followers. Really great tips!
Smart Boy’s last blog post: Love Your Blog Topic Like Stephen Hawking Loves Science
John, you do have a nice twitter page – not bad for $100! It looks like a good investment, if you can get the people to follow that is. I agree you definitely need to start small so you can manage it and are not overwhelmed, and you can give it personal attention. Thanks for the sound advice. From what I am hearing (and you can weigh in on this) it seems to be the trend to follow to respond personally vs. auto responders…
Mrs. Right’s last blog post: Where can I find Private Label Right or Resales right on ebooks, topics on early childhood cultivation?
Your Message
Thanks for your thoughts John. I ditto not wanting to wade through a 1000 tweets or more. Especially when someone puts out 8, 10, 12 tweets in quick succession. I usually unfollow. I agree with you about importance of seeing photo and substance to get followed. I always go to web page. Thanks for following me.
Marge’s last blog post: Jeff Beck a No Go: Then a No Show
great write up John. I know these ideas you wrote up have been talked about in teh past, but its good to see one page for people to turn too. Normally, I will not follow back a person that is following 1000 people but only 50 follow back…if the ratio is 70% or higher, I follow back. I know people are trying to saturate their accounts with as many people as possible for marketing purpose, but for me, its not as big of a priority…steady growth is good enough.
Aman@BullsBattleBears’s last blog post: Stocks Pull Back Monday
Very precise and insightful tips.
It’s also a good reminder to focus on what you are trying to accomplish.
I do think the bio is important people people connect or reject based on values.
J.D. Meier’s last blog post: The Five Small Business Success Formulas
my follower in twitter is zero.
make money online’s last blog post: 网赚必读：CPS广告页面优化实例
awesome tips john. i think a clean looking layout is very important for that first time visitor to your twitter page.
Wow this tool i very important to make bussines online, i got a 72 followers.
I only got 24 followers in about 2 weeks…
Awesome tips John. Twitter is a great tool for marketing, though it takes time to succeed there. But where it doesn’t?
John, how come you have never share your monthly income now?
Go2Wellington’s last blog post: 你是‘垂帘听政’的部落客吗？
I’ve been wondering about that myself..
Melody’s last blog post: Photo Restoration and Gif ad for Trudy Thomas
Many people want to know that too.Hope that John Chow could give us:)
Bati’s last blog post: 20 Great Short URL Comments part “1″
I think John did tell us that he no longer post his income report now on..so don’t give too much hope on these.
Btw, good tips on increasing twitter follower, I’ll try on these tips and see how is it going.
Regards,
Lee
Lee Ka Hoong’s last blog post: 12 Steps How To Build A Profitable Niche Blog
He had said a while back that he wasn’t going to because he was waiting to hit a new mark? Something like that. I do remember him making a post not too long ago about hitting the 40k mark.
TYCP Entertainment Magazine’s last blog post: Courtney Van Dusen Interview
Good rundown on Twitter John. I also think it is important to let people know what you do and what you are good at as often as possible, so eventually people interested in your type of content will want to network with you.
The Almost Millionaire’s last blog post: Blog Income Report
Awesome tips! Iam doing twitter for past several months and following your way of approach to get number of twitters.But by reading above posts, learned some new features that will sure helps me in getting twitters in a fast way and iam going to implement soon.Thanks for the effort made!
seosoeasy’s last blog post: Supercharged SEOlist – Part I
Your tips is really great.. I’ve follow you on twitter.
Definitely good advice, thanks as always John!
Eric D. Greene (artist)’s last blog post: Ladybug drawing in oil pastels
Nice set of tips John. I’m not a big fan of auto-following software though. I think it’s just promoting too much spam.
Chris’s last blog post: Brute Force Twitter Smackdown or Letdown?
This are really amazing advices John good work! I really need to get advices like this as I’m experimenting with twitter a lot and I like the results so far.
Mitja’s last blog post: EA Sports Active 30 Day Challenge
As usual, another great post. Twitter hasn’t been a big focus as of yet, but these are great tips to help me get started!
This is not for everyone.
If you want to do aggresive marketing then thats the way. Same goes with facebook, myspace, digg and countless other sites.
There are other ways besides geting involved with such sites.
Internetsalsa’s last blog post: Over 1 million is after Ashton Kutcher on Twitter…
I don’t get what you’re saying. Plenty of people use Twitter for different things.
TYCP Entertainment Magazine’s last blog post: Courtney Van Dusen Interview
Those are simple but a logical tips!
Paulubiadas’s last blog post: Update on my brother and the contest
Follow people who follow back
BTW always reply to @ tweets.
fas’s last blog post: Samsung SSD Awesomeness
Makes sense. However, there are so many SMS to keep up with. I am going nuts. My twitter account for this blog is neglected.
I am going to organize some useful twits though, that might work better for me. Thanks
Laura-Whateverebay’s last blog post: Welcome to FeedBurner
Well I think I’m going to have to use your strategy and get more people to follow me on my twitter.Well see-ya!
Bradley’s last blog post: RECYCLE,REUSE AND REDUCE!!!PLEASE!!!
Follow the ones that have shown success…true dat…true dat…
Michael Zhao’s last blog post: End of Second Week.
Thank you for that awesome post about Twitter. That was very helpful. I will surely take those guideline in mind while tweaking.
I myself have also featured some twitter posts in my blog at
http://renegadesystempro.com/twitter-marketing-strategies-for-professionals/
Thanks
RC @renegadesystempro
RC@renegadesystempro’s last blog post: SUSAN BOYLE – “She Dreamed A Dream”
Hi John, thank you for the valuable suggestions on twitter. After your post, I think I will consider using twitter after this. You have explain it very well. Will try this strategy soonest.
thanks again,
JT@internetmarketing
Good tips. I definitely agree about having a custom Twitter background. I’m making my own one though.
TYCP Entertainment Magazine’s last blog post: Courtney Van Dusen Interview
Great tips John. I have found that tools like tweetdeck help you to manage in better way all your DM´s and replies than just using your account at Twitter.
Marketing Business Review’s last blog post: DoFollow Blogs List of Lists
John, how come you don’t post the link to the 100% FREE twitter background site. Come one man, hook up all your readers!
I think it’s weird to have a Twitter background when most users are in 1024×768, which does not show the whole background.
-Mike
Awesome post John. Twitter has been really helping my kick start my new blog. I just started following you today, keep up the great work.
Check out my blog when you get a chance. Let me know what you think.
Meili Liu’s last blog post: Tried and True Traffic Methods
Great tips. Maybe I should make a custom background for my twitter now.
JacobYap.com’s last blog post: Apple’s App Store hits 1 Billion Downloads
Valuable suggestions, thought-provoking subject. You explicate with clarity and conciseness. Will check your website again, definitely.
Cheers.
Great tips, John. I didn’t think of any of these. Thanks.