Twitter: It's Quality, Not Quantity

When I was first asked to sign up for Twitter, I was very apprehensive. The whole idea of a social networking site that posts a person's updates seemed a little stupid because I already had a Facebook account to do that for me. But, it was free and I did it anyway.

I'm not going to pretend that I fully understand the Twitter craze that is happening at the moment, but the article How to Get More Twitter Followers: Some Methods That Work helped me get that much closer to figuring out the point of all of this.

The author says that it isn't what you do on Twitter that matters, it's the attention you give you're account everywhere else that does. There are plenty of websites out there that give advice on Twitter etiquette but Maki doesn't believe this is where users should be placing their attention. Maki looks at the top users on Twitter who have the most followers and says the reason these people are successful on Twitter has nothing to do with how they tweet. It's what they're doing outside of Twitter that is driving people to their account.

Basically, you aren't going to get popular by setting up an account on Twitter. You already have to be popular to become popular on Twitter.

Your Twitter profile is like any other website, and if you want people to go to that website you need to "drive traffic to your profile." Maki came up with, in my opinion, brilliant ideas to drive people to your account. A few of my favorites were organizing a contest through your twitter account and including a link to your profile in email/forum signatures. If you have any other presence on the web, you need to make sure that it is somehow linked to your Twitter account.

Another point that I found interesting was how Maki states is isn't necessarily how many followers you have, it's how you interact with the ones you do have. It's all about quality, not quantity. It is a lot easier to stay connected with a couple hundred followers, rather than a couple thousand. It is much better for your brand if the consumer feels a personal connection and a sense of relevance rather than feeling like one in a million.

You need to make your account the first place people look when signing into Twitter. This isn't as easy as just following as many people as you can click on. You need to make these people feel connected and engage each follower as much as the next one. Twitter is a great networking and communication tool for a company that is looking to stay connected to their consumers. And hey, while living a country that is going through a recession, the number one reason to sign up for Twitter: It's free!