How to Get and Keep Followers on Twitter

There is an "unfollow" button under your name. If you keep sending out bad tweets, people might become very tempted to press it. So what do you have to do to keep yourself useful on twitter? What does it take to gain and keep the followers that you have? There are a lot of tips and tricks, and these are the ones that I have compiled over the last few months.

Give out tips of the day!
Some of my favorite tweeters are the ones who give out short, fortune-cookie style wisdom on their tweets. I'm following athletes, musicians, writers, and personal branding experts and once in awhile I'll read a kernel of wisdom that made getting onto twitter worth it! Since they continuously share their expertise with me, I happily continue following them.

Start Debates
Nothing got me more followers than when I was twitter-debating politics with a classmate. Since other people read his tweets and constantly saw him replying to me, they followed me just so they could get the full conversation! I rapidly doubled my hits! It was amazing.

Ask Questions
John Chow is rather infamous for asking questions of the day which are all later posted on his blog. This creates a mutually beneficial relationship - he will keep being viable on twitter because people would keep replying to his questions and he would always feature them on his blog and send attention their way! This online symbiotic relationship is rather ideal.

Respond to people
If someone tweets something interesting, don't forget to reply or re-tweet them! Nothing encourages good discourse than knowing that people are reading what you write and not just skimming over them. If you show appreciation and let them see your name a little more, they're more likely to pay attention to you as well. Exposure often begets fondness so remember that! Interaction is why so many of us are on these social network things to begin with!

Host a competition
Contests, competitions, giveaways! Free stuff is great. It's another wonderful thing about the internet. We can always find a lot of free stuff. A good online competition is always a great wayt o generate traffic and get followers.

Create Relationships
It's virtually impossible to establish a relationship with hundreds of followers (some people have as high as the thousands!) but it is possible to at last generate a relationship with a few of them. Having these ties with other people could make you useful to them and make them less likely to ever unfollow you.

While you're at it, why don't you follow me on twitter too? @KatArgonza