The question that seems to be on everyone’s lips on the social media marketing team is “How can I increase the number of Facebook likes?”
This has led to tactics emerging to increase engagement by posting frenzied Facebook updates many times a day. Brand pages are offering incentives, bribes and tactics that look very much like begging.
Just to gain those precious additional likes.
The magic marketing goals often heard around the water cooler are 1,000, 10,000 or even 100,000 Facebook fans. Always numbers with many zeros.
It all has become a bit unseemly really.
Despite large fan counts being the social media managers holy grail, the core challenge on Facebook is that it is filtered. It is lucky if even 15% of updates such as photos, quotes and videos even appear in people’s Facebook timelines.
This filter on Facebook is due to censoring being applied by the social network called “Edge Rank”.
So the question that needs to be asked is this “Is a Facebook like worth what we think it is?”
The Twitter advantage
Twitter might seem a bit more wild west. But its advantage is that is not filtered. Every tweet appears in your followers streams.
This is something that the marketing team quite often forgets.
What is not appreciated by many is that it is easier to build a loyal tribe of fans on Twitter who are interested in your content and subject than it is on Facebook.
Maybe you should rethink your social media strategy?
Top tactics to gain more Twitter followers
So how do you get more Twitter followers?
- Follow people on Twitter. The law of reciprocation is what works with this tactic
- Have great content that links from your Twitter account. People will check you out and if your content is good on your blog or website then it is more likely you will be followed
- Engage with your followers on Twitter with retweets, comments and questions
- Make it easy for people to follow you on Twitter from your website by including a follow me on Twitter button that is obvious and near the top of your page
For some more detailed tactics, here are some more articles that may help.
- How to Build a Targeted Twitter Tribe of 100,000
- 12 Keys to Success on Twitter
- 37 Ways to Use Twitter for Business
Also my book “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” has many easy to implement Twitter tips.
40 ways to increase your Twitter tribe
So you are still short of ideas? Here is an infographic to get you started.
Infographic Source: Twiends
What About You?
Is Twitter an important social media network in your marketing plans? Is it working for you?
Could you do better?
Look forward to hearing your feedback and stories in the comments below.
Want to learn how to use Twitter to market your brand and your blog?
My book – “Blogging the Smart Way – How to Create and Market a Killer Blog with Social Media” – will show you how.
It is now available to download. I show you how to create and build a blog that rocks and grow tribes, fans and followers on social networks such as Twitter and Facebook. It also includes dozens of tips to create contagious content that begs to be shared and tempts people to link to your website and blog.
I also reveal the tactics I used to grow my Twitter followers to over 140,000.