How Well do You Know Your Twitter Followers?

Seeing your follower count increase on Twitter gives you a jolt of confidence. You feel you are doing something right and tweeting content that people find interesting enough to either comment or retweet your content to their followers.  You followers are your Twitter team which you are constantly nurturing to have the ideal network.  However, with 700+ followers, it’s impossible to see every tweet and respond to everyone.

If you use Twitter enough, you will start to notice the people in your network who actively engage in conversations, retweet messages, and which people only tweet links.

Here are five reasons why knowing your followers contributes to your Twitter success:

Curation

Tools like Twaitter allow you to schedule and send tweets to select recipients. Organizing your followers into certain lists is a great way to weed through a massive following pool and get the right message to the right person.  Tweeting a link to a blog post on creatively designed ads will receive a better response rate from graphic designers and marketing executives than it would nurses.  Organizing your followers also helps when seeking information on certain topics.

Referrals

Your followers have an internet and personal network of their own.  If you are having some technical trouble with your blog, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Chances are many of your followers are bloggers too.  We’ve all come across some technical bumps in the road before, and people are always waiting for a chance to show their expertise or point you in the right direction if needed. Take note of the people who respond.  The next time you have a question, a simple direct message, or email, will be sufficient.

Business Development

Twitter does produce leads.  Twitter is also a great way to stay in touch with those newfound leads.  Be sure to use Twitter for quick messages that would make a short email.  People view multiple direct messages, about the same subject, as annoying. Promoting your business too much is a turn off, but consistent, friendly communication builds relationships.  If you can schedule a new business meeting with a lead you received from Twitter, the meeting will feel more relaxed, because the ice was broken on Twitter.

Spreading the word

Twitter is a great way to get your message out to a large number of people.  An interesting statistic Tweepi displays, is the number of retweets each of your followers send.  Users with a high retweet count means, your message is more likely to be retweeted by them than your other followers.  Social media is the way information is shared, and your followers that like to retweet messages do just that.

LinkedIn Connections

Posting your LinkedIn status to Twitter and vice versa proves that social media is for b-to-b.  Research how many of your followers added the #In hashtag to their tweets and ask your LinkedIn connections to follow you on Twitter.  People aren’t going to follow your LinkedIn status updates like they do your tweets, but making the connection on Twitter avoids joining a group unrelated to your specialty or having to claim they are a “friend” just to add them as a connection on LinkedIn.

Getting to know your followers doesn’t take much time since people tweet more information than they think.  Gaining some insight on your followers can do wonders for your Twitter strategy and has the potential to bring in some new business.