Twitter tips

I'm relatively new to Twitter. I somehow managed to attract 200 followers as of today.

A local friend wrote to ask if I was doing anything special to attract followers. The simple answer: no. But I wrote her a short email on some of the things I've been learning about what works, and how to learn more.

You can find a lot of twitter tips out there on the web and on twitter itself if you search.

I'm just a twitter toddler, but here's my quick and dirty take on what seems to have worked for me.

Follow others - it seems like there is at least some expectation that you "follow back" others who follow you. It is not a hard and fast rule, and I have begun to get a little more rigorous about who I will follow back. I still follow more than I am followed. Some out there are followed by many, don't follow many back.

Especially look for and follow others who do similar work or have similar interests.

Look for those you know and follow them, those are folks that often follow you back quickly/easily.

When you get a follow, it seems good form to write and thank them. I have not been very good at this.

Try to find ways to contribute. Share news, resources, etc. You will know you are doing a good job when people RT (re-tweet, or repeat) your tweet to their circle. Build your relationships and credibility by showing your expertise and awareness of what info might be important/interesting to people.

Tweet at individuals on occasion about things they have posted, if you have a helpful suggestion, a similar experience, etc.

It's okay to brag sometimes when you get a "win", but stay away from overt selling, and I see a lot of "good morning", "goodnight", "twitter is broken" and other, somewhat useless (IMHO) tweets.

You can ask for help/suggestions/resources -- but don't just do that all the time.

I like an article I found called "5 stages of twitter acceptance" that addresses some of these things. others like "how to gain followers" or "how NOT to gain followers" -- find tweets that offer up resources like that to give you ideas and tips. "how to find people to follow", etc.