How to Auto-Follow on Twitter
First off, let me start this off by saying that I personally do not use a service that auto-follows (or even un-follows) people automatically. I actually do everything by hand; at least while I still can. I use a service that alerts me via email whenever I have new followers and these emails come through at certain times of the day. I don’t always get to the emails right away even though it’s a part of my morning routine, but this can actually be a bit helpful too.
Let me explain why…
The service that I use (which is 100% free) is Nutshell Mail which is a service of Constant Contact. You don’t have to use Constant Contact to use Nutshell Mail – everyone can use it. I set up my accounts, and get emails throughout the day whenever I have new Twitter followers – it will also notify me of those who have un-followed me as well.
Now why my procrastination in following up with Twitter follows is a good thing is for this reason: I’ve often found in going through Nutshell Mail that if I don’t get to my followers in time to follow them (if I decide to), then within a couple of days those same people will have un-followed me. Maybe it was something I said or maybe, and it’s my strong belief that this is true, they weren’t truly interested in what I had to say but rather were just “auto-following” and then “auto-un-following” people to increase their numbers.
Anyhow, I suggest Nutshell Mail for those of you who want to do it by hand. If not, however, here are some other services to take a look at:
The first is SocialOomph (it used to be called TweetLater). They offer both free and paid accounts so you can give them a try to see if you like using them or not. That said, the automation part of their service does cost a fee but at the time of this writing it’s $3.97/month. Literally the cost of a cup of coffee depending upon where you get your coffee from.
SocialToo is another application that auto-follows people for you.
Another one is Twollow which offers paid services.
I know there are others, countless others, that I haven’t listed here a simple search in Google for “auto-follow Twitter” will pull them up for you.
What is Twitter?
Twitter is what’s referred to as a micro-blogging service. It’s like your own little blog where you can update your Twitter followers in short, 140-character messages.
These short messages on Twitter are referred to as “tweets”.
The people who can see these “tweets” that you make are called your “followers” and in order to get followers, you have to start following other people. Now, this is not always the case, because you’ll find that the more you tweet, the more likely you’ll be found by others, but it does help to follow people as well.
The most important thing to remember is that when you set up your Twitter account, you will want to do at least two things first before you start tweeting away to your hearts content.
This information is covered in greater depth in the “How to Set Up a Twitter Account” area, but here’s a few tips to get you started:
- When you first set up your account, you’ll be given a default icon that identifies you which looks like an egg. You’ll want to change this right away because people are more likely to follow someone who has a personal picture or even a brand icon listed rather than just the default “egg” icon. Many spammers don’t take the time to change their icon and lots of folks on Twitter already know this. So it’s to your benefit to change your photo on your Twitter account.
- Add a profile that tells about yourself; who you are and what you do. This also will help get you more Twitter followers. If someone stops by your Twitter page and sees a photo of you but no biographical information, they’re not as likely to follow you.
Once you’ve set up your Twitter account, added a photo of yourself or your business, and placed some biographical information there, you’ll want to compose a few tweets of your own first. Now, you don’t have to do this right away, but it does help, especially since what we’ll cover next is how to find people to follow. When you start following people they’ll most likely stop by your Twitter page and see what you’ve written about so far. This usually helps them to make a quick decision as to whether or not they should follow you back.
Now again, this is not always the case, sometimes people use “auto-follow” software which means that they automatically follow anyone who follows them and I talk about that here.
How to Twitter
You may have followed along when I talked about how to set up a Twitter account in an earlier post. But now that you’re there, you might have already started to follow some people, and you may have even added a few tweets of your own.
But you might be thinking…”Now What?”
That’s what we’ll talk about here because depending upon your purpose for using Twitter in the first place, the “Now What?” can be a multitude of things.
The very first thing you can do if you’re a business, is follow http://twitter.com/TwitterBusiness. This is Twitter’s official business channel and while they don’t post often, they do give some great little tidbits of information.
Now, let’s move on to the “Now What?” part of this whole thing.
First off, as a business, you’ll want to refrain from constantly selling. A few posts here and there that deal with products or coupons is fine, but when people come to Twitter and follow a brand, they’re looking for something a little more personal. They want to know that your brand isn’t just some faceless entity but rather a real person just like them who may at times spill coffee all over their work-clothes or find a great pasta dish at a local restaurant.
Secondly, it’s important that you engage with those who follow you. Twitter is meant to be a two-way conversation, not a one way broadcast. This means that you re-tweet content from others that you find useful, and just all around treat Twitter the way you would if you were talking to people at a social gathering.
Even when you’re out and about networking with other people in a business setting, you don’t always talk about business. You talk about things happening around you, new businesses, and get to know others. It’s the same way on Twitter. You are building and nurturing relationships. This is so important because people like to do business with people with which they feel they have a connection and Twitter is a great place to do that.
One of the best things to do is to follow those who have a lot of followers in your industry. Then follow them on Twitter to get a good feel for how they interact with their followers.
If you want a head start on some good high-quality brands to follow who know how to work Twitter to their advantage take a look at these:
