In the Club – The Right Way to Make Friends on Twitter

“I am so popular, everyone loves me so much at this school on Twitter”

For companies who are curious about this whole social media thing and how something like a Twitter page might allow them to engage with current or potential customers, it follows that the more followers the better, right? Not necessarily.

Looking to capitalize on the hype, many marketers have released free e-books, downloads and written about a gazillion posts on how to have success on Twitter, and many focus on building followers. Some are now offering paid solutions, like It’s Remarkable PR, who promise on SitePoint Marketplace, for the bargain price of $299, to create a new twitter account with a custom profile, get 500 followers related to your niche and 60 tweets (2 a day) 1 general, 1 promotional in order to:

make you a star on Twitter – Get Instant Authority Status, More Sales and an ARMY of Rabid Followers!

Rabidness aside, what is concerning about this approach is something that Sarah Evans over at Mashable, has coined caring more about the count than content. She goes onto explain that “You get more followers because you provide great content, are entertaining or someone likes you.” It’s really that simple. Brands with the most success on twitter understand that building a following on Twitter is about connecting with like-minded people for sometimes meaningful sometimes completely frivolous conversation. It’s people first, brands second. Act like a human being and not only will your more sales-oriented tweets be accepted, but you will start to see how Twitter can effectively used to drive traffic to your web site and make a difference to your bottom line.

Help me get XXX followers and I’ll give you a cookie

Twitter affords companies the opportunity to share the voice and personality of the brand and yes, to develop brand loyalty and perhaps even make a sale or two. However, on the first day in a new school, it would be rare for a student to go around campaigning for friendship – and begging for new followers or focusing a promotion around getting more followers runs the risk of diluting the brand and being ignored or bashed for such an abrasive, sales-happy approach. Instead, find and get to know new followers 20-30 at a time and be willing to respond to things that have nothing to do with what you are selling. In fact, you might want to consider a full week or two of doing nothing but listening and responding to other people, before saying too much about yourself.

Give yourself 2-3 months of daily, active twittering and you will begin to see the tremendous opportunity that lies on Twitter.

@hayden_harnett, the twitter account for popular leather handbag and accessories company Hayden Harnett explains the companies approach when they launched the account just two short months ago.

“We started out by finding and following people we thought would be interested in Hayden-Harnett, whether because of their tastes in fashion, music or art, and then kept those who followed us in return.  Since then, we’ve had many more people seek our twitter presence out, and have built a dedicated following over the past two months. Twitter is consistently one of our top ten traffic sources.”

Hayden Harnett currently has 979 followers, is following 999 and has made 2,064 updates in the last 2 months – that’s about 34 public tweets a day (not counting direct messages). Or about a billion times more activity than the 2 tweets a day offered by It’s Remarkable PR (even their deluxe $499/month offering only provides 3 tweets a day).

Additional Resources

Hayden Harnett discusses their approach to Social Media, PR etc

Twitter and inadequacy (er, the great friend divide)
How Many Friends is Too Many?

Tags: Twitter