Unless you just want to vent, the reason you post things on Twitter is to influence people. But you can’t influence people who don’t see your tweets. **The more people who see your tweets, the more influential you are. **So you should increase your Twitter followers.
How can you increase your followers? Research at Georgia Tech gives you the answer.
Twitter Things To Do #
Be Positive. Positive tweets are more likely to be retweeted and people who use positive words have more followers. Who wants to listen to people complain all day? Use the ideal positivity ratio of 3 positive tweets to every 1 negative.
Be Informative. People like useful information. Link to How To articles. Give useful tips, like “Order the Margharita Pizza at Stefano’s.”
Get Followed By People With Lots of Followers. Network overlap is the number one driver of followers. If you know someone with lots of followers, ask them to follow you.
Fill Out Your Profile. Longer profiles earn more followers because people want to know about the people they follow. Link to your facebook page, to your blog, or to someplace where people can learn more about you. And tell people where you live, because we like people who are like us, even if they only share a name like ours.
Follow Back. When a real person with a picture and a profile follows you, follow them back. Reciprocity is the most powerful tool of persuasion, and it works on Twitter, too.
Twitter Things To Avoid #
Avoid Negativity. Negative sentiment turns people off.
Avoid Hashtags. While hashtags help with SEO rankings, they turn people off. And never use a hashtag if you’re cross-posting to Facebook.
Avoid Broadcast Communications. People don’t check Twitter to read your ad.
You might say, “Great, Bill, but the country’s going to hell in a hand basket. Why shouldn’t I complain? How else will we get people to pay attention?”
Most people know America is heading in the wrong direction. They don’t need more evidence; they need more answers.
Every bit of scientific evidence shows we’re attracted to positive things and we avoid negative things. Negative campaigning works by turning people away from the other candidate, but it also turns people off from the negative campaigner.
If you want to influence people and win your point, first they have to like you.
So here’s your super simple task for this week: post 3 positive tweets every day. About anything. “My kids are great!” “Here’s some good news we can use [link].” If you want, you may add one negative or neutral post.
Do that for five days and see how many followers you gain.
BONUS: You will love this new information instantly, because it’s free!