I was recently working with a friend on her social media outreach. She was giving me some tips on how to get more followers on Pinterest and I was helping her to get more followers on Twitter, so I figured, why not share it all with you?! So, here is my Twitter 101 class in a blog post:

Like all forms of social media, making it work goes way beyond posting. Posting is great, but it will only get you so far.

I think the best piece of advice I’ve received that has helped me continuously grow my Twitter following is to:

• Be engaging. Before I cared about growing my fan base, I never responded to people who would follow me or tweet me. Now, I respond. I am engaging. I RT and favorite too. That’s my #1 tip. Some other advice:

• Participate in Twitter chats. When you start following people in your niche, you will notice when these chats take place. Join in and make new friends.
• When it comes to posting, remember the average tweet lives for about 20 minutes. If you are posting every 20 minutes, no, you are not tweeting too much.
• For the reason above, I schedule most of my tweets. Instead of logging on to post something numerous times a day for weeks, I spend 10 minutes scheduling the posts that last months long.
• Use hashtags. Don’t go overboard and has tag everything under the sun, just keep it relevant to what you are talking about. Many people get on to only search hashtags, so take a look at what is trending. (This is also a great way to find people in your niche you want to follow… search that hashtag!)
• Keep it short and sweet. You get 140 characters, so it’s hard to make it that long, but if you use up all of those 140 characters, it’ll be difficult for others to RT or RT with an added comment .
• Tweet something that gives people a reason to click your link, retweet you, respond to you, or favorite your tweet. If your content isn’t there, then what’s the point of tweeting in the first place?
• Get rid of that egg picture and give yourself a nice headshot or logo. Also, put something in that cover photo spot. Don’t leave it empty. Finally, use that little bio space to the fullest extent you can. Who are you? What do you do? Think about your goals and reasons for being on Twitter and lay it out right there so when people read your bio, they will want to follow you.

I am no Twitter expert. These are just some things I’ve learned along the way as a social media manager, but I have many other friends who also work as social media managers and I like to share the love, so here are some of their tips on using Twitter to promote your brand or business:

Alex Branning says to run a contest on your Twitter page that prompts people to RT to enter.

Paula Wethington suggests using keywords and location in “Twitter Advanced Search” to find people who are talking about specific topics in a chosen geographic area and to periodically review suggested accounts in “Who To Follow” list Twitter provides.

Sammy Loveridge uses Linkis. She says it works really to drive traffic to websites and is a great tool for engagement.

Are you on Twitter? If not, now you know everything you need. Follow me! I’m @MediaMaven_CN.