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How to Get Targeted Twitter Followers Fast

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how_to_twitter

When starting out on Twitter, one of the first things that people want to know after they have setup their profile and sent out a few tweets is how to find Twitter followers. Not just any followers, but followers who would be interested in what they have to offer.

As you may know, one of the ways to get Twitter followers fast is to start following people in hopes that they will follow you in return. So how do you up the odds that people you follow who are interested in your topic will follow you back?

There are several ways to find Twitter followers that are likely to follow you back. The key is in looking at the ratio of the person’s followers vs. following. If they have 100,000 people following them, and they are only following 100, chances are you may not make the cut. But if they are following 98,999 people, then more than likely they are utilizing an automation tool that follows everyone who follows them.

3 Free Ways to Find Reciprocal Followers

So outside of clicking on users one by one to see what their following ratio is, how do you find relevant followers who are likely to follow you back?

TwitterCounter
TwitterCounter keeps a historical track of how many people are following Twitter members, including predictions based on those numbers as to what their following will be the next day and 30 days out.

If you visit the TwitterCounter search page and search for your topic such as digital marketing, you will get results based on the information in Twitter member profiles (as opposed to what they tweet, which isn’t always a good indicator of a particular member’s interest). The results show the number of people following each member, the number of people the member follows, and the number of tweets they have sent. If you authorize TwitterCounter to your Twitter account, you can follow people directly from the list by clicking the blue follow link.

TweepML
TweepML allows members to add lists of Twitter members based on specific criteria. There are several lists of Twitter members who follow back. Some example lists include:

  • Fast Followers 1001-1500
  • Fast Followers 1501-2000
  • Fast Followers 2001-2500
  • Top 500 Follow All Back

Each list gives the user’s name and their profile description. Simply use your browser’s search feature to highlight particular keywords and check those members to follow. Once you authorize TweepML through your Twitter account, you can follow selected members. Also, remember not to follow too many people every day as you can possibly get banned by Twitter for doing so.

Tweepi
Once you authorize Tweepi through your Twitter account, you can enter a Twitter member’s username and Tweepi will bring back the followers of this user and information such as their number of following, followers, tweets, retweets, etc. So find a Twitter member in the same field, preferably with a huge following, but not someone who auto follows back (ie. someone who doesn’t follow many others). This way, you can be (almost) sure that everyone following them is actually interested in their topic, not just in a return follow.

Best Services and Apps

tweetadder

Other Ways to Gain Followers

There are many, many ways to get followers. In addition to seeking out new followers, you can also gain new followers by:

  1. 1- Adding your Twitter ID to your website, blog, email signature, business card, and to other social networks.
  2. 2- Joining forums relevant to your topic and adding your Twitter ID to your signature as well as to any lists of forum members on Twitter.
  3. 3- Using your Twitter URL as a website URL when commenting on blogs on your subject of interest.

They’re Following – Now What?

What is the point of having a large Twitter following if they are not actually paying attention to you? Sure they are following you, but with the invention of Twitter Lists, they may not actually be following your updates. So your next goal is to get their attention. This can be done in a variety of ways, including but not limited to the following.

Direct Messages
Although most of them are automated or spam, some people are still paying attention to their direct messages. So if someone sends you a Facebook link, go add them as a friend. Be sure to thank them for their message on Twitter @yourusername so they know who you are on Twitter and how you found them.

Blog Commenting
If your Twitter followers have blogs, go and leave a few valuable comments. If you don’t have a website, just include your Twitter profile URL as your website. The blog owner probably won’t miss that (unless they are one of the mega-blogs).

Retweets
Retweets generally get attention. So retweet users you hope to notice you, but also keep in mind that what you are retweeting is relevant to your followers. This way you are providing valuable information for your followers as well as (hopefully) garnering attention from other Twitter members. You can do this during the blog commenting proces as well by tweeting articles including their @theirusername.

Your Thoughts

What methods do you use to gain targeted Twitter followers, and how do you get them to engage and interact with you?

About

Kristi Hines is a freelance writer, ghostwriter, and copywriter who develops blog content, ebooks, emails, lead magnets, and website copy for marketing agencies, B2B, and SaaS.

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{ 80 Responses }

  1. Darrell Harris says:
    Hello Kristi Great post! I do try to increase my followers by writing quality tweets and if they like it they follow me back. I personally follow people by who I have interest with. Excellent tips though I will be adding Tweetadder to automate some tweeting. Thanks for sharing some of this valuable information.
  2. Stefan says:
    Am checking out Tweet Adder now. They have a 7 day no questions asked refund, so cannot hurt to try.
  3. Stefan says:
    Hi Kristi, great info, thanks! I wondered if you had any other advice on how to identify and attract the real influencers in any given industry (good suggestion from Apiz above though). Thanks again, Stefan
  4. Taswir Haider says:
    I like your tips. I am using TweetAdder for automating my twitter list and so far this is a cool one. More specifically I like the keyword based search of Tweet Adder where I can add related people only.
  5. Aleshia Green says:
    Hey Kristi, I was not aware of a couple of these Twitter tools. I was looking for some different tools besides TweetAdder. Also, what a great idea about tweeting on the users blogs if they have one. I hardly think about just going straight to their blogs from twitter. I will start implementing this one ASAP. Have a great day and look forward to more info from you. I found this article in the google search by the way. ;) Aleshia Green Social Media Consultant & Manager
  6. Gurwinder says:
    These are really the best way of getting Twitter followers. Thanks for sharing the list!! :)
  7. Gautam says:
    Ya Right,,,, If you want to Get Traffic and Make Some Earning from Twitter We Need To have Huge No of Followsers and Your tips Will Surely help in it...
  8. apiz says:
    I think that it is a smart idea to follow twitter lists from really credible tweets. The lists are a great way to keep track of who likes to tweet about what. I have used both ways, the typical list to gain followers and buying followers on Twitter and while there is much to be desired, once you figure out who are the key to people in the area of interest, it is a good way to connect in any way.
  9. Chris McKinney says:
    Great information on getting more targeted followers. Will try these out.
  10. Caylin says:
    Love this thanks it has helped me. I am new to twitter please follow
  11. Samuel says:
    Getting twitter followers is a must in order to get some traffic from twitter. Thanks Kristi for the suggestions to use some services in order to gain more twitter followers for myself.
  12. mazhar says:
    Now this is a really amazing post on getting twitter followers, Really useful, thanks
  13. Suzanne says:
    Excellent tips... a few ideas I hadn't thought of there. I also like to find people in my niche that are very popular and follow some of the people that are following them. This means that I know I am getting followers that are interested in that topic. I find that this is often more accurate than trying to use the search facility.
  14. Matthew says:
    Im very impressed with this blog, im fairly new to twitter too, currently only have about 60 followers, feel free to add me on twitter, and il more than happily follow you back! Im constantly on twitter now! its like a drug lol! Twitter: Clickbankm
  15. Imel Sed says:
    I think that it is a smart idea to follow twitter lists from really credible tweets. The lists are a great way to keep track of who likes to tweet about what. I have used both ways, the typical list to gain followers and buying followers on Twitter and while there is much to be desired, once you figure out who are the key to people in the area of interest, it is a good way to connect in any way.
  16. Travis says:
    I try to attract followers by tweeting quality tweets. It\\\'s slow, but I think in the long run my followers are following because they want to, not just be a number on my followers list. I follow people who I share interests with, as in novelist and readers. I\\\'m writing a heroic fantasy that I will market some day via my twitter, blog, and facebook page. It seems a waste to just add add add without regard to interests.
  17. Eric says:
    Great stuff! Definitely agree with you on Tweetadder - it's very easy to follow followers of lists, specific people, interests, and much more. You can then use something like Manage Flitter to unfollow people that don't follow back.
  18. AstroGremlin says:
    I tend to follow people whose material I want to read, regardless of the likelihood of them following me back. Probably not strategic, but I get access to blogs where I can leave comments. If people follow my links back to my site, perhaps they will follow me there. I know that at some point I will have to unfollow people who aren't following me, but right now I'm more of a learner than a teacher.
  19. Kimberly Gauthier says:
    This is so great. I'm stuck right now - Twitter is only allowing me to add a few followers at a time and it's so frustrating. I see people with 10k followers and wonder HOW????
  20. Peter Trapasso says:
    Great advice in this blog post! i also recommend that you search on #hashtags that are relevant to your audience. For example, if you are into web analytics, set up a twitter search on #analytics or #measure. Use the #hashtags in your tweets and look who is posting under your #hashtag search and follow them as a targeted audience.
  21. Nick & Scott says:
    I recommend using a a program like Hootsuite or Social Oomph to pre-schedule your tweets you can write it into an excel spreadsheet and have it auto populate your tweets and then schedule your self once or twice a day to respond to other people's comments and content.
  22. Shanon says:
    Great info your share with us here, Kristi. Thank you. I am in the middle of a project to build a powerful twitter profile with off course,targetted followers. So, I just came to the right place when I found your posting. So much knowledge and tips that I will definetely try out. Great posting!
  23. Madeline says:
    Thanks for the great tips. But I do agree with the other comments that theres no point mass following others and not engaging with most of the them.
  24. Mark says:
    Kristi, I have found that one of the best ways to get targeted twitter is to apply the same rules that you use in terms of SEO for your blog posts for your tweets. This would include using buying keywords and hash tags in the tweets themselves. Interesting article. Mark
  25. KatherineJ says:
    Hmm ...how to get twitter lift off in the beginning is really hard - but these tips I will put into practice!
  26. Justin Germino says:
    TweetML appears to be down as they are waiting for a new version, generally the rule of mass following to try and get 40-50% to follow back will reach your cap at 2000 follows pretty quickly for new users. I try to target very specific keywords using Twitter advanced search. Ironically when you first sign up for Twitter it has a great people search that I can't seem to find if you already have an existing account. Does anyone know how to access the people finder that Twitter offers to new signups when you are an existing user?
  27. Jennifer says:
    I like this article because it talks about the tools to have to get more Twitter followers. I have used HootSuite and I like it. It is something different and so easy to use for Twitter.
  28. teatree says:
    I'm not sure the whole following people to get followed works any more. I think the blog commenting technique is a better way of getting followers who will actually stick.
  29. David says:
    If you're looking after a Twitter account for a brick and mortar business, you can use Twellow.com's TwellowHood to find other business owners in the same town, city or state. Just add them up and start interacting, re-tweeting their good stuff, and even arrange for an real-world meeting. Great networking tool for free.
  30. Steve says:
    I never took to Twitter much but followers just seem to pop in. I have no idea where they come from. Thing is, I'm not sure if anyone actually reads tweets. Perhaps I need to find more interesting things to say...
  31. Fazal Mayar says:
    Good posts. There are a lot of ways to get a lot of twitter followers. You can uses forums. blog comments, youtube...anything. :)
  32. Vijayraj Reddy says:
    Adding your Twitter ID to website and in forum helps a lot in getting targeted followers...
  33. Ayo Kedar says:
    The two that I love are twellow.com and tweepi.com -- the latter is the ultimate tool. Tweepi is like a one stop shop with Klout scores, RT, @replies..etc. The best part is its so darn easy! Great article. Thanks so much for sharing!
  34. Marc von Brockdorff says:
    True, tweepml increases your follower base quickly, but adds a lot of low quality followers that are not interested at all in your tweets making it seem like you have say 1000 interested followers when in reality only 50 that are really going to read / share what you post. I prefer to use something like tweetstork.com simply because it only finds users that have a high chance of being interested and lets you add in bulk (albeit manually) thus finding a balance between volume and quality.
  35. Rose says:
    Hi Kristi, Thank you for great tools and tips. What I have done for my previous worked company (UK electronics and digital tvs retailers) were: 1. Follow all famous Twitter users from UK. 2. Retweets and @ reply to get their attention, also their followers' attention. 3. Follow people who are in their followers list as I will usually get following back. Now, for my samui_art twitter account, at first I would like to grow it naturally but as Alex said on his blog "if a few people are looking up at something then soon others will look up to" so I have changed my mind. I am now using Tweepi, Twellow, and SocialOomph. Other than that I try to always stay active, retweets, @ replies, retweet good and useful content, and building relationship.
  36. Sathish says:
    Awesome Tips Kristi. I am in the process of Building a Powerful Twitter profile with targeted followers. Hope these tips will help me a lot. Thanks a lot for sharing.
  37. John Paul says:
    All great tips on getting targeted followers Kristi. I don't use any sites. I like to find followers manually. But I have seen some services that are decent. But it all comes down to what you do with your followers once you have them.. No matter how perfectly targeted your follower is, if you don't engage and build that relationship.. your wasting your time. Like you mentioned, using @ replies, and DM to stay active and in front of your new followers is what you need to do.. and tweeting helpful stuff helps :)
  38. A. Tatum says:
    Really great tips. Always good to learn about new twitter tools.
  39. marcus says:
    Another idea to gain targeted twitter followers is to create your own list on tweepML. You should create this list about your niche and add your twitter name as well as other twitter users in your niche. Whenever searches for that niche on tweepMl they will see your list and you will be able to gain targeted followers.
  40. Dave George says:
    search.twitter.com is also not bad to find targeted Twitterers!
  41. Jean says:
    Kristi, As a rather new food blogger and even newer Twitterer, I am enjoying reading your excellent posts. I can cook up a storm, but I am so low-tech as to be nearly no-tech! So I'm always on the lookout for ways to draw more followers/readers. Thank you.
  42. Nimit kashyap says:
    Very useful post indeed :) .-= NEW from Nimit kashyap@Corebloggers´s last blog ..Buying and selling on eBay =-.
  43. Chris Guthrie says:
    Are there any lists where people will follow you but you don't have to follow them back? lol perhaps paid lists? I guess I've just never understood the reason to follow a ton of people that follow me back if all it is done for is to pad stats. .-= Chris Guthrie@Make Money on the Internet´s last blog ..Work hard and you can be successful – Crush It! book review =-.
  44. element321 says:
    When I first used Twitter, I used a lot of these follow list. But I finally decided what was the point to have 2000+ followers / following if they do not care what your tweeting, you do not care about what their tweeting and you can't read everything in your streams. I recently started clearing out my lists and once I get down to a good number, I will be looking for more followers. I mostly use Tweepi for this. I never dump more than 300 people I follow and never follow more than 500 followers a week. Once I figure who follows back and has good information they are tweeting about, I unfollow any I do not need to follow. .-= element321´s last blog ..Blogging Tips, DoFollow Debate, and Web Design Tips Weekly Round Up April 05, 2009 =-.
  45. Emma Cunningham says:
    Great article with some useful tips - especially like the Tweepi tool. We also recently wrote a Twitter related post - why bloggers should engage in Twitter and how Social Media can help increase visitor numbers. Thanks for some interesting info, Kristi! .-= Emma Cunningham´s last blog ..SEO Techniques and Advice From An Expert =-.
  46. Jörgen Sundberg says:
    Good reference piece Kristi! Have you had any luck with Buzzom for growing and flushing followers? .-= Jörgen Sundberg´s last blog ..Four Social Media Outposts You Ought to Have =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      I haven't tried Buzzom. My personal favorite is Twitter Karma and just yesterday read a review of a service called Refollow that has a lot of following / unfollowing options. .-= Kristi Hines´s last blog ..8 Ways Businesses Should Use Social Media =-.
      • Jörgen Sundberg says:
        Mmm, I used to like Twitter Karma until they disabled the whacking function. Will check out Refollow, thanks. .-= Jörgen Sundberg´s last blog ..Craiglist and Indeed are the Best Places to Find Jobs, Social Media a Waste of Time Says Heather Sanford! =-.
  47. Gerald Weber says:
    Kristi, Another simple way be found by other like minded tweeps is to list yourself in directories like We Follow and Twellow. These are just a couple but there are a ton of others out there just like them. I think I've pretty much done a combination of everything you have mentioned plus the directories. Another seems that seems to help once you have been around awhile and people start to know who you are, many people write post about stuff like. Top SEOs on Twitter who will follow you back. Etc. Getting mentioned in blogs posts like these also seems to help.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      I would definitely recommend those directories as well. I just chose these three because they showed you stats on whether people follow others back... I can't remember if Twellow or WeFollow gives you any information like that. Those are definitely great places to find industry leaders as it sorts by the number of followers a member has. Getting mentioned in a blog post by someone who is an authority is a big plus, as well as including your Twitter handle on your own sites and guest articles you write. People who have just read something informative by you are much more likely to follow you , or at least add you to a list. .-= Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Google PageRank Update – Internal Pages and Top Content Analysis =-.
      • Gerald Weber says:
        That reminds me. I really should be adding my Twitter handle to my guest blog posts. That's one thing I haven't been, but should be doing. Thanks for the reminder. ;-)
  48. Martin says:
    Hello Kristie, always great to see you guest posting with an interesting topic! I looked into the given lists but find it rather difficult to choose from tweepml suitable followers. The main reason for me to go directly to these Follow-Back-Lists is that i can have a quick look what's their last tweet and how long ago their last tweet has been. Do we want to follow members who haven't tweeted for several weeks or months? Some of these "inactive" members seems to build up their followers for other purposes without interacting. That's why i started (since April) to build my own list mainly with real members (nearly no api or twitterfeed-only tweets) who are active in Twitter at least several times a week which communicate, interact & send some "link love" to other members for RTs and so on. You can find the list here http://twitter.com/cornyman/top500-follow-all-back .-= Martin@Cornyman's Money-Blog´s last blog ..Is Moneza (now: Hubze) a scam or THE new hype in Social Media? =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      I understand what you mean. Although I would argue that some bots are kind of helpful - I think there is one for Alltop that just feeds in the latest posts that get added to their site, and it does have a lot of followers. As far as inactive Twitter users, there are reasons that some people are inactive (especially last month since some people gave up tweeting for Lent). I was following someone for a while that was taking a Twitter sabbatical, but once he came back, he started following me and we have been interacting since. That is a good list you have compiled on your profile. I think what I like about the TweepML site is it shows you the list members' bios - you can go from their site directly to the Twitter list to check out both sides - profile descriptions and list members latest activity. .-= Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Google PageRank Update – Internal Pages and Top Content Analysis =-.
  49. Zack says:
    Very nice list Kristi. Found a few things I didn't know but will check out asap. .-= Zack´s last blog ..Is your Website Just Competitive, or a Winner? =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      I'm always happy when I share something that people find new and interesting. It's hard to tell, with a world of information out there, what is actually new news vs. what everyone has probably heard of already. .-= Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Google PageRank Update – Internal Pages and Top Content Analysis =-.
  50. Gera says:
    Nice selection of applications Kristi! In my case I prefer the organic way lately. After Twitter released the twitter-lists I use them for following interesting people and to increase also my followers in an indirect mode. Listorious and Twibes also let follow without affecting your ratio followers / following and the TOS of twitter. In many cases people check their lists that are included and some return following you back. BTW stumbled and later RT too ;-) Cheers, Gera .-= Gera @ SweetsFoodsBlog´s last blog ..Social Media - Foodies - Diet & Health Bloggers: Best of the Week =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      I think at a certain point, you don't need to go out and look for followers anymore - they will find you based on referrals from others and from the content you share. But new users and ones that noticed a stall in their growth may need to turn to more pro-active ways of gaining followers, and at least with these tips, they might gain valuable followers vs. just anyone to boost the numbers. Thanks for sharing the post socially! .-= Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Google PageRank Update – Internal Pages and Top Content Analysis =-.
      • Gera says:
        Yes, agree with you that for new users, it is necessary a more proactive campaign because in principle nobody knows you. .-= Gera @ SweetsFoodsBlog´s last blog ..Social Media - Foodies - Diet & Health Bloggers: Best of the Week =-.
  51. Gautam Hans says:
    At first, I was saying. Oh this is a bad method, following a lot of people is the biggest mistake, but when you said retweeting and thanking, i had to agree with you. Conversation is a great turn on in twitter. People prefer users that converse with them, help them and solve their queries. Great points :) .-= Gautam Hans @ Blog Godown´s last blog ..5 steps to building a power blog =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      I don't necessarily believe in following just anyone to get followers back, considering that those people probably never pay attention to you, especially with the invention of Twitter lists. But if you are seeking people interested in your niche to follow and you interact with them, then you stand more of a chance of building quality followers vs. just a huge list of uninvolved followers. .-= Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Google PageRank Update – Internal Pages and Top Content Analysis =-.
  52. Karen says:
    I've used several options you've mentioned, I even have a list or two on TweepML. I'm not sure what the follow limit is on Twitter at the moment, but I usually find that keeping to around 150 follows keeps you safe, and then every other day you can check who isn't following you back and then unfollow them... .-= Karen @ Blazing Minds´s last blog ..How To Unfollow Twitters with No Picture on Twitter The Easy Way =-.
    • Kristi Hines says:
      I think the follow limit is 10% of your followers per day, although I think my follower limitation lasted for three days once for doing less. I always try to make it a random number of follows per day, that way it doesn't look like you have any kind of automated tool doing it for you, as I'm sure that is a TOS violation. .-= Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Google PageRank Update – Internal Pages and Top Content Analysis =-.
      • Karen says:
        Thanks, that clears it up a little, I don't Twitter ever actually give away a full explanation of following and unfollowing, just so people can't play the system ;) .-= Karen @ Blazing Minds´s last blog ..Blazing Minds Weekly Round Up – Google Chrome, FireFox, Google Pagerank =-.
        • Kristi Hines says:
          Yeah, the number limit is all estimation. If Twitter straight out said you could follow 2,000 people a day, there would be tools galore to do so. .-= Kristi Hines´s last blog ..Google PageRank Update – Internal Pages and Top Content Analysis =-.