Reasons why people unfollow you on Twitter

Twitter is such a great platform to meet and interact with people online, and get feedback real time.  The beauty of Twitter is that people follow each other, converse and share information, 140 character at a time. When I was new on Twitter, people were more into sharing information and conversing. People followed other people because of the benefits of learning from them. However, over the past year, people seem to be so obsessed with the number of followers that they have and things have changed.  Some people treat Twitter as a popularity contest. Others treat twitter as an instant messaging service and they expect you to respond to everything at once. Others worry when people unfollow them.

Twitter followers are very important and keeping these followers is another important task that must not be overlooked. Followers hate irrelevant tweets, so in order not to make your audience hit their ‘Unfollow’ button you must make relevant and interesting tweets. Though tweeting of irrelevant content is not the only reason for audience to hit their ‘unfollow’ button, there are several reasons why people unfollow your Twitter account, such as: too much of self promotion, too much automation, spamming, repetition, too many begging tweets and etc.tc. 

10 reasons why you should NOT protect your Tweets:

     Out of curiosity, I recently tried an experiment.  protects tweet or not, good or bad. I’ve never had an opinion about protected Tweets However, I understand that some feel the need for privacy. So I decided to lock ‘er up and see what would happen if I made my personal Twitter account only available to select followers while there are some advantages, I fear that the disadvantages way outnumber the advantages and this is the reason

1.    Twitter isn’t Facebook/Following isn’t Friending. Facebook is for your friends. Twitter is for the friends you don’t know yet. On Facebook you can require that only your friends can view your profile. People have to ask permission to see more details which is entirely appropriate, because you probably have details that you likely want to keep private. On Twitter, your entire bio is 160 characters.

2.     Protecting your Tweets is a barrier to connections. If you are like me, looking to increase your visibility, you want people to find out about you and connect with you, which will lead to more engagement and interaction/More business. Protected tweets will keep others from finding you.

3.     You can block the bad actors. If an unsavory character starts following you on Twitter, and it really creeps you out, you can block him

4.     No retweets: Locked Tweets mean fewer retweets. And everyone knows that more retweet may bring more followers. If your tweets are protected the only way you’re likely to make new connections is by initiating “follows

5.     Protected tweets mean fewer followers. This makes sense, that if people have to ask permission to follow you, fewer will.

6.     Twitter is for Socializing The default for Twitter is to not protect, and if everyone else is interacting freely you are not going to be as fully connected, which will put you at a disadvantage.

7.     No Google love: Locked Tweets aren’t picked up by Google. Though for those wishing to lock their Tweets this is probably a non-issue. If you’re looking to receive traffic to links or get your name out there, this is worth a consideration.

8.     Outsiders are Outsiders: Have you ever jumped into a Twitter conversation with someone you don’t follow simply because it looked interesting? You can’t do that with a locked Tweet. There’s no responding to friends of friends with uninterested parties.

So if you are looking to increase your Visibility and expand your reach protecting your tweets is not the way, except you are looking for privacy

5 RULES TO EXPAND YOUR FAN BASE ON TWITTER

In today’s social media world, honesty weighs heavily on a brand’s success. Fans need to be able to trust the brand and since they can see and judge brands’ posts and interactions, brands need to pay attention to what message they are sending. Having a high number of fake followers in your fan base causes your brand to seem dishonest and therefore ultimately phony itself.

here are tips on how to grow your fan base without seeming "phony"

1.     Always have a good description of your product. Fans don’t want to guess what your product is, how it works and/or the services it provides. The clearer and more detailed you are about your product, the more likely the fan is to trust in it.

2.     Always put your face behind the handle. Fans tend to believe in the product when there is a human face connected to it. Therefore, you shouldn’t hide behind a logo, or sign off as admin. You should always sign off with your own name. For example, Vodafone UK has photos and names of their tweeters listed directly on their Twitter page, allowing fans to see which person has tweeted what.

3.     Always try to keep a conversation. When responding to fans, make sure that you are polite and honest. Most importantly, don’t be afraid to apologize for mistakes. The social media environment is very forgiving, but you have to make sure that you acknowledge where you have done something wrong

4.     Always check who follows you. When receiving a new follower, always click on their profile to see who they are, thank them for the follow and set up a relationship. Fans will appreciate the interaction. However, if the follower displays signs of ambiguity and seem to have a fake status, then block them because they will hurt your community in the long run.

5.     Be proactive with your posts. Don’t only syndicate out your news (a practice commonly used by media outlets), but try to create a dialogue and make sure to reply to fans. Also, look proactively for opportunities to engage your followers. This will help to genuinely grow your fan base

4 ways to build Trust for your Twitter Account

The mad Twitter rush, “Kindly follow back” or when we search for accounts to follow but worry about their authenticity. Also, we find that even when we tweet and have high expectations about the tweet, we hardly get any engagement. People are hesitant to retweet, mention or quote How do we then grow our twitter account?

Twitter users follow accounts that they can trust. And engage with them based on trust. So to increase your twitter engagement, you have to ensure your followers trust your account

Turn your brand into a reliable source of tweets, retweets and mentions for an even bigger audience. By doing this

Your Personal Signature

Twitter users prefer to follow brands that they can identify with so don’t hide behind cartoon or avatar images. You need a picture that will represent your company but at the same time won´t look too formal – try showing your logo from a different perspective. Also make sure you update your profile with relevant information on your brand and on the content you will be tweeting about.

Tweet Your Expertise

Try tweeting some of your company’s expertise or know-how. Your fans and followers will definitely appreciate the exclusive content you can offer on Twitter and it will make you stand out as a reliable expert and source of information.

 

Build A Strong Tweeting Fan Base

People tend to trust and engage more with tweets that have been retweeted or mentioned by friends, brands, organizations, media and by other accounts they follow. The more engagement your brand generates, the more you can get recognized and trusted by others.

Tweet Correctly

Please no “gbagaun”  Take your time to double check your posts for grammar mistakes and mistypes. These mistakes can undermine your credibility and give out the impression that you were in a hurry or didn’t care much about what you have been typing.

Verify Your Twitter Account Without a Badge!

If you’ve already had some experience using Twitter, you’ve also probably noticed a blue checkmark badge next to a particular user’s name when you click through to view their Twitter profile. With the increase in the amount of blue twitter badges came curiosity, what do they mean, how to they help me account/brand, does it reduce impersonation  Can I verify my account? Also came loads and loads of fake accounts, most times, I cant even tell whether basketmouth is @baskettmouth or @basket_mouth and each of these accounts look very real so you really don’t know who exactly is speaking.

Before I go on, if you have 20 followers, please visit the post on “how to grow your twitter account”

The blue verification badge is displayed to inform other users that the identity of the Twitter user is real and authentic. Verified accounts help distinguish between the real identity of the account and fake accounts that have been set up by users who are not at all affiliated with the person or business. Hence, if you look closely, you should be able to tell which is the real account

Twitter will not verify your account if you simply ask for one. Their goal is to verify as few accounts as possible, so only the biggest brands and public figures tend to get verified. Twitter has admitted that they proactively verify accounts according to the tweets, personality behind the account, number of followers they attract and how many other users may try to impersonate the account by setting up fake accounts.

In other words, Twitter doesn’t necessarily require you to be a big celebrity or corporation. If you have enough followers that your brand, image ore reputation could be impacted negatively by others trying to impersonate, Twitter may make the decision to verify your account without you even asking for it first.

However there are other ways to authenticate your twitter account without the blue badge  

embedding a Twitter "Follow" button on your official website as the best alternative to verification.

Twitter also recommends including a link to an official website as an alternative to verification.

Also, post all the other platforms at which you can be found, e.g your facebook address e.t.c

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7 Ways to Become a Twitter King!

Twitter, a social media tool that gives everyone equality and freedom has become a kingdom where everyone want to be king and the qualification for the post is highly dependent upon the amount followers you have or in recent times the your follower:following ratio (the ratio of your followers to the people you are following). In which case, people have begun to unfollow most of their “tweeps” just to claim “boss” but that’s a talk for another day.

I haven’t met a Twitter user who isn’t concerned about having a large follower base. Some argue that numbers aren’t important, but the “quality” of followers, However, I noticed that most of the “quality” searchers have very very few followers and really aren’t making lee way…what’s the point in having 10,000 followers if they aren’t your direct consumers? It’s because through those 10,000, you can reach 5,000 more who would be potential consumers.

I think growing your twitter followers should be a goal, because more followers provide social authority. The higher your follower count, regardless of your knowledge, the more people assume you are an expert or at least someone interesting, even if you wake up and talk about the size of your pillow. Also, the larger your follower count, the faster your ideas spread.

Growing your twitter followers is almost easy, I view it as “karma” “do unto others what you want others to do to you”, so, if you want to be mentioned, mention people!, if you want to be retweeted, retweet other people, quote them also! Get active!.

 Considering the first commandment of Twitter is “Thou shalt follow all who follow thee”, follow people and ask them to follow back. I will to add the second commandment “Unfollow those who refuse follow” don’t let them use you to mop their “twitter” floor  except you are really star struck. If you are confused and don’t know heads from tail on twitter, I’ll simplify it for you.

To use twitter, you normally would have to sign up, you can’t expect to run a magic/imaginary account. And follow thses steps

Profile Photo: Make sure that you have uploaded a photo to your Twitter profile. Why? Because the absence of a photo may be viewed as a spam account or a confused absentee. I don’t mean that as a “food” brand you should use a car as profile photo. Get creative! Photos speak louder than words!

Interesting Bio. Don’t leave this blank. It is one of the first things potential followers review. Explain who you are and what you do.  Fill up your Bio, show people where to find you, location, links to your website/blog, full name and so on. Think of it as your complimentary card, so get busy!

Sniff out your targets and follow. You’ve signed up, updated your information, you don’t want to just talk yourself, or quote your own tweet. You have to search your target-people relevant to your industry, who would be interested in what you have to say. This will increase your chances of engagement. For instance, you sell baby product, search for women, wives, fathers etc all these will be included in their bio, or you can try to discern from their profile picture. Another way around this is to search similar brands, you might find your audience there. Also keep in mind that the younger ones will eventually become mothers so don’t cut them out completely

Share Relevant Content; Please don’t tweet too much about teddy Bears if your twitter Handle is @Naijapolitics. Create contents that your followers want to hear, remember, they probably read your bio before hitting the follow button. You want to be a thought leader so you can be king someday

Post frequently; but don’t flood your followers: you know how you would want to tell people “SHUT UP!” when they talk too much, regardless of how sensible what they say is? It’s the same with twitter, don’t overwhelm your followers, it’s a timeline not a trash can.

Time your Tweets; why on earth will you be talking about the government at 3:00a.m? Or expect someone to click on the link to your new post when they are sleeping? As you grow, you will begin to notice when you have higher engagement. Leverage on this. It will give you better opportunity to be heard

Keep your posts short enough to retweet; Retweets get noticed by people who don’t follow you. Therefore, you must make it easy for your followers to retweet you, also, make it a point to reply people immediately and publicly

Slow and steady wins the race, don’t expect to wake up with 50,000 followers if you arent dbanj. You have to work at it. Goodluck!