(image credit: tomsaint11)

Stop and think for a moment about the people you follow on Twitter the moment you see them.

These are the ones you have no hesitation in following — you’re delighted to find them on Twitter and look forward to receiving their Tweets.

Chances are they fall into two categories:

1. You know them outside of Twitter.
2. They’re doing something interesting outside of Twitter.

So if you really want to get more followers, you should do two things:

1. Get to know people outside of Twitter.
2. Do something interesting outside of Twitter.

It might seem counterintuitive, but if you look at things like this, one of the best ways to boost your follower count is to log out of Twitter and do something more exciting.

Remarkable People Don’t Spend All Day on Twitter…

The most popular people on Twitter tend to be those who are doing remarkable things elsewhere (e.g. Barack Obama, Stephen Fry, Tony Hsieh). The more interesting your background, the more people will follow you.

If someone gives the impression of being on Twitter all day every day, I can’t help wondering how interesting their day is in real life.

But if someone pops in from time to time with fascinating snippets of information, valuable links, thought-provoking questions or snapshots of their day that hint at an interesting back story, I pay attention.

Instead of skimming their updates as they flash past in the Twitter stream, I’m likely to stop, think and maybe respond. I’ll go to their Twitter page to see if I’ve missed any other interesting Tweets. I may pay their website a visit.

There are exceptions — like Chris Brogan, a social media maven whose job it is to have his finger on the pulse. I’d almost be concerned if Chris weren’t on Twitter most of the time — as if the lighthouse had been left unmanned. But of course Chris is also up to plenty of cool stuff outside of Twitter.

So if you really want more followers, spend time AWAY from Twitter doing interesting things. Pop into Twitter regularly, to connect with people and share something of your adventures – but don’t make it your home.

… Because Twitter Is Not the Main Event

Unless you’re a Twitter specialist or Twitter is the only online channel for your business (which I’d suggest is a risky strategy), Twitter is not the main event, and shouldn’t be where you focus most of your effort.

That isn’t a criticism of Twitter. I’d argue that it’s actually in the spirit of Twitter, which is above all an outstanding catalyst – for conversations, ideas and relationships. It’s now a cliche to describe Twitter as a ‘virtual water cooler’, reflecting its value as a place to chill out and catch up with people during a break. But a break is only a break if it’s sandwiched between times of effort and endeavour.

The results of Darren’s polls about blog readers vs Twitter followers suggest that most of you agree with me on this. Even here on Twitip, a site dedicated to Twitter, most of you would rather have more blog readers than Twitter followers.

Twitter is great for meeting new people and maintaining nonintrusive connection with the ones you already know, but subscribing to a blog is a bigger commitment. And for ‘blog’ you could substitute any activity outside of Twitter — such as a work project, a program of study, a shared journey or a political campaign — that involves greater engagement, energy and impact.

But You Still Need to Be Interesting on Twitter

This post was partly inspired by Maki’s response to Darren’s advice about attracting Twitter followers. Whereas Darren had written about connecting with people and delivering value on Twitter, Maki argued that Darren’s phenomenal follower count was mainly due to his fame as the creator of Problogger, Digital Photography School and other successful sites.

I think they both have a point.

I followed both Darren and Maki because I admired their blogs. But if they’d bored or annoyed me on Twitter, I’d have unfollowed them. The fact that they are both as interesting, generous and helpful on Twitter as they are elsewhere means I pay attention to their Tweets and makes me (even) more likely to read their other content.

Here’s a simple rule of thumb:

To GET followers — do interesting things AWAY FROM Twitter.

To KEEP followers — be interesting ON Twitter.

Create ‘Portals’ to Twitter from the Outside World

Don’t get so caught up in your remarkable adventures that you forget to direct people to your Twitter page.

Make sure you include your Twitter URL on:

• Your blogs and websites
• Your social media profiles
• Your e-mail footers
• Your forum signatures
• Your business card

And when you meet someone interesting in real life, ask whether they are on Twitter so that you can follow them. If you’ve made a genuine connection with them, they will almost certainly follow back.

What Do You Think?

Do you agree that the most interesting people to follow don’t spend all day on Twitter?

Does Twitter work best as the main event or a catalyst for other activities?

Could logging out of Twitter more often help you get more followers?

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



Get More Followers by Spending Less Time on Twitter

So how do you stop yourself from letting Twitter become a waste of time?

Below are a few of my own tips on the topic – interspersed with a few tips and comments from my own followers on Twitter.

1. Know Why You’re Using Twitter

If you don’t know why you’re using Twitter it is highly likely that you’ll either not use it beyond your first day or two or you’ll use it in such an unfocused way that you’ll end up wasting time with the medium.

Set aside a few minutes to think about your goals and objectives for using Twitter. You don’t need to over think it but identifying what you want to achieve helps you to be much more effective as a Twitter User.

@timbursch – “Have a purpose for being here and tweeting. Don’t follow too many rabbit trails.”

2. Batch Tweeting

The days that I’ve wasted the most time on Twitter have generally been those days when I allowed myself to be on and off Twitter all day without any real structure. My personality type is that I tend to be quite impulsive and flit to one thing to another on the spur of the moment. The problem is that I can easily get to the end of a day and have completely wasted my time.

I’m aware of this and know I need to work on it so these days I set aside short bursts of time especially to work on specific tasks and activities.

So instead of jumping on Twitter for an unspecified time I set aside 20 minutes at the start of each day to ‘Tweet’ to my hearts content. Then I set aside batches of time for other activities. Later in the day I’ll put another amount of time aside for Twitter and then another one before I head to bed.

I find that when I take this ‘batching’ approach with my day that I’m able to really focus and be much more effective in all of my activities (not just Twitter). I’ve written a little more about how I use ‘batch processing’ to make me more productive here.

@tlyons – “I limit my time into bunches. Like email. Morning check, scan, Afternoon check scan, Evening check Scan.”

@rocksinmydryer – “Set specific time limits for yourself, and then stick to them.”

@obamafoodorama – “Choose a specific time to tweet, whether it’s an hour or every 3 or twice a day.”

3. Discipline and Boundaries

Of course batch processing calls for discipline and to ensure it works there are times when the temptation to ‘just have a quick look’ is too great. So like many of my followers mention below – one of the best ways to ensure you don’t waste time on Twitter is to switch it off, shut down twitter clients or even get offline altogether.

@tarynp – “close my twitter apps… All of them! & set timer/alarm@30min intervals to allow brief twitter check ins… Or disable Net.”

@thelight – “1)log in only when you have totally free time 2)set a time limit 3)log in when u r netsurfing”

@SarahSingforhim – “set aside the first or last five minutes of the hour to check in, and set a timer!”

@Matt_Siltala – “I just tell my wife to not let me go near Twitter for “x” amounts of hours and she is happy to oblige”

@soniasimone – “Sometimes I have to just create a temporary boundary. Something like “no Twitter before noon.” Helps me get back on track.”

@acclimedia – “The only way for me is to exit Twhirl and close the Twitter and search.twitter.com tabs. Too tempting otherwise.”

@jankoonline – “You absolutely have to shut it down so you can concentrate. No other alternative. It sucks your time away from you!”

Interesting to see how many of them use some sort of ‘timer’.

4. Keep on Topic

Having identified WHY you’re using Twitter in point #1 above you now have a framework for staying on track. The hard part is staying disciplined and undistracted in your use of Twitter.

My own approach with keeping on topic is to not be too hard on myself but to keep the majority of what I Tweet to the topics that I’ve set for myself to Tweet about. This means that I do at times touch on more personal topics (what I’m doing socially, family stuff etc) but attempt to keep most of my tweeting to the topics of blogging, twitter, social media etc.

Of course how much you allow yourself to get personal and off topic will vary from person to person and will depend upon what you set your goals as in step #1.

@drflower – “Tweet with a purpose and a theme…use the 80/20 rule. 80% purpose 20% other.”

@ajlovesya – “make twitter productive by focusing on all tweets related to my business/blog/sector.”

5. Leverage it to Your Own Property

One last tip that I’ll give is to not just invest your online time into Twitter but to develop your own online home of some kind. The problem with investing all of your online efforts into Twitter is that you could well be investing yourself into something that will not have lasting value. While we’re seeing Twitter grow in popularity at the moment it is bound to have its ups and downs in popularity. It is also bound to have ups and downs in terms of how much you’re interested in it too.

What happens when you lose interest in Twitter or when (heaven forbid) it dies as a platform or becomes unpopular? All the time and energy that you put into building your Twitter profile up could have been largely wasted unless you’ve found a way to create a place to connect with your followers outside of Twitter.

I recommend doing this not just on another social network but to build something of your own – on your own domain if possible. Whether it be a blog, a lifestreaming page, a static home page or some other type of website – having your own home means you have control over it and are investing something that you will always be able to determine how it is used.

Don’t be afraid to invest time into Twitter (and other social media sites) but also consider what you’re building online that might last beyond Twitter. For more on this – I’ve written a little more on how I use social media sites like Twitter as ‘outposts’ and my own blogs as ‘home bases’.

A Few More Tips from My Followers

@dalesio – “Don’t follow too many people. Too many people will create noise and will distract your from the real conversation.”

@malcolli – “Great topic! I use groups on Tweetdeck while at work. Pay attention to certain group alerts only to avoid too much wastage.”

@Gayla – “I use search 4 keywords & tagged favs 2 speed up when short on time”

@hnuttall – “I consider whether my current task requires my full attention. I only sign into Twitter when I can afford distractions.”

@ashtynevans – “Its all about prioritizing. I try to use Twitter time as a reward for tasks completed if I get things done I get more time here”

© 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips.



How to Stop Twitter Becoming a Waste of Time