How to get targeted Twitter followers

In general, the more active you are on Twitter, the more followers you’ll be able to get regardless of the specific tactic used. Time and consistent tweeting can net you thousands of Twitter followers, however, a lot of those won’t be in your target market.

So how can you get targeted Twitter followers? No, not buy purchasing them online. It takes some work, but here’s a tactic I’ve used to build my targeted Twitter followers.

1. Identify power Twitter users

Find Twitter users that tweet frequently, and not in a spammy way. They need to be users that seem to have a big overlap with you as far as target market goes. It may be that they’re located in the same geographic area as you, or maybe they’re in a parallel industry.

2. Tag them

Tweet about or to them, making sure to tag them in the tweet. If you start the tweet with their username, make sure to put a period before it for maximum exposure. If there is no character before their username, only users you share in common can see the tweet. If you put another character, anyone can see the tweet.

Pay them a compliment, ask them a question, or reply to something they already tweeted. You might even butter them up by retweeting them a few times before actually initiating a conversation.

3. Have a conversation

If they respond, immediately respond to them, and start having a conversation. It needs to be a real conversation, not one that’s forced. The key is to make real connections with people on Twitter. If you do that, the benefit will far outlast this one tactic for increasing your followers.

4. Look at their followers

In your web browser, pull up the list of people that follow them. Scroll down to the bottom of the list. The list will keep loading, so scroll down until you’re really at the very bottom.

5. Search for your target audience

Using your browser’s built-in search functionality, search for keywords related to your target market. You’re looking to identify people who have those words in their bio or username.

For example, if I’m targeting those in the Oklahoma City area, I could search for

6. Follow them

One at a time, follow each of those people that have the keyword or keywords.

7. Wait

This is the only real downside to this method. You basically just have to wait and see how many of those people end up following you back. Some of them will, and some of them won’t.

Optional: Unfollow

A week or more later, you may want to go back through the list and unfollow all of the new group that didn’t follow you back. There’s something to be said for your Following to Followers ratio not being too far out of balance, at least in terms of having too many you’re following.

I’ve used this method with both my personal Twitter account, and the T&S Online Marketing Twitter account.

Don’t forget the point

Again, keep in mind that the real point of Twitter is to have meaningful conversations. But if you have those conversations with some intentionality, you can grow your audience at the same time.