Turning Strangers Into Twitter Followers

14 | Posted In Social Media by David

This is a guest post by Rezdwan Hamid.

There are many ways to get followers on Twitter and there is one I find particularly effective. Nope, I don’t do that follow as many people as you can and hope they follow you back in return. I hate it when people do that.

Looking For Questions

You see, I love to help people with whatever website building questions that they might have. One of the avenues that I use to find people needing help is Twitter. I just find it a joy that I am able to answer those questions.

So, how do you find someone with questions about a particular topic on Twitter? For that we are going to use Advanced Twitter Search, a lesser known feature.

Using The Twitter Search Operators

It is the Twitter Search Operators that I use to filter all those messages that goes to Twitter and find questions that people ask. Here is an example that I use regularly to search for someone asking about WordPress on Twitter.

wordpress ? -wordpress.com

When I enter the above search query, I will get messages on Twitter from someone asking about WordPress but not having a link to wordpress.com (because I’m not looking for blog posts from that site).

Answering What You Know

If you have various topics that you are looking for, using a client like TweetDeck also helps. What I like about TweetDeck is the ability to create a different column for every search query.

Now as the questions comes in, start answering those that you know. This is a sure way to start a conversation with a stranger. No harm in that. They got a question and you got an answer.

Getting Followers In The Process

Now comes the best part. When the people you answer find you helpful, not only will they thank you, they may decide to follow you. It happens to me occasionally and I love it when they do that.

What if there is no response or they don’t follow you at the end after you helped them. That’s okay. It not about getting followers but about helping others. You’ve just showcased to their followers about your knowledge. Who knows, they might follow you instead?

Ideas For Your Blog Posts

The other advantage is ideas. I get a lot of ideas on what to write for new blog posts through this method. I always have a notepad nearby when I engage in this type of conversation.

You never know what kind of questions you will get and some of it you will never thought of. I’m still surprised about people asking what is the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org.

Have Fun But Don’t Get Carried Away

So start looking for questions to answer on Twitter and start a nice conversation. Look at the Twitter Search Operators page to see how you can tweak your search queries to find the questions that you can answer.

Just a note of caution. You may want to have a schedule and duration to do this. I spend no more than an hour a day. You might get carried away and forget completely about writing that blog post. Happy tweeting!

Rezdwan Hamid maintains a blog where he writes articles, reviews and tutorials for beginners to start their own website and how to make it better.

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  • http://daneblogger.com/ Mikkel "DaneBlogger" Juhl

    This is definitely a great way of interaction and generating new followers.

    It is a way where you absolutely are doing it in a good way, you are building a relationship. The thing is after you build this relationship I think it is needed that you really maintain this relationship. Otherwise it is not going to be that powerful.

  • http://website-in-a-weekend.net/ Dave Doolin

    Rezdwan – thanks for the tip on searching Twitter directly. I've been vaguely aware of it, this gives me something concrete to try.

  • http://www.madd0g.org/ Mo "Mad Dog" Stoneskin

    Helping others via Twitter queries is a great idea and one I would never have thought of. I actually had no idea you could search Twitter like that.

  • http://www.fitnessover50.org/ FitnessOver50

    David

    Thank-you for the post

    I have a twitter account am always wondering how to make it more effective

    Being new to this, I find building traffic a challenge.

    Peter

  • http://www.rezdwanhamid.com/ Rezdwan Hamid

    You are right, Mikkel. It is a great way to start an interaction and building a relationship at the same time. It is unlike spamming someone out of nowhere. It's almost like the other person was the one who started the conversation in the first place.

  • http://www.rezdwanhamid.com/ Rezdwan Hamid

    Yes, Dave. You should give it a try. It's really exciting to see those questions pops up and you know the answer. Like in a game show and you start hitting the buzzer. :)

  • http://www.rezdwanhamid.com/ Rezdwan Hamid

    Mo, believe or not, I never thought of using Twitter like that in the first place too. I just wanted to share my knowledge with others. Curiosity got the better of me and I found a way to search for people asking questions. That's how I got started.

  • http://www.rezdwanhamid.com/ Rezdwan Hamid

    Oh ya, I forgot to thank David for publishing my guest post. Thank you, David.

    Anyway Peter, I'm new to this too but it's never too late to start. Give it try and see how it goes for you and do share your experiences and tips with us too.

  • http://janebradbury.com/ Jane Bradbury

    Thanks for the tip on how to filter out links you don't want. I've done searches as you suggest, but I always got the tweets from people selling the program, rather than people who need help.

  • http://www.rezdwanhamid.com/ Rezdwan Hamid

    Hi Jane, the – operator can be used not only to filter out links but also any other undesirable words in the tweet. Maybe you can get better results by filtering out the common words that is used by people selling the program.

    One more thing. The ? operator is to search for tweets that has a question mark in it. This simply assumes that the tweet is a question. It is far from perfect but it is as close as you can get.

  • Bill

    Great idea if one has some expertise to offer, but for a not very interesting and not very knowledgeable plum like me it doesn't help! How do I get people interested, other than than churning?

  • http://www.rezdwanhamid.com/ Rezdwan Hamid

    Hi Bill. When I wrote this guest post, I was thinking about someone who has a blog and has a niche topic that they focus on. Using Twitter is just an extension.

    I am sure that everyone is good at something, even if it is just a hobby. Maybe you can think along the line of sharing your knowledge about a hobby you like?

  • Bill

    Great idea if one has some expertise to offer, but for a not very interesting and not very knowledgeable plum like me it doesn't help! How do I get people interested, other than than churning?

  • http://www.rezdwanhamid.com/ Rezdwan Hamid

    Hi Bill. When I wrote this guest post, I was thinking about someone who has a blog and has a niche topic that they focus on. Using Twitter is just an extension.

    I am sure that everyone is good at something, even if it is just a hobby. Maybe you can think along the line of sharing your knowledge about a hobby you like?