Web Affiliate Marketing Blog

So you want to increase your Twitter following? How do you go about it?

TWEET – RETWEET – JUST MAKE IT INTERESTING!

Firstly, you have to tweet regularly, or at the very least, tweet something thats of interest. A pet hate of mine, which usually results in me stopping following someone, is when they Tweet for Tweeting sake. It reminds me of what turned me off using Facebook with peoples status updates informing me that they’re “Making a coffee” followed by “Made a coffee” followed by “Enjoying a cup of coffee”. How interesting! Really… who gives a toss if you’re eating a “Yummy crumpet with lashings of butter”? Not me!

SLAP ON SOME MAKEUP!

Make your Twitter page a little more interesting. Try designing it so it gives a little more information about you as a person and you’re interests. I updated my Twitter Page a few weeks ago, and since then have seen many other people repeating my advice with Paul Wright giving a step by step guide. If you’re a brand then try blending it in with your current website design, something I’m working on with DiscountCodes.

USE TWIVEAWAY

Twiveaway is a free, automated way of increasing your twitter exposure and following by running a competition of sorts purely based on Twitter. Every person who follows and ReTweets a message is automatically captured by Twiveaway and you can see, via an online dashboard, who has been entered into the competition.

You also have the option of replying via Direct Message, a good way to say something like “Thanks – you’re now in the competition. Check www.domain.com for list of winners”.

Via the dashboard you can specify one prize, or offer everyone who ReTweets your message a prize such as a free download, eBook etc.

By having your followers ReTweet details of your competition and website, will help you reach an audience that maybe unaware that you, your brand or your website, even exists! The first time I saw this in use was earlier this week by <a href=”http://twitter.com/insight_uk”>Insight_UK</a>, a UK Affiliate Merchant wanting to reach out to affiliates. It worked!

WIN £25 MARKS & SPENCERS VOUCHERS

If you want to give it a try, follow Discount4U and simply copy and paste this in Twitter:
RT: @discounts4u: is giving away a £25 Marks & Spencer Voucher. Follow & Re-Tweet this message to be in with a chance of winning!

Whilst on a voice conference, I got a little bored and started looking at everyone’s twitter pages and noticed that nearly all were exactly the same. This is most probably as most people use TwitterFox or something similar to follow other people, and TwitterBar to update their own status (unless you’re mobile twitter).

Although big brands such as Ford, British Airways and BBC are on Twitter, their pages are some what uninspiring. Not much effort or thought has been put into the Twitter Backgrounds and Starbucks simply stuck a coffee cup on the side – job done!

Your Twitter page is the first thing anyone sees. Maybe not so important for personal Twitter followings, but if you’re using Twitter as a form of social marketing, then maybe some time and effort should be spent personalising or treating it as an extension to your website?

It really doesn’t take design skills to knock up an appealing background. Any old package can transform the plain blue background to one that’s a bit more exciting, personal and says something about you.

After 5 minutes of playing around, My StalkerFeed now allows people to see my Twitter status, watch the latest videos I’ve posted on YouTube, browse my Flickr album, comment on my blog, listen to my favourite music and read any recommendations I’ve received on LinkedIn. Oh and see whats happening in my FaceBook world too!

Good or bad? All the information I list above, is already available just in many different places, but when you realise how much info you are giving away about yourself, it’s a little scarey. By visiting StalkerFeed someone could easily get to grips with you and your life. And to think, some people who will go on to use StalkerFeed will be the same people who are opposed to ID Cards!