When we joined Twitter, we were planning to make a long lasting friends of followers and build our Twitter community, right? But, the problem is the more you are Twittering, the more you are losing your followers. How can we prevent that? several things we can do:
- Determine first, what are your focus in using Twitter.
Is it to update your day-to-day activities so your friends can know what you are doing? Is it to “micro blogging” where you are posting a short 120 chars blogging content that usually link to other sources? Is it to promote your business? Is it to deliver specific service like “quote of the day”, “verse of the day”, “daily wisdom”, etc? Based on your focus, you will attract different kind of followers depending on what they need. For this reason, if you are changing your focus, your followers will lose their interests in following you. That’s why they quit being your follower. - Update your Twitter status regularly.
Nothing worse than having twitter fellow that only tweet once a month. What’s the purpose of joining Twitter if you only update your status once a month? You are not giving any value to your followers by rarely updating your status. It’s better for them to just follow someone else that’s more active than you are. - Interact with your followers.
Communication is a two-way stream. You are not just receiving information, but you also need to share information to your followers. Once and a while, ask a question to your followers. Involve them in your twitter activities, may be by retweeting theirs, replying their tweet, recommending them to someone else, or simply just by mentioning them in one of your tweet. It will show them that you appreciate them. - Just be yourself.
People like you the way you are. Be different. Be controversial. Be unique. Honestly, people are looking for someone they can follow. Why? because the more people someone is following, the more information he can get in whatever area that he’s focussing. If someone likes Internet Marketing, he will try to find people that twitters a lot about Internet Marketing to enhance his knowledge; if someone likes photography, he will find another fellow photographers that twitters about photography; and so on. So find something that describes who you are and you are passionate about, and stick with it. That’s why, don’t worry of not getting more followers. If you stick with your focus, people will find you and follow you. Just be yourself. - Use multimedia
Pictures and videos will always attract people attention. Use twitter picture sharing website (twitpic.com) or video sharing website (twiddeo.com) to attach multimedia to your twitter updates. Those multimedia attaachment will spice up your “twits” by giving post variety to your twitter. Your followers can relate more to you when you share your picture or video, since they can actually see you in your “real life”, not just your online life through your twits. When people relate to you, they will hesitate to leave, and choose to stick with you.