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So, you are looking to expand your Twitter follower base? You have come to the right place. We will tell you what are the best ways to do just that.

Why is gaining as many followers as possible important? Well, Twitter is a social network with around 645,750,000 users at this precise moment, with 130.000 new users signing up each day. Any company trying to reach new audience would be foolish not to exploit the growth of Twitter. Twitter is being more commonly used by many major companies, with the likes of Samsung (@SamsungMobile), Coca-Cola (@CocaCola) and Audi (@Audi).

Let’s say you are not as big as Audi or Samsung just for the sake of it. How do you attract new followers?

Firstly, it is best to build your follower base with real life connections. What exactly does that entail? Connect with the people in the same line of business.

If you are not a complete beginner, you have probably had to take a few meetings and make acquaintances with people from your profession, but this is not only about that. Real life networking requires a much more informal part as well. Having lunches, dinners or mere drinks can help you make a new connection. It can be something alternative to that, but anything you do should lead to you being more liked and respected by the people of your growing business network. After making connections offline, try to expand them to a web-presence as well. Being associated with the right people, even if it is just on the Internet, can sometimes make a big difference for a potential customer, client, partner or even an employer.

Also, look up your colleagues, your partners, people you collaborate with, people who you studied with, but also your competition. You should also follow people you have met a few times, but they left a lasting impression. Perhaps an expert from your niche, or a distinguished lecturer. The chances are that if they left an impression on you, they left it on someone else as well, and they probably have a lot more Twitter followers than someone who lacks the necessary charisma.

Online communication with influential people from your work or even personal life can enhance your Twitter visibility in a non-aggressive way. People follow successful people. And that is the only one way of attracting new followers.

Another effective way of getting more Twitter followers is raising you profile at industry-related events. You should never miss a chance to mingle with the people who practice the same things as you professionally do. You can strengthen both your reputation and your clout. It is important to have a strong standing in your own community. Also, be prepared to always sweet talk about your products and services. The more people are aware of them and want to know about them, the more followers you will get. But try not to overdo it.

Apart from the more traditional events like congresses and conventions, you can promote your products and yourself at somewhat non-traditional events like Tweet Ups. Tweet ups are events where fellow twitterers meet and socialize. Sometimes they have a theme, if it is a profession-related tweet up. You should use these occasions to connect to those who are popular and whose friendship can only help you.

You should also remember that there are other ways of reaching those highly coveted followers. Blogs have been getting more and more Internet traffic, and some of the bloggers have become very influential in their respected fields. Befriending them might be a good and innovative way to promote yourself and your product. If they did a short blog entry about you or your firm, and maybe even link your twitter profile in the post, it would get you more visits for your page from some of the target groups who prefer the new media.

However, you should bear in mind that there is such thing as excessive promotion. Excessive promotion would just make all your efforts counterproductive.

If you appear to be pushing too much, people will consider it unwanted attention, or if it is online, they will consider it spam. So, think about how much promotion of someone other’s product you would want to be subjected to, and try to use the same amount in your promotions.

Try to be diverse while you are promoting. If you are interesting enough, people will pay attention. If you are repetitive, on the other hand, you will only lose people’s interest and you will lose them as followers. If you are interesting enough, you will be retweeted and exposed to more potential followers.

When talking about the contents of your tweets, the emphasis has to be on the allure of the content. No one will follow you if your tweets are too professional or too similar to everything else on other twitter profiles. You need to take a spin on something popular and make it your own.

Make your tweets as short and easily readable as possible. If they are too long, no one will read or retweet them.

Make your tweets fun. They should be humorous and confident, but you should not overdo neither the humor nor the confidence. Those two can be repelling when overdone.

Make an interesting, yet professional bio description. It should be something likeable, and relatable. People who see your profile for the first time will judge you on your bio.

You can post something using the trending hashtags and attract even more followers who are just interested in that subject.

Engage with your followers in everyday discussions. Respond to their questions. Be courteous. Everyone enjoys being treated properly, even if it is something informal.

Tweet regularly. Spend time online. Be included in the conversation, whatever the conversation is about. That is how you become a part of the community and being a part of the community is much more important than just having followers.

For the very end remember one more thing. It is not only about getting the followers. It is about keeping them, too.