How to grow followers on Twitter for free

Apart from being a place to catch up with current affairs, Twitter is also a powerful marketing platform. A majority of B2B marketers rely on Twitter as their go-to network for engaging with audiences and growing their business. While it is one of the most important platforms for social media marketing, the competition is harsh and your audience's attention span is short.

"So how many Twitter followers do you have?" This is a question that's tempting for brands to brush off. A larger follower count not only means more influence in your industry, but also that your content speaks and connects with an audience. Here is a well-known secret: Twitter is arguably the easiest social media platform for growing your audience from scratch.

So how do you do this? In this post, we'll discuss how to boost your Twitter followers in 11 steps, and the best part is they are completely free. Let's dive in!

Tweet frequently 

Twitter is a virtual example of the rapidly evolving world. This means you only have your followers' attention for a short span. That's why it's essential to Tweet often if you want to engage this audience.

Here comes the next question: How often should you Tweet? While there is no exact time interval, according to CoSchedule the ideal number to maximize engagement is somewhere between three and seven Tweets per day.

Considering how quickly the platform moves with daily trends on content, Brands can go blazing with more Tweets than being reserved. Some brands Tweet 20 times more than their competitors, so research and competitor analysis are important to find the right amount for your business. Rather than spending that time promoting yourself, which could potentially alienate your followers, we recommend you focus on content that offers value and some takeaway to them. If you take this approach, the possibilities are endless when it comes to generating different types of content, whether you Tweet newsworthy articles, buzzworthy blogs, relevant stats, and more.

"Staying connected with our community is essential, and most great brands and marketers know the best way to build a brand is to create a community behind it."https://t.co/wUfGl7Eq2v

— Zoho Social (@ZohoSocial) June 17, 2021

Tweeting on weekends is beneficial as brands get more engagement on weekends than on weekdays. Tweeting consistently is the key to getting more followers. If you find it overwhelming to keep up with consistent Tweeting, the best thing you could do is schedule Tweets in advance using some of the best Twitter tools.

While Tweeting often helps you gain followers, the time of day you Tweet also matters. Blasting your Tweets when your audience is not active won't be of any help. You could keep track of what time your audience is more likely to engage using tools that offer a smart scheduling feature.

Pin your best Tweet 

You'll have little time (literally just a couple of seconds) to impress your audience on social media. So, it's important to showcase your best content possible. One of the easiest tricks is to pin your best Tweet so it's visible at the top of your profile. Pinning your best content means anyone who is visiting your Twitter profile will see it right away. You can also add a link to your pinned Tweet to drive more traffic. You'll get more clicks, and in some cases you can increase product signups depending on the landing page.

The pinned Tweet content should add value to your audience so anyone who opens your Twitter profile can immediately see something useful for them and there are higher chances of them turning into your followers.

Post more visual content 

Have you wondered why people spend more time on Instagram? Because it's a social platform filled with visuals. It's known that Tweets containing visuals will have better reach, shares, and Retweets than those without them.

While there is no harm in sending text-only Tweets, brands should strive to add images to accompany their Tweets because visuals grab the attention of even serial scrollers. Even a simple Tweet with a more visual preview can gain more clicks.

The growing audience on platforms like Clubhouse and Discord—as well as with major social platforms like Twitter introducing their Twitter Spaces—makes it seem like audio-based social media is here to stay and it is likely to be the next big thing! https://t.co/ew8Xmo00PS

— Zoho Social (@ZohoSocial) June 16, 2021

It has become a common practice for brands to couple their Tweets with memes or GIFs, and those Tweets garner more engagement from their audience.

When life gives you lemons, just bail. #TedLassopic.twitter.com/pj5te3zLax

— Apple TV (@AppleTV) September 15, 2021

For instance, Apple TV’s audience is interested in movies and TV series. So, many of their memes on Twitter have movie and series references that will resonate with their audience.

Use hashtags 

Hashtags are almost like SEO for your Tweets. They make them searchable, helping people find them among the sea of Tweets posted every minute. Use relevant hashtags in your Tweets to get more engagement—Twitter recommends using no more than two hashtags per Tweet as a best practice for getting better reach and engagement.

Many brands have been successful with word-of-mouth marketing, achieving viral campaigns with tons of user-generated content that even see celebrities joining the trend. For example, the idea of Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" campaign was to invite people to share a bottle of Coke with their loved ones. As a result, Twitter was flooded with plenty of user-generated content for Coca-Cola. It seemed as if people from all over the world did indeed #ShareACoke. Thus, the bottle was personalized for each entry. Here is one such example.

You can also add relevant hashtags to your bio and make your Twitter profile more searchable. For example, our own Zoho Social is one of the leading social media management software solutions, and we added #socialmediamangement in our bio so people searching for social media management content can find our profile.

Master the art of engagement 

You can completely schedule your Tweets to optimize engagement, but make sure your account doesn't look like it is handled by a bot. Regularly engage with other users via Retweets, mentions, and by replying immediately to your mentioned Tweets.

While engaging with other brands, write a thoughtful response as it will boost credibility and gain you some followers. Adding your view to an interesting Tweet is another great way to get noticed by other accounts' followers.

Optimize a stellar Twitter profile 

Seems like an easy thing? Indeed it is, yet most of us don't focus on our bio in spite of it being one of the best ways to gain followers for free. It's hard to be visible in a competitive space like Twitter, but if coming up with a relevant, viral Tweet is the only thing you're focusing on and you're not thinking about the after-effects, there is no point in posting that Tweet. Once you Tweet out a thoughtful response to a brand and that Tweet is reaching more people, a user's first response is usually to check your Twitter profile. The profile should be clear involving three basic steps:

• A profile photo that properly represents your brand

• Relevant hashtags and industry keywords

• A taste of your personality or brand

Check out marketing specialist Pam Moore's profile below to see one that checks all these criteria.

Similarly, Rand Fishkin has a clean profile that even has info of how often he Tweets.

Social engagement 

As mentioned earlier, frequently engaging with other users—especially industry leaders—by Tweeting out detailed thoughtful responses is a great way to attract more genuine followers. You may even get a follow-back, which might lead to them eventually Retweeting your Tweets to their followers.

Run contests 

Who doesn't love a game? The easiest way to make users engage with your Tweets is by running a contest. It doesn't mean that you have to give a huge prize—you could even run some fun contest and offer discounts or service trials. In the example down below, Lay's offered nothing more than a free bag of their new chips.

You can always start with simple ideas:

• Ask people to Tweet images with specific hashtags

• Start a simple guessing game

• Start a caption contest

Points for San Francisco means it's time for a kickoff. Let’s put a little cheese on it. Reply with #CheesyWithAKick + #Entry and we may send you a bag of new Lay’s Cheddar Jalapeño chips! #SuperBowlLIVpic.twitter.com/PkWXe1knJL

— LAY'S (@LAYS) February 2, 2020

Create Twitter lists  

A Twitter List is just a curated list of Twitter accounts, typically based around a particular theme. It is a great way to engage with users and helps you grow your followers without much extra effort.

You can create lists for valuable customers, other brands you want to follow, and industry leaders for social media engagement. This way, you’ll have a nice list of people associated with your brand for others to see. You can become a trusted source of information to other users, which will help you grow your audience. Lists are also a great way to organize things for marketing on Twitter. You can create private Twitter lists to keep track of accounts that are important for your brand, and you can even embed them into your website and maximize engagement.

Twitter Spaces 

Twitter Spaces is a great place to discuss various topics at length via live audio. It's essentially Twitter's version of Clubhouse. You can actively participate in multiple sessions on Spaces relevant to your brand or personal interest as well as requesting to speak in a session. It's similar to Tweeting a thoughtful response but just verbally. There is a high chance the others on the Spaces session end up checking your profile, which is why it's important to optimize your Twitter profile with a stellar bio.

Use  analytics 

Never ignore your analytics. Even before you start your new marketing campaign, it's important to know how you are currently doing. This will tell you exactly where your areas of improvement are, and Twitter analytics can help you analyze your growth. Apart from Twitter analytics, you have a lot of social media analytics tools that can help you track your growth.

Closing thoughts 

Growing your Twitter profile won't happen overnight—much like boosting your SEO rank, increasing your follower count is an organic process that takes time. If you're struggling to figure out how to increase your follower growth, starting with the above process can help you find some answers and start boosting your numbers. That's about it! All it takes a little effort to transform your Twitter profile into a social media powerhouse. Hopefully you have an idea about how to get more followers on Twitter now. If you've found some other ways to grow more Twitter followers, let us know in the comments below!