3 downsides of not targeting your Twitter followers

Not too long ago, I started managing the Twitter account for a local company. I was recently going through their follower list, and I noticed something was off.

What I discovered was that those who had been previously managing the account thought that one way to get lots of followers was to follow people with a lot of followers. I mean, they followed people with follower counts in the 6 and 7 digits.

This isn’t the way to get followers. Here are 3 reasons why.

Clutter

The accounts the previous managers followed weren’t related to my client’s industry. As a result, their main Twitter feed is nothing but junk. Nothing shows up that’s useful me to curate. Nothing for me to retweet, comment on, or like. And because there are so many irrelevant accounts, content that’s actually relevant gets buried.

No followers

People like this won’t follow you back. They’re too busy promoting their own content to worry about engaging with their followers’ content. Not only that, you won’t be able to tap into their huge follower count. Their followers will have no idea that you followed them, so they won’t follow you.

No engagement

People with large follower counts won’t engage with you. They won’t follow you back, and even if they did, they won’t take part in your conversations, they won’t retweet your content, and they won’t engage with you in any other way. You don’t want followers who won’t engage.

If you want more followers, make sure they’re targeted followers. You want followers who’re interested in your content and the products and services you provide.

How do you get targeted followers?

  1. Reciprocate engagement
  2. Create compelling content
  3. Follow more people

By Kim Siever

I am a copywriter and copyeditor. I blog on writing and social media tips mostly, but I sometimes throw in my thoughts about running a small business. Follow me on Twitter at @hotpepper.