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How I Got to 2,000 Real Twitter Followers [TWEET SCHEDULE]
In the past year, I’ve amassed an audience of over 2,000 real Twitter followers. (I emphasize “real” because many marketers pay for their followers–a practice I don’t condone.) Growing your Twitter audience to this size is not easy. It requires strategy, execution and serious dedication. While Twitter content strategies vary per person, a proven Tweet schedule can be used by all. This is why I thought it would be helpful to share my Tweet schedule and help you grow your audience of real Twitter followers.
Tweet Schedule for Getting Real Twitter Followers
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Tweet Schedule
During the week, I Tweet six times a day. This may seem excessive, however, it’s important to stay top-of-mind when the average lifespan of a Tweet is so short. In addition, Tweeting often ensures all my followers receive relevant content before they go to sleep in their respective time zones.Time Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday 08:30 Relevant News Relevant News IGG Blog Post Relevant News Relevant News 10:00 Relevant News Relevant News Relevant News IGG Blog Post #FFs 12:00 Relevant News Relevant News Relevant News Relevant News IGG Blog Post 14:00 Relevant News IGG Blog Post Relevant News Relevant News Relevant News 16:00 IGG Blog Post Relevant News Relevant News Relevant News Relevant News 19:45 Conversation Starter Conversation Starter Conversation Starter Conversation Starter Conversation Starter
Definitions:- Relevant News: a Tweet linking to an article my following would find interesting or helpful.
- IGG Blog Post: a Tweet linking to an Indie Game Girl blog. Every Tuesday I post a new blog and debut it on Twitter. Throughout the week, I re-Tweet at different times so no followers miss out.
- Conversation Starter: a Tweet where I raise a question or express an opinion. This Tweet’s intention is to start conversation.
- #FFs: Tweets that thank individual followers or those I follow. (#FF stands for “Follow Friday” where I recommend individuals/companies to follow.)
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Follow and Unfollow Schedule
At least once per week, I grow my real Twitter followers by following others who fit my target (indies, press, etc.). Typically, I find 30 individuals or companies to follow. Following is not only a way to grow your real Twitter followers, but to discover great people and resources.In addition to following, it’s important to unfollow. At the beginning of every month, I comb through my list of those I’m following and purge based on activity. I.e., if someone hasn’t Tweeted in a week, I will unfollow him or her.
Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Week 1 Unfollow Follow Week 2 Follow Week 3 Follow Week 4 Follow
13 Comments
Carol
about 11 years agoI really like your tips! Do you consult any other blog on "twitter strategies"? Tks a lot!!
Emmy
about 11 years agoHi Carol, thank you for the comment. I'm glad you are finding my tips helpful. I'm not sure if I understand your question completely. Are you asking if i am helping any other blogs get more Twitter followers as a consultant or if I write for any other blogs on how to get Twitter followers as a guest blogger?
Silvio
about 11 years agoReal nice tips :)
Paul
about 11 years agoWhat do you use to see which followers to unfollow?
Emmy
about 11 years agoHi Paul and thanks for your comment. I use JustUnfollow sometimes and other times I just unfollow manually.
Moose Knuckle Games
about 11 years agoHey Emmy, I am absolutely loving your blog. I was going back through your archives and almost every article I felt like I needed to read. And after I read them I bookmarked over half of them. You are concise in your writing, and I LOVE that. I also noticed that you personally reply to almost every comment people post which is super helpful, and shows your readers that you care. So I just wanted to say, thanks, and you gained a follower :) . I also have two questions: 1) I am a solo indie developer. I created my "company", Moose Knuckle Games. When I started I created two twitter accounts. @MooseKncukleGam for the "company" and @jb_mooseknuckle (John Butler, my name, at moose knuckle) for my personal, company account. My question is which one do I use more. My intention was that with the company one, I would just push out only company related info, and I would not really follow anyone with it, and only try to get followers. While with the personal company one I would try to reach out and strike conversations and create relationships with people. But After reading a lot of your material I feel like that might not be the best route. I am starting to feel like I should just do all activity through @MooseKnuckleGam because I am so small that I should concentrate all my energy into one account (plus I do not have much to say if I can only talk about company stuff). Also my name for that account it "Moose Knuckle Games" so the more I tweet and use it the more that brand name gets spread. But then again, it may seem impersonal to communicate with someone with my name being that... So yeah, I would love your advice on this topic. 2) I did what too many first time developers, I released my first game, Grumpy Monkey, with barely any marketing... So I have been looking all around and I cant really find any advice on what to do for marketing AFTER your game has released. Is it completely futile, and that's why no one has advice on it. Or are there things I can still do to try to save it a little and make it not a complete failure? I released it last November. Thank you for your time. And sorry for writing a novel, I have been thinking about this quite a bit, going back and forth in my head :)
Emmy
about 11 years agoHi there! Thank you for you comment and kind words. I'm glad I've gained another follower in you! To answer your questions: 1) My best advice with Twitter is, if you can't pay attention to your fans, they won't pay attention to you. Meaning, you have to be able to devote the time to post frequent and valuable content in order for Twitter to really work as a promotional tool. If your personal and work accounts are too much for you to maintain, I would absolutely get rid of one and focus on the other. In addition, I think you are correct in choosing to go with the work account. 2) While it's MUCH tougher to gain traction from marketing after you release your game, I don't think it's a total lost cause...you'll just need a good strategy. I would suggest focusing your attention where you'll get the biggest bang for your buck: the media. Try to get stories published on your game in blogs, publications, etc. where your target market goes to consume media. Since you've been launched for a while, you'll need to come up with another angle to pitch your game to the media. Hope that helps and good luck! Emmy
Udell Games
about 11 years agoHi Emmy, love your site, can't believe I've only just gotten around to reading it! Probably a little too late in fact :) I have a question about your post schedule, it seems to entirely be set to your local time zone. Do you use tweet scheduling to reach people in other time zones at all? If so, have you noticed an impact? Thanks, Nick
Emmy
about 11 years agoHi Nick! Thank you for your comment and kind words. Great question! Yes, I do arrange my Tweet schedule around different time zones. For example, I know that I have a very large European and North American audience. Therefore, I try to Tweet both in the morning my time, when EU will be most likely to read and later on my time, when North America is most likely to read. In addition, I will sometimes repeat the same Tweet at different times in one day, or different times spread across multiple days (as I'm sure you've seen me do with "[NEW BLOG]"s). As far as an impact goes, I have definitely seen this method work in the form of increase retweets, favorites, replies, etc. at those various time zones' peak hours.
Jeromie Walters
about 10 years agoI've seen a couple of your posts now. Very helpful as I'm just one guy trying to figure all this marketing stuff out before releasing an Android game. Thanks so much for your helpful posts!
Adam Thompson
about 10 years agoHi Emmy, I owe almost all of my marketing techniques to you - so thank you for sharing such helpful tips! Just wanted to ask when it comes to sharing; do you think it's helpful to give your article shares appropriate image previews and hashtags? Tweets with images are known to have better engagement, and having hashtags like #gamedev will get some bots to retweet it to their followers (and also pick up in the #gamedev feed for those searching). I don't have a huge following (~400 at this time) so I use images & hashtags to extend my reach (it works! I think) - otherwise nobody would be reading what I share :\ The concerning thing is a feed saturated with images, and hashtags can at times seem obnoxious. Not sure how to weigh the pros and cons here - thought perhaps you can weigh in :) Cheers!
Emmy
about 9 years agoHi Adam, thank you for your comment and kind words :) Whenever you approach social media marketing, it's important to think of your content in the context of these three attributes: relevancy, valuableness and consistency. What the heck does that mean? Well, to create content that followers are going to want to share, it has to be relevant to those followers' interests, those followers must find it valuable and you must deliver this type of content consistently so followers don't forget you. It's true that using images increases engagement, however, it should not be done at the sacrifice of consistency. I.e., if you don't have enough visual content to post consistently, don't worry about sending out an all text post--it's much better than no post at all. When it comes to hashtags, by all means, use them! But, make sure that you're not filling those feeds. For example, you're showing up like crazy in #IndieDev, it might come across a spammy. Be sure to mix hashtags up per post, as well as trying without them every now and again. Hope that helps!
Mikaela Pierre
about 7 years agoHi Emmy, you posted this on 2013 and today is 2018. Till to this date, Though Twitter has changed, your tips on how to gain REAL TWITTER FOLLOWERS seems a great help for people like me who is new to Twitter and wants to introduce a brand to others.