Whether for a venture start-up or an established business, reaching out to an increasing number of potential customers remains a common and continuous objective. Different types of communication media are used to meet this business objective, some of which evolved to provide a much greater reach than other alternates.
Among these, the internet is unquestionably the most important platform with its ability to reach actual and potential customers, above and beyond one’s imagination. Alongside the benefit of communicating with immeasurable audience, the scope of marketing promotion is better than one-sided communication possible with all other media.
However, online presence for any business is no longer through its own blog or website only. Accounts for brands and business owners on trending social media networks are more than a matter of personal choice. It is now a bare necessity for online businesses to be available on social media networks because they:
- Increase Traffic to the main Website
- Build and Improve Brand Image
- Add Meaning and Value to Internet Marketing efforts
- Provide Valuable Customer Insights
- Make Alterations to Products & Services as per Demand
- Interact with Prospects
Twitter Followers
While these are the general benefits of most social media networks, each of them has its own specific features to offer. Let’s take the example of Twitter. It is great for business owners because it helps them to:
- Connect and Interact with their Target Audience
- Share their Content Marketing efforts on other Online Sources
- Gather Customer Feedback
- Remain abreast with Competitor Practices
The list of business benefits of Twitter may be endless, but there is one factor which is the driving force for companies to gain these advantages. It is none other than the number of followers one has on their Twitter account. The number of followers is hands down the most important determinant of productive online activity on Twitter. Simply put, every Tweet posted with a clear cut business goal in mind is likely to generate a higher impact when the Twitter followers are in abundance. Keeping this fact in mind, many businesses focus on acquiring followers more than ever before. For this purpose, they use a variety of methods. These tactics include:
Following Back all Users who opt to Follow the Business Account
Buy Followers from different Online Sources
The reason why businesses are falling for the idea of paying to get more Twitter Followers is quite clear. They buy Followers so their posted Tweets are spread across a wider base of Twitter users. As appealing as this advantage is, it is unfortunately a short-lived one. Companies who offer the services of letting business owners buy Twitter Followers are nothing more than a fad. In the long run, a substantial list of Twitter contacts is one with genuine and willing Followers.
Buying Followers is not as fruitful as some people believe it to be, because this strategy lacks the ability to provide constructive business connections. The shortcomings of buying Twitter Followers are listed below:
Not-So-Good Reasons for Buying Twitter Followers
- These Followers have an extremely low potential to convert into actual customers.
- They turn out to be inactive Followers with a rather passive participation on the company’s Twitter Feed.
- Unlike genuine Followers, such Followers do not offer the advantage of Retweeting company posts which is essential for increasing brand awareness.
- Many a time, buying Followers results in acquiring fake accounts made by the selling companies.
It would be rather harsh to call the Follower-selling companies a spam since many of them aim at promoting authentic services. Nonetheless, fewer but genuine Followers may take time in bringing in further willing Followers but in the long haul; it would be worth the wait. But to speed up the process, many businesses have made the most of a rather competent policy. They choose to follow back all their Followers who solicit to connect with the company themselves.
Up Side of Following Twitter Users to Increase Followers
This follow back policy has recently become subject to a comparison with the strategy of buying Twitter followers. Fledgling businesses with a rather myopic view to brand-building often fall prey to fads which offer instant results. However, the outcomes of the said follow back policy are undoubtedly more substantial than buying Followers. It allows businesses to strengthen relationships with interested, potential customers.
Since the Followers themselves have different goals to achieve or ideas to promote. When a business follows them back, it helps the original Followers to expand their reach to relevant target audience. This principle certainly holds true for the business as well. Naturally, an interested Follower is likely to spread positive word of mouth, share the company’s tweets, and maximize its reach through opening access to its own Twitter connections. Basically, a business reaps various benefits by following back its Followers on Twitter.
Managing Twitter Followers and Users You are Following
This leads us to the concern of how to manage this policy in an organized fashion. Twitter is an all-inclusive social media network with an array of features to suit the needs of different types of users. For a structured experience with a follow back policy, the List feature on Twitter is very helpful to manage the Home Feed.
All in all, the List feature allows Twitter users to put together a number of users or Followers to view on one’s timeline. This feature enables businesses to read or respond to the Tweets in a simpler way by going through one list at a time. Each List can be used to put together a homogenous group of Followers.
For example, businesses can combine users on one List according to the profession or industry they belong to, while creating a separate list for users on the basis of their potential to increase company sales in the future. It takes creativity to systemize the Twitter account but the best part is that many Twitter users choose to keep their lists open for public subscriptions. Subscribing to these lists can enhance a company’s Twitter presence and reputation as well as serve as a point of reference for its own lists.
Being overly ambitious about achieving business goals and social media benefits often leads to miscalculated efforts. In the world of business, there is no easy way out. So the companies who offer one are likely to fail in living up to their promises. Similarly, buying Twitter Followers may seem to work in the beginning but will not have the deeper impacts in the future. Those can be attained by making the thoughtful efforts of following back one’s Twitter Followers.
Annetta, I’ve noticed more and more people unfollowing unless you follow back. Have you noticed that trend? There are so many tools for that. I find it useless to follow back users that haven’t tweeted in 6 mos or longer. I just unfollowed quite a few of those the other day. I do love the list feature and have been using it more and more on Twitter.
Thank you Lisa for the comment! I also notice that trend for the people to unfollow you, if you don’t follow back. Every month I schedule a Twitter clean up and find out inactive, spam, etc. users and unfollow them 🙂
Following people in order to have them follow you back is a tried and tested way of increasing your Twitter followers…though those people aren’t targeted. I would rather have 500 people following me who wanted to hear what I say that 10,000 who only followed me because I followed them. 🙂
Thanks for the comment Kevin! You made your point very clear 🙂
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