Skip to content

10 Proven Tips To Get More Twitter Followers

After reading this recent post from @paddydonnelly, Not Another ‘10 Tips to get more Twitter Followers’, I felt compelled to write what I think is the best way to use Twitter for getting more followers.

Follow this surefire guide and you’ll have hundreds (or even thousands) of more followers on Twitter in no time.

Sponsored link: If you can’t be bothered with the effort involved you could always buy Twitter followers here.

1. Follow everyone

Follow everyonef

How do you get noticed on Twitter? Follow everyone else. Literally go through as many Twitter profiles as possible and click follow. Do this 1,000 times and you’ll get around 900 follows back.

2. Retweet like mad

Retweet like mad

Retweet every link that comes from your friends. First of all your friend will be thankful for the retweet and secondly your followers will be thankful for the shared link.

Be sure to retweet in the format “RT @friend:” and keep any other RT @friend references in so they get the credit they deserve.

3. Constantly tweet about what you’re doing

Constantly tweet about what you're doing

Nobody will follow you if your Twitter stream is lying static so make sure you constantly update it, every 15 minutes if possible.

If you’re not doing anything interesting, talk about the food you’re eating, what you’re watching on TV or who you’re talking to and meeting e.g. “Eating sushi with @myfriend while watching Family Guy”.

4. Auto DM new followers to welcome them

Auto DM new followers to welcome them

You want your new followers to feel welcome so setup an auto welcome message via DM to say “Thanks for following me”. This is also the perfect time to list your sites that you want them to visit.

5. Link to your MySpace, Facebook or Bebo page

Facebook

Twitter is a social networking site so when listing your website it’s a good idea to link to another social networking site that you’re on so friends can connect with you on that site also. Enter your MySpace, Facebook or Bebo site here, not your website or blog.

6. Ask people to Digg, Retweet, Bookmark, Float etc.

Ask people to Digg, Retweet, Bookmark, Float etc.

This is the true value of Twitter. You can use it to gain significant advantages like asking people to digg your posts. If you have 500 followers and you ask them all to help you digg a post, you’ll more than likely get at least 400 diggs and be featured on the Digg homepage.

7. Ask people to follow you

Ask people to follow you

Milestones are important on Twitter. There’s a big difference between someone who only has 99 followers and someone who has 101 followers. You want and need to hit these follower milestones.

If you’re at 90 followers, tweet “nearly at 100 followers” and before you know it you’ll reach the 100 mark because your friends will retweet it. Likewise when nearing 1,000, 2,000 etc.

8. Use all 140 characters

Use all 140 characters

Don’t waste your tweets. There are 140 characters up for grabs so make sure you use as many as possible. The more information provided for your friends the better.

9. Don’t give away your secrets

Don't give away your secrets

If you find a good link that helps you achieve something extraordinary in your field, it would be silly to share it on Twitter. Don’t forget, your friends on Twitter are also your competitors so don’t be giving your secrets away.

10. Don’t reply to nobodies

Don't reply to nobodies

You want people to think that you’re really big and popular so only @reply to people who are famous or have thousands of followers. This will make you look like a Twitter big gun and people will feel the need to follow you.

More Twitter Followers Overnight

What do you think?

Are these effective ways to use Twitter? Do you have any other recommendations?

Want to read more?

Psst! We're hiring an Interaction Designer at Kareo. Click here if interested.

Photo of Lee Munroe

Written by Lee Munroe.

Follow @leemunroe on Twitter for more articles on UX design.


114 Appreciated Comments

Add your comment

  1. Brad C says:

    If this is an April fools joke I have to say well done sir.

  2. Seth Simonds says:

    Nicely done!

    Unfortunately, a lot of people will read the first few hints and be really grateful for your MLM-like hints.

    Killer conclusion!

  3. Alan says:

    Nice post Lee :-) I agree with all of the points you mention, even though if some “twitter gurus” are against some practices like following back to every follower you get.
    Cheers

  4. Manop says:

    Oh man! I love this post.

  5. picardo says:

    APRIL FOOLS!!!!!

    I read till 3 before I got it. Nice one.

  6. Fabio Couto says:

    I also agree with the tips, altgough I hate posts like “went to the bathroom”. Anyway, these were great tips and I loved the blog which by the way I found on Twitter :)

  7. Maria Pergolino says:

    April Fools? Must be.

  8. Desiztech says:

    Nice post. Are effective? Well lets see..

  9. Emily Lozano says:

    Ok. This is silly. #2 If you retweet EVEYTHING YOU WILL ANNOY PEOPLE #4 Auto DMs piss people off. #8 If you use all 140 characters no one will be able to retweet for you or you will make it such a pain in the ass no one will bother. #7 – If I see someone trying to get to a specific number of followers I know I don’t mean crap to them and will usually unfollow. Richard Branson thinks you are a nobody so if he is following rule #10… who are you going to chat with?

    Insincere participation is BS and if your ego needs that much stroking go back to MySpace.

  10. Paddy says:

    God, I really hope people don’t take this literally, although I know they will…

    Funny stuff :)

  11. Andrew Rossborough says:

    I always cringe when I read the biters’ comments!

    Good stuff. Unfortunately, some of these things might actually work for some people…

  12. lee2050 says:

    Makes a great read.

    Hard to believe some people will take it literally!!

    Great work!!

  13. jimharte says:

    haha – good work

  14. Caroline Smith says:

    Brilliant lol …

  15. John Girvin says:

    Very good :)

    You should rename this post “A Twitter spammer’s manifesto” or “How to lose followers and alienate people”.

  16. AndreaGam says:

    @some_of_these_commenters: Pleeease, remember today is April First…

  17. Gilbert says:

    I think the comments from people who fell for it are funnier than the post itself.

    Nice one Lee ;)

  18. tonnet says:

    Mindful! I like #5 and #9 & 10. Thanks for sharing and definetely i will put in parctice these recommendations.

  19. Kyle Boyd says:

    April Fools.

    Particularly liked tip 7

    7. Ask people to follow you

    epic.

  20. Emily Lozano says:

    Um, ok. Now I feel silly. File this under “Posting While Intoxicated” with a cross-reference to “Gullible April Fool’s Victims” (hangs head in shame.) :)

  21. connie says:

    aaah, finally, an April Fools that’s actually hilarious!

  22. Barry McGee says:

    There’s always a few.. ha!

  23. Dawn Baird says:

    I was thinking… this doesn’t sound like what I normally read on this blog… very funny…

  24. Perry P. Perkins says:

    Awesome!

    Nothing better than irony that shows you a couple of things you’re doing wrong! LOL

    -Perry

  25. SEANerDotNET says:

    This TOTALLY WORKS!! ;)

  26. Marvin Wilson says:

    Just finished writing a similar article last night for April fools day and was going to tweet it. Now I don’t feel excited about posting it. I was rolling on the floor when writing it. Dammit! Should I post it or not.

  27. Mike Kivikoski says:

    Haha, ya got me. Well done on the article

    @marvin – post it, let’s see what other ‘tips’ will help enhance twitter

  28. Lee says:

    Hopefully by now you’ll have realised this is an April fools post. Sorry but I couldn’t resist ;-) In all honesty I would recommend doing the opposite of everything I stated above for an effective Twitter experience (although to be honest you never know what might work for getting followers).

    This is a tongue in cheek look at Twitter and how people use it. I hope you found the list entertaining :-)

    @Marvin: Of course, post away and share with us

  29. Chad Horenfeldt says:

    That was a good laugh – thanks!

  30. Rob says:

    Good list of crazy ideas ;-)

  31. aravind says:

    Crazy great ideas.. but believe me, many of the tweeters follow all these to get ‘more’ followers!

  32. joão says:

    that’s a crazy list, but I would skip the 9th step.. I guess sharing is one more way to have more followers (at least that’s how and why I follow other people, because of their ‘secrets’).. though it’s nice list! :)

  33. jozua says:

    this is a joke right – 9. Don’t give away your secrets
    missing the point to say the least – haha

  34. David Braziel says:

    Excellent post Lee and reading the comments is almost as funny.

    Those “n tips to get more followers” lists always remind me of a Ricky Gervais quote when he was asked by a journalist “What advice would you give to someone who wants to become really famous.” he replied: “Murder a prostitute”.

  35. Lee says:

    @David: lol yes, I’ve heard him say that or similar a few times. Wonder if anyone took his advice

  36. @clementyeung says:

    This post proves that you aren’t quite getting the point of social media.

    Your methods are an “opaque” way of using a medium meant for transparency.

  37. Emma Smyth says:

    Great article, new to twitter myself

  38. Mark McClure says:

    you missed: tweet dozens of pithy quotes day-after-day by famous folks now deceased. Grr…

  39. James Kurtz III says:

    Wow. I am slow. I didn’t pick up on the sarcasm until I started to read the comments. Haha. I was thinking, “wow, this guy is so totally wrong.” Haha!

  40. Ditch says:

    Wow, I’m really glad I read the comments. I’m new to twitter, so I thought these were serious.

  41. Vikas SN says:

    Amazing April Fools Day Post Lee. Well done :)

  42. Zac says:

    Haha. Nice job.

  43. WOF says:

    is there a way to get more local followers to my site: http://twitter.com/wof_fi

  44. Kevin Alcantar says:

    Great tips. Thanks!

    http://twitter.com/Tater_Nuts

    Follow! I’ll follow back.

  45. ffvip says:

    Great post!

    I have managed to reach over 2000 followers in a month’s time and love how it generates traffic to my blog. I started using the super followback list where users are willing to followback. Everyone leaves their name and you can 100′s. I noticed if you content is worthwhile, once u reach 1000 it nearly doubles. I recommend anyone wanting followers to leave their name on that list at http://bit.ly/ffvip Have fun and good luck in the twitterverse!

    #FFVIP
    @FFVIP = masters of follow friday

  46. finalanimestop says:

    …you’re half right and half wrong. ill explain tomorrow.

  47. Jai says:

    I started reading this thinking… “That’s odd, these tips seem to be the opposite of what makes Twitter fun…” haha.

    Best tip: tweet “sitting on the toilet tweeting”

  48. Daniel Gardner says:

    Oh gosh I read through this thinking…”This guy is way off” till I read the April 1rst comments. :) Well done!

  49. FlashTweet says:

    Hey Lee – You should check out http://www.flashtweet.com to grow your following by using our RSS tweet feature. You can also mass everyone who mentions you on Twitter. Great for connecting with your fans. Email us at info@flashtweet.com and we will hook you up with a free account.

  50. Yo says:

    haha, this is funny but not serious

  51. Jakes says:

    Nice tips… DE last was a sort of tricky one

  52. Niko says:

    I think the best way to get more followers on twitter is to join: http://www.getrealfollowers.com
    You will find many interesting ways there.

  53. Becca Bennett says:

    LOL what a load of crap! it would take you years to unfollow EVERYONE! plus i have a friend that has almost 1000 followers and she didn’t even have to follow 10 people, only her friends. People follow you if you have INTERESTING TWEETS! They say tweet all the time so you get more followers, yes & no because people get annoyed and UNFOLLOW YOU! so follow who you want to follow and ask people to follow you, quite easy & simple :) Follow me @ http://www.twitter.com/BabyBecca0 <3

  54. James Dyson says:

    Another good idea is to focus on your interest and niche
    so that you can attract like minded friends and business contacts. By using the search function you can locate
    similar folks.follow me on twitter @fulltracks

  55. adam cleaner says:

    a lot of the “tips” seem more like spam ideas. tweet about everything? i’m shocked people justify it as a way to get more followers as it’s not different for how a spammer works, and they justify that by the nice number in their bank account at the end of the week. in my opinion use twitter how you want to, if there is people to follow that you want to follow, then do so. some users will want to read the posts of someone with only a few people following as they are less likely to be spam, but some others wont, so don’t be false and just be a true twitterer and the real customers will come running soon enough.

  56. adam cleaner says:

    ah silly me, this was an april fools joke. I was linked here from another blog reccomeding i do these tips so was like wtf?

  57. http://twitter.com/PrayMaddyMcCann says:

    Thanks so much for these tips!
    They are great and really helpful! Thank You God Bless

    Please Follow Me, Guys!:
    http://twitter.com/PrayMaddyMcCann

  58. adam cleaner says:

    ^ spot the spammer lol

  59. http://twitter.com/PrayMaddyMcCann says:

    Lol I’m not spamming!
    Just saying thanks for the tips they honastly did help me and am saying plz add me too!

  60. Micah says:

    I use Hummingbird to get more followers on Twitter. I think this is the link: http://www.hummingbird2.com

  61. Imran says:

    Thanks for these tips.

  62. S@MMiiE says:

    Follow Me On Twitter @samlukey, id appreciate it.

  63. Chelny says:

    Follow me. http://twitter.com/Chelny
    Spammers are welcomed too unless they unfollow me right away. hahahahahh

  64. Twitter.com/whodunit140 says:

    In the spirit of twitter fun this comedy animation explains the one simple rule to getting more twitter followers! Not sure how much use you’ll find it though!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYE9n0D2FiY

  65. PrayMaddyMcCann says:

    The Very Best Tip I Have Is To Follow Back All The People That Follow You!

    Doing So Builds Your Reputation And People And Alot More Likely To Follow You, Knowing It’ll Be Reciprocated!

    So Follow Me Today As I Always Follow Back!
    http://twitter.com/PrayMaddyMcCann

    Oh And Every Follower I Get Raises More Awareness For Madeleine McCann! Each Follow Helps That Little Bit More!

    http://www.twitter.com/PrayMaddyMcCann

  66. Adam Cleaner says:

    thing is though, if you follow everyone, the real visitors that may actually want to see your account, will see this and see how you have messed with your results. then how can you measure the success of twitter if all you see are visits from people only looking at your account because they know they’ll get followed back?

  67. Johnny says:

    Haha, for a second I thought you were being serious xD

  68. ChefBlogDigest says:

    Oh shoot! I thought these were gospel truths! lol

  69. Glenn says:

    This is really bad advice. Ignore.

  70. Mijas Real Estate says:

    Great post it got me thinking for a while
    This can’t be right ? …..then i started looking at the comments !

    Have fun out there ……..lifes too short

    http://twitter.com/MijasRealEstate

    I’ll follow you back

  71. Mike Foster says:

    Great Post – the don’t reply to nobody’s is an interesting one – will try this and other techniques today.

  72. Tony says:

    I’ve done all of that already and still I only see modest increases in my following!! What gives!?@# Great post man. Imma retweet it a hundred time or until the RT button on this page bans me from ever rt’ing.

  73. @Chelny says:

    hahaha! :P

  74. Kinga says:

    Follow me? @kinguslejjka

  75. Kate Lennon says:

    So this article is a joke? In any event I find the replies hilariously self-indulgent and pretentious (the article too, if it’s a joke). It seems to me that you “seasoned twitterers” have your heads up your a***s. You are taking yourselves waaaay too seriously. Tweeting isn’t SERIOUS. It’s just people – all kinds of people with different views – posting short messages. There are no rules. Making up rules about what is and isn’t acceptable, and sniggering at people who neither know or care about these self-imposed rules, is just plain dumb. It’s like saying you shouldn’t wear certain colours, or you shouldn’t begin sentences with “and”. And I do that all the time.

  76. Dante says:

    I have to try this out and see if it really works

    http://www.reverbnation.com/dantewuzzhere

  77. Allen Gingrich says:

    Although I know this is an old April Fools joke, I can’t help but comment that doing all these things probably will make you gain a lot of followers.

    But then again, they are the most annoying tactics I’ve ever heard of (yet the ones you see day in and day out).

  78. mag for women says:

    this is a very informative post. i am looking forward to implementing these ideas.

  79. Africanlegend says:

    I was reading this and thinking….damn, this is a complete list of every shitty practice on twitter…then I read the comments lol..

  80. David J. Hahn says:

    I think giving secrets away is the best way to get attention online, so I have to disagree with that point. Help people and they will help you back.

  81. David J. Hahn says:

    Oh wait. Nevermind. I get it now. It’s pretty annoying that google puts this spoof in the top of the SERP. This wastes my time.

  82. Yudhi says:

    this is great :)

  83. Mei Ying says:

    This is adorable! Lol some of the comments are too funny. It’s a joke! -.- Lighten up!

  84. DJive says:

    Plain and simply great info. I placed a link back from our site because their isn’t any BS in this post.

  85. patrice says:

    haha very….whatever.

  86. @Michaeltoman says:

    Great post. Very funny.

  87. Patrice_Patten says:

    okie dokie lets try it Lol .

  88. Amal Murali says:

    Well said.. :)

  89. Jeanette Kwok Web Design says:

    Thanks! I was wondering how people have so many followers. I will be using your tips for sure!

  90. @JBglitzgirl4eva says:

    ok…… nope i think the best to do is to say you ALWAYS follow back cos everyone wants more followers dont they? bugging people to follow you, retweeting everything and auto DMs just piss people off. me included.

  91. Idontlikeyou says:

    very sad, because all this things are what you must Not do

  92. zulfizan says:

    nice tips ,thx alot.This is what i need to improve my follower :D,im new to twitter.

  93. Roy Marvelous | Cruisesurfingz says:

    Haha nice joke but still useful on what NOT to do. I guess I shouldn’t have followed all those people huh :)

    @roymarvelous

  94. shirts says:

    Great april fool or just a help to would be twitters!
    Either way it’s worth following you for it : )
    Tony

  95. Social media Guide says:

    Getting a large quantity of followers always are worst efforts. But followers must be niche and worth quality.

  96. tshirts says:

    Does having more twitter followers get you up the page ranking, well I guess there’s a lot more to it than that. It still goes back to the content, after all if you get the content right and it’s interesting then you will get more visitors and consequently climb the rankings.
    It’s no good getting the site seen but having nothing worth looking at!

  97. Rishabh says:

    good tips i have ever seen!
    keep it up!
    :)
    @rishabh_india

  98. Lee Robinson Petzer says:

    Great post Lee

    Sadly, too many people execute their Twitter strategy like this and spend time scratching their heads at its` failure.

  99. Drew says:

    OH my it is scary how many people are taking this seriously.

  100. archi says:

    cool! well i guess i need to give this a try and see if it works.. ty

  101. Jeff says:

    Thanks Lee. We are working on getting our twitter account going and hope your suggestions help.

  102. Events says:

    Thanks. This is a nice list ive seen. But i think the first one is the best. Get more followers, you have to spend time and follow people before they follow you. If you are the Rock, electrifying entertainer, the great one (more than 1 million followers), YOu dont need to follow people. Thats why the Rock is rookie.

  103. David says:

    Good joke though and good position in google search

  104. Janae says:

    It took me until about #4 to realize (for certain) this was a joke. Hilarious!

  105. Vic Suckerbag says:

    Nice! I followed the advice above and it worked! I also made some other tweaks to my style/presentation etc, so can’t be sure which had the most influence. I definitely think tweeting more works.

  106. Rao vat says:

    i think it is not a joke, but it is not the best methods, somehow, some ways i think i can use some of these tips above. This article gets the first spot in SE.

  107. Pizzaparty says:

    This is a hilarious post. Love it.

    Follow @mario_pizzuto. You may find some of my tweets funny. And maybe not. You never know.

  108. Natte-dog says:

    Haha Hilarious Lee! I Wrote 2 similar articles!
    @N_Yeezy

  109. Mark says:

    I am immediately putting ALL tips into action so I can get 30,000 followers by Friday at http://twitter.com/SqInchesOfLove – LOL!

  110. NottyGal says:

    It’s raining Aril FOOLS,i’nt it!sorry,I don’t kno 140 characters…

  111. Eric says:

    Another ideas is to create a contests or giveaway for folks who follow you!