If you are new to Twitter or you are trying to expand your followers on your Twitter account, you need to know the best techniques to getting the right followers. As a user of Twitter, you can write powerful sales pitches all day long but it won’t generate sales from Twitterville if you are connected to the wrong people. What do I mean by “wrong people?” No, Twitter isn’t high school so please don’t reject someone because they have heaps of black nose hairs poking out of their left nostril. Twitter isn’t about accepting or rejecting based on perceived class status but rather targeting your direct market.

To get the right audience, I suggest you do the following steps:

1. Make a list of the top five gurus in your industry. Use Twellow.com to search for your gurus. Twellow is a directory of public Twitter accounts with hundreds of categories and search features to help you find people. While you’re on Twellow, register yourself for free.

2. Once you find one of your gurus, start a conversation with that guru first before following him or her as this increases the chance that he or she will follow you back. An easy way to start a conversation is re-tweet (RT) something the guru wrote on their page. Include the ‘at symbol’ (@) with their Twitter name along with their tweet. This encourages good will as you are promoting the guru to all of your followers, bringing positive attention to the guru. The guru would know his or her name was mentioned by using the search feature in Twitter (search.twitter.com). You will also want to use the Twitter search feature to find tweets about yourself!

3. While on the gurus page, open his or her list of followers then follow everyone in the first five pages. Take a break after five pages otherwise Twitter will temporarily suspend your account on the assumption that you are a spammer. I encourage you to read Twitter’s rules so that you keep your account live at all times. After your break, follow another five pages. Make sure you avoid following duplicate Twitter accounts as those are spammers. It always amazes me when someone takes the time to create 10 Twitter accounts with 10 different names but makes the mistake of using the same photo. Dead give-away that this person is a spammer and will not be a live person on the other end. Don’t waste your time with them as they certainly won’t be looking at your tweets. Wash, rinse, and repeat daily.

4. The best times to follow people in the United States and Europe is between 1:30pm-3pm and 7pm-11pm. The weekends is a great time to add new followers as a lot more people are online. As long as you follow Twitter’s rules, you can use software to add or delete friends. Tweetelitepro is the best program for adding or removing Twitter followers automatically. Tweet Elite Pro is roughly $97 per year and Tweet Elite Lite is as low as $17.94.

5. Build familiarity and trust with all your followers. You add value by posting tweets that educate your followers. Share your best tips and lessons. Post 3 to 5 times every day. Out of the 5 posts, three posts should be about your business, product, or service and two posts should be a story or educating. You can find interesting stories on Digg.com, HowToDoThings.com, EHow.com, or Ezinearticles.com and post the link to the article in your tweet. Copy the link for the story and the headline into your post. If the link is too long for your post, use a link shortener. I use Bit.ly because it is free and tracks how many people have actually clicked on my links. The point of sharing stories is to be real, fun, and informative. You don’t want to come across as a selfish sales person only trying to get your message across to the world. Who wants to follow that?

6. Send direct messages to your new followers. Save yourself some time by automating the direct messages using Tweetlater’s free service. Direct messages are a perfect opportunity to cross promote yourself. For example, I automatically send out an invitation to all my followers to add me as a friend on Facebook.com. Facebook is a great way to build a follower into a trusted friend. You could also use the direct message feature to have private conversations with your new follower.

7. Brand yourself. Become unforgettable in the eyes of your prospects. A good way to brand yourself is create a background that shows your personality. At a minimum, include a picture of yourself and your domain name. If you can squeeze anything else, include your social media addresses. If you don’t know how to use PhotoShop, you can hire a graphic designer like Hugh Briss at Twitterimage.com. His branded backgrounds are affordable at $99.

Getting Twitter followers should be easy, fun, and profitable as long as you stick to the above suggestions. I wish you massive success in Twittersphere!

Are you wondering how people make money on their blogs? Deborah Bravandt coaches people from ground zero to profitably using affiliate programs. Follow me on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/deborahbravandt. My article was originally published on Ezinearticles website at: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Deborah_Bravandt

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