10 Things I Learned On My Twitter Journey To 100,000 Followers

Posted by John Paul in Pop Posts, Twitter Marketing

My Journey To 100,000

I remember when I first started out and I hit 1,000 followers and how excited I was.

To reach 100,000 is just crazy, something that I wouldn’t have done without some great Twitter friends and followers over the last 2.5 yrs.

This post is my small but “LONG way” to say Thank U!  I will be covering some helpful advice, a little ranting and I will end it off with some Free stuff for you.

Now make sure you eat your vegetables of learning before you jump to the end for dessert.

Sound good to you?  Ok, cool let’s roll on then.

In my first year on Twitter I added about 34,000 followers and my second year I added about 64,000 followers.

What changed?

Not much at all really, just some tweaking that I will share below.

You see on my post on reaching 34,000 followers, the fundamental things I did then I still do today and will do in the future.

Twitter marketing at it’s core isn’t complicated, yes there are tips and tricks to get even better results, but the fundamentals are simple. The truth is If you do the few steps and do them on a regular basis you will see great results.

Yea, I know Andy ANALytical the “Guru” wants you to over complicate things and try to make you think it is soooo much to know.

Truth is, I can make anything “seem” complicated, even the simple act of tying your shoes. I can give you navigational stats, force pressure stats, speed and technique stats, hell I can give you wind stats too.

But it’s just a swoop, twist, insert and pull type thing not complicated at all.

With Twitter and all Social Media you need to stop looking for the magic bullet. Have the balls, guts for the ladies to admit it’s not complicated and just do the work that it takes to do well!

I have social media manager clients that hated Twitter now they love it. I have some that saw no real benefit to Twitter that are now making sales. I even had some that laughed at me when I told them how to succeed with Twitter, until they started seeing results in a few months that they hadn’t seen in years.

Below I’m going to share the things that you can do to see real long term results with Twitter. Things I did back when I started and  STILL doing today.

Now there are secret things I have learned that will boost your results getting you more RT’s and drive more traffic, but I will leave the secret stuff for the All New Twitter Dummy Guide coming soon

The fundamentals of succeeding on Twitter I share below.

5 Things I Did To Reach 100,000

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Follow The Right People

This is where it all starts. You can make or break your results on Twitter by who and how you follow people.

The old way of following was to find a leader in your niche and follow his followers. Now this works ok to a point.

What I like to do is follow some of his followers but also follow his following. But only if he is super tight with who he follows. Like if he has 50,000 followers but only 2,000 following then you know he is very selective to who he follows and most likely very targeted.

I also like to do keyword searches to find followers, but be careful on the results you get.

Example: searching for dog owners because you sell dog toys is smart right?  Yes, if you are selective.

Some of the searches can be someone complaining of a dog in his neighborhood or it could be someone that saw a cute dog today or a dog on a tv show they are talking about.

None of those people have dogs or want to buy dog toys, not a good person to follow.

So this is a great way to find targeted people, it just takes some work to get the real peeps you want.

I also only follow peeps with pictures of themselves and real names. Rarely do I follow a company.

My thought is that real people with real names and their own pics will be better at engaging and tweeting my stuff.

If you mix up these 3 ways you will get the best and most followers for your efforts.

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Connect and Engage

I know you hear me say this alllll the time haha

But I have to because this is the best way to get the results from Twitter that you want.

Now I have people say “but JP I don’t have the time to engage”

Connecting with people doesn’t have to be an everyday thing, it doesn’t have to be a 3 hr convo either. Engaging with people can be as simple as sharing their stuff, commenting on their tweets, doing a #followfriday to them, you saying hello and introducing yourself.

It can be little things that over time build into a friendship and possibly partnership.

I’m sure you have friends, good friends that you don’t see or talk to everyday right?  Yet you are still good friends?

Social media engagement works the same way. It doesn’t have to be an everyday thing, but it does have to be a thing you do!

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Share Great Stuff

I cover this a little bit below, but sharing great stuff is the best way to build trust from your followers.

The hardest and most powerful thing you can do on Twitter is to get your followers to click or read your links without hesitation because they trust you that much.

Do you understand the power in that?

I always say you should read things BEFORE you tweet them.

But there are a few people on Twitter that I tweet there stuff sight unseen because I trust them and know their stuff is always awesome and helpful.

This is the Holy Grail of Twitter success, hell ALL Social Media!

“Getting people to trust you so much that they will click, read, share all your stuff.”

If you can do this, then you can sell ice to peeps in Alaska and still kill it on Twitter

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Be Available

I hear people all the time say you don’t have to be on Twitter to do well with Twitter.

This is such BS, I promise you if you have two people using Twitter exactly, but one is on it and available and the other isn’t.

The one that’s available will crush the one that’s not.

Why? Because to get the best you can from Twitter you have to be helpful, share great posts, answer questions in real time.

What looks better to you, me replying to your question within 20 min or taking 8 hrs to reply?

20 min looks a hell of a lot better to me and most tweeters will see it the same way.

The other benefit to being there, is people will see you active, chatting it up, joking, replying sharing, they will see YOU. This goes a long way to getting that tweeter back to your blog.

If they like you and how you do Twitter chances are they will want to follow your blog and see you do you even more.

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The Simple Thank U

Such a simple thing right?

But do you know that saying Thank U for every tweet I have gotten the past 2.5 yrs is a BIG reason for my success?

I have lost count at how many people have thanked me for thanking them for a tweet.  Things like “JP thanks for saying Thank U… I have never seen that before” Or “JP I can’t belie you thank people for every tweet…That’s awesome”

When someone can get so happy or excited over getting a simple Thank U for a tweet then why wouldn’t you do it? Doing something so simple yet so powerful that it makes them remember you or make you standout from the rest.

Isn’t that what you want on Twitter? To standout from the rest and be seen? Be heard? Be Trusted?

All from a simple “Thank U for the RT ”

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This next section is all about Dropping The BS!

Looking at yourself to see how and why your results on Twitter are not where you want them to be.

I had to do this too, when I started my Twitter results were pathetic lol, I was flailing for months till one day I decided to say F the “gurus” and do things different. I had to dig in and be honest with myself to why my Twitter activity sucked.

It was hard… but the result of that self honesty?

100,000 followers and over 17,000 RT’s

Now understand, when I came to Twitter I had no blog, I had no following. I started to build my blog and the next day I was on Twitter.

I didn’t have the luxury of coming to Twitter with a blog following of 10,000 or 100,000 followers.

I started at zero!

So take the time to read below and be real with yourself. If your doing these things then Stop, your blog and your business will Thank U.

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5 BS Things You Need To Ignore

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Numbers Don’t Matter

You notice the people preaching your follower count should stay low are the people that don’t get shared?

Let’s be honest, if I was to give that same person 30,000 targeted followers, do you think they would say “oh no thanks JP, I’m happy with my 1,000?” hell no they wouldn’t and if they did, they are F’N MORONS! haha

The truth is, the amount of traffic that has gone to my blog, to my affiliate links etc…  comes from the numbers and the engagement one without the other would only have brought HALF the traffic.

Can you do well with engagement with a small following?  Yes, butttt….

Let me share a story with you to explain what I mean… (I just felt like the narrator on Dukes of Hazards lol I’m getting old)

Johnny and Joey both have a blog and they both sell a WordPress plugin for $20.

Johnny’s plugin will reach out and hug you each time you comment and Joey’s plugin will reach out and shake your hand each time you comment. Two sweet kids

Now Joey has a Twitter following of 1,000 and Johnny has a following of 20,000. They both engage as much as they can each day to drive traffic to their blogs.

The difference is, Joey is all about staying small and engaging his small group and Johnny is all about growing a big following and still engaging his group.

Joey is doing well, he is driving his 1,000 followers to his blog as much as he can, getting shares from the same 1,000 followers for 12 months.

Johnny is also driving traffic from his followers he engages with, he is also getting shares from them, but Johnny is also getting shares from many other followers and Johnny is driving traffic to his blog at a much higher rate. Johnny is connecting with so many NEW followers as he engages he existing followers he is getting twice as much shares and traffic as Joey does.

Now let’s see how well they are selling their awesome plugins

Joey is happy with his 1,000 followers and wants to make 100 sales which would be a 10% conversion rate, which is hard to do with social traffic.

Now Johnny has his 20,000 followers and growing daily, he also wants to make 100 sales. But to get 100 sales from his 20,000 followers, Johnny needs a conversion of only 2%.

Seems like Johnny has a easier job of reaching his 100 sales goal then Joey. Also Johnny is benefiting from all the blog traffic too, new comments, new shares, new friendships.

As Joey is still connecting with his SAME 1,000 followers a year later, his sales have stopped since he is still sharing with the same peeps. Yet Johnny’s sales continue to grow since he is reaching out to new peeps each day.

The End...for Joey

At the end of the day we are all here to drive traffic to our blogs and make money!

Yes, we want to build relationships, yes, we want to have a strong following, but the point of those relationships is to grow your blog and make more money.

Honestly ask yourself this!

If you didn’t have a blog or you weren’t trying to make money online would you be on Twitter as much as you are now JUST to make friends?

I’m thinking the answer is NO!  So forget the bullshit “Twitter gurus” tell you about staying small with your numbers, grow your following, engage, build relationships and keep growing.

You decide…you wanna be Joey or Johnny?

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Share Everyone’s Stuff

I say BS to this, why? Well to be honest, not everyone deserves their stuff to be RT’d.

Just like if someone sent you over a post for a Guest Post opportunity, would you just publish it even if it was crap?

I HOPE NOT!

I have said this before, “what you tweet makes or breaks you on Twitter”

So knowing that, you need to be selective at what you tweet.

Make sure it is good

Make sure it’s helpful

Make sure it is relevant to your target

Make sure it fits YOUR tweeting plan

Take control of what you tweet, tweet groups, tweet agreements, tweet sheer squads,  whatever you call it, they suck. You lose control of what you tweet just to get a tweet.. that is bad for business people.

I say if you want to tweet me then do it, but don’t do it because you expect something in return.

I appreciate every tweet, I say Thank U for every tweet I get because it means a lot to me when you tweet my stuff. I know you can be tweeting 1,000 other people’s stuff instead, but you chose mine, that matters to me!

But tweet me because you want to, not because you hope for shit back.

Chances are I will tweet you back anyway.  But don’t expect me to.

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Use Tools To Do The Work

Tools are fine and they do help but the best thing you can do on Twitter to succeed is to be in there working it yourself.

Now tools like Hootsuite are great, I use it everyday to help me manage Twitter actively across a couple accounts. But that’s a small part of my work, the real magic happens when I am in there hands on everyday.

There is no way around it, to get the most from Twitter you need to be on Twitter more!

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People Follow You If You Share Great Stuff

This is half true. Sharing great stuff helps a lot, that’s why I went from adding 34,000 followers my first year to adding 64,000 followers my second.

What changed?  I was sharing better stuff, my posts were better too.

But to really add lot’s of targeted followers you need to be proactive, you need to chase them down and shove your Twitter profile in their face and say this is me, this is what I share and how I can help you.

When you add that proactive mentality with sharing great stuff, you will then begin to grow a large, targeted, active and engaging following.

Time for more self honesty, ask yourself how long have you had the same 500, 1,000, 3,000 followers?

Now do you think you share good stuff?

If so, then why isn’t your following growing like crazy like the wanna be gurus told you it would?

Chase them down and make them see how and what you share and you will start to grow a large targeted following too.

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Twitter Traffic Is Worthless

Twitter traffic isn’t worthless, YOUR Twitter traffic is worthless.

How you follow and share and engage people is what determines how worthy or worthless your Twitter traffic is.

Twitter traffic is there, it is the same for me and you. The fork in the road comes from how you treat your Twitter following.

Treat them right and they go left to your blog, treat them bad and they go right to everyone else’s blog.

If you treat them right, share great stuff, be helpful, be available, so when the time comes when you share a affiliate link or a new product, the hard work has been done. You have their trust so making sales will be that much easier for you.

Did you read that?  Ok let me say it again!

The way you treat your following WILL make it easier to make sales from your following.

It is about trust, if they trust you to come to you for help or questions then that extra step they need to take to buy a product you promote will be much easier for them.

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Time Too Give Back

Now let’s get to the good stuff.

As my Thank U to everyone that helped and supported me on this journey to 100,000 I will give away 10 Twitter Dummy Guides.

1 copy is going to my 100,000th follower Justine @Premakarini

The other 9 copies will go to people that comment on this blog posts. Make the comment relevant and more then “Nice Post”

I will then pick every 3 rd person starting with the first commenter.

So basically commenter: 1 – 4 – 7 – 10 – 13 – 16 – 19 – 22 – 25 will win a free copy of  the Twitter Dummy Guide.

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The End and The Beginning

I hope this post helped you, I know the more I wrote the more I thought about the more I wrote again lol

I thought it would never end.

Hopefully what was in my head made it to “paper” in a way that will help you.

For me, 200,000 followers and 5,000 Listed is the new goal!

How about you?

Did I motivate you to make a change? Did I piss you off? Did I waste your time?

No matter what, at some point you have to wake up and DO YOU and stop listening and reading and learning. You need to just know you have the tools to kill it on Twitter and just go do the work to actually KILL IT ON TWITTER!

So comment and let me know what you think. I won’t hug you or shake your hand like Johnny and Joey’s plugins, but you just might win something

Tags: 000 followers, 100, followfriday, social media, twitter dummy, twitter dummy guide, twitter followers, twitter journey, twitter marketing, twitter mistakes, twitter tips