Twitter. Most people today, and a lot of businesses, have a profile. Ok, so not all of them are very active. In fact, out of the ever growing number of accounts – 1.3 billion as of 2015 – only 313 million are active. That’s a huge amount (about 75%) of inactive profiles!

Even though 313 million out of 1.3 billion is such a small number, competing with 313 million people who ARE active on twitter to get your business profile seen is still a huge challenge. There are a few different ways to boost your follower count, and some of them can be as easy as having the right sized graphics that are a high resolution. Other ways are much less favourable, like paying for followers. This is where a lot of inactive accounts are created. Twitter is a relatively easy to use, free platform. That’s why we’ve put together a list of ways that you can get your Twitter account having a mass following in no time.

1. Graphics

Properly sized graphics are the first step in creating a twitter account that will thrive. Your profile picture will be displayed at 180 x 180 pixels. When creating your graphics however, use the dimensions 360 x 360 pixels. This lets your image appear bigger when clicked on, but scales down well when in thumbnail view. When creating a business twitter page, try to use your logo on every picture- your profile image should be your logo, your cover image should have a small logo in the corner, and where appropriate try and add your logo onto any timeline images that you post later on. The consistent use of your logo will get it into people’s heads, so that when they think of your product they will remember your logo too.

When it comes to your cover image, it’s a good plan to stick to the specifications of 1500 x 500 pixels. Unlike your logo, your cover image will never need to increase in size when clicked on. What’s cool about Twitter is that it’s a platform that not only supports JPG and PNG, it supports GIF formats as well! Use this to your advantage. People are more likely to visit your profile if something like an animated profile image or cover image catches their eye. Once someone is at your profile and have a look through at all your amazing content, they feel as though they might as well hit that follow button.

2. Colour Your Profile

Have you ever visited a profile that turns your twitter buttons and hashtag links a different colour from the natural twitter-blue? That’s because the clever duckie that set up the profile knew how to change the colour of it. The standard colours you can have include orange, red, pink, turquoise, purple, and various shades of blue. However, if you want your profile be unique… there is the option for you to add your own hex colour code. For example, if you look at our Twitter page, the colour is #97C700, which is the exact colour used for our nettl.com branding and page. Using a consistent colour for everything that you can also increases brand awareness. It may sound silly to assume that people associate colour with a brand, but think about the colour purple. What do you associate with that colour? I bet one of the first brands you thought of was Cadbury. And now look at their twitter page… it is the exact colour known as ‘Cadbury’s purple… or #462075. Or when you think of the colour red, 9 times out of 10 your first thought will probably be Coca-Cola’s #F80000. Choose a brand colour and stick to it. It’s one of the best ways to become known.

3. Have a killer bio

Now I have a few things to say about a Twitter bio. So, this one might be a bit longer.

The first is that you MUST have a website link in your info. Even if it just links to your facebook page. Utilise the fact that Twitter has this feature. There is nothing worse for the consumer to find a brand that is all singing all dancing has no link to their website. So, keep your consumer has happy as they can be and add a link.

Next is the short bio itself. They key word here is short. You have 160 characters to tell someone about your business. Use. Them. All. Or at least use as many as you can. Be to the point and tell people exactly who you are. For example, our twitter bio is ‘We’re a creative bunch who love all things Web. Previously, and still Absolute Creative, we do design, marketing and run https://www.GloucesterPrintShop.co.uk’ Short, sweet, fun and tells people who we are. If you can, and it’s appropriate, why not use emoji’s? The emoji’s draw the eye to them and make you want to know why that person has used them.

The last thing with this is location. Using it is a good way to reach your target audience. You’ll be surprised at the number of people who follow locally based businesses on twitter. People prefer to follow local businesses. Not only will you gauge who your audience is to be able to post accordingly, other local businesses will start following you. With this, you can build up relationships with other businesses, allowing you to help each other out when needed. Our Nettl of Cheltenham studio is the perfect example of this. By building up these relationships with Cheltenham businesses and mentioning them up on social media a few times, we had cake from Boston Tea Party, pizza from The Stable, and drinks from Battledown Brewery at our opening event. Getting involved with other businesses in this friendly way will end with everyone getting more business. We’ve been doing this for years here in Gloucester, gaining great relationships with companies like Typecraft, Biz Stationery, Hayden Taylor and The Grill Shed.

4. Follow like-minded Followers

People often follow back without thinking about it. With that in mind, you can grow your army of followers by following people or businesses. You can follow your competitors and maybe their followers if relevant. Follow local people and businesses. If you’re going to hit the limit, it can be worth deleting inactive accounts. Since there are over 987 million inactive accounts you are bound to have followed a few accidently. You should then be able to ensure you’re following relevant and active followers in your neighbourhood. Anyone who follows you, tweet at them, say thank you and interact with their account. Their followers will see this and may follow you.

There you have it… follow these four simple steps and you’ll have enough followers to create a small army in no time!