Sitting, as I do, in the middle section of a rather large power curve that is “Twitter users and their followers,” I spend a fair amount of time thinking about what particular actions generate those wonderful follower spikes—you know, that day and a half where you get a couple hundred new followers instead of two or three?
I asked people on Twitter what they remember causing their big follower spikes, hoping that maybe someone had done something replicable as a legitimate follower-building strategy.
Surprisingly, someone had.
The replies I got showed, essentially, two strategies for getting a follower spike.
First: get recommended –
# kingrat@jasonp107 Anytime I mention social media, I get around 5 “social media experts” who follow me. Other than that, no spikes ever.about 2 hours ago from TwitterFox in reply to jasonp107
# chrispetescia@jasonp107 yesterday, from @carrotcreative staff tweets about our work with DMBabout 2 hours ago from web in reply to jasonp107
# Snotty McSnotterson@jasonp107: 100 requests in 15 min following @moniguzman’s endorsement on #followfriday. Seriously, I need her to be my PR person. 
about 2 hours ago from DestroyTwitter
# Dylan Wilbanks@jasonp107 Biggest follower spike: ~50 in the 24h after I spoke at SXSW.about 17 hours ago from web
# Chuck Westbrook@jasonp107 About 150 in a day when I first launched the idea behind bloghiker. Mind you, at that point, I had 30 followers.
Second: Use hashtags!
# @JJTweets #nnbn & #thepitch were my biggest spikes.Having tweets on bigboard shown to whole room as well as streaming-video traffic sure gets eyeballs
I quite like that second strategy. Seems replicable!
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
My biggest spikes come after writing a timely post which I then tweet using good keywords and appropriate hashtags. If I post it on one of the Green Options blogs for which I write or on one of my personal blogs I get spikes – but depending on the topic from different groups of followers.
Having been at this for the past couple of weeks it seems the most reliable way to generate followers is to actively participate in what interests you. Respond to people, engage them, say something that makes them want to RT, and use hashtags when participating in group discussions or when talking about your subject matter. It really is like the dinner party analogy, you’re either going to sit there and wait for people to come talk to you or you can work the room. However, you only have so many opportunities and so much time to work the room.