How To Join The Twitter Elite In 2 Weeks
A little off topic, but the man Rizoh over at The Rap Up has a great post on the top 100 Hip-Hop Twitters that any head should follow. Each day, more and more people from the rap community – rappers like Rhymefest, Mos Def, Q-Tip, Jay Electronica, Phonte from Little Brother and even Jay-Z and Kanye West are signing on to Twitter. And its a fascinating window into their lives.
In addition to stargazing, the Twitterverse, specifically the hip-hop portion of it, is an eclectic mix of producers, writers, on-air personalities, bloggers and fans. Its not unlike the Matrix with its lines of code constantly running in real time. You get a sense of what people are talking about, what’s hot, and often you get up on new music and gossip. Needless to say, its also a great networking tool for the blogger set.
As most YFWB readers know, Twitter is blowing the hell up right now. In fact, according to a new Technorati report , over 70% of Twitter user joined in 2008. I’m one of them. And , according to a survey of Twitter users, I’m in an elite group of Twitterers. The top 2.5%, in fact. Why? Because I have 300+ followers. Check it:
Sure, there are lots of folks that because of their notoriety, they can get 500, 1,000 or even 10,000 followers just by joining. But if that’s not you, how do you gain a following? How did I do it? Here’s some advice on how you can become a charter members of the Twitter hip-hop community:
1. Create a Profile
When you join Twitter , don’t go all half-ass. Put a pic in your profile and fill out all the information and biographical details. Put up your website and make sure you add some original wallpaper background that describes who you are. Like everything, first impressions are key.
2. Go Where The Fish Are
After you follow all your friends, you can use Rizoh’s list or your own criteria to find the more popular Twitterers that are into what you are into (I’m guessing hip-hop) and look at who they follow. You’ll find the same people keep popping up. You’ll get a sense of who are the big players. Follow those folks. Not only are they usually the most interesting, when new Twitter users do the same thing, they will follow you.
3. Be A Follower (for now)
This is the key to Twitter popularity: follow, follow, follow. Twitter etiquette dictates that one follows someone if they are following you. Unless they are selling something or are completely off topic for me (like the Christian Life Coach that follows me – WTF?), I follow that rule. Don’t expect the celebrities to follow you back unless they know you. But the bigger a list you build, the more will likely follow you.
4. Cull The List
After about two weeks, you’ll figure out who is going to follow you back – and who won’t. Once you have that list, go to Friend Or Follow and see who you are following and who are not following you back. Skipping the luminaries, start unfollowing those who don’t follow you.
Ta-da. Once you get decent numbers, the list starts growing on its own. I get, on average, about 5 followers a day now. Now, some parting advice:
- Update Regularly You can use TwitterFeed to have your blog updates get posted on your Twitter account. But I highly recommend you actually update.
- ABC Is Not The Business Some Twitterers think that they should “Always Be Closing” or constantly promoting their product, blog, mixtape, etc. Its cool to give yourself a shoutout every once in a while, but don’t be known for that.
- Don’t Protect Your Updates Unless you have classified intel that you only want a few friends to see, don’t protect your updates. You’ll look like a douchebag.
- Follow Me If you’re not already. I’m entertaining AND amazing.
Now go get your Twitter on. Good luck.
One Response to “How To Join The Twitter Elite In 2 Weeks”