An editor I have prodded to start engaging on Twitter is finding it fun and useful, “almost addicting.” But he said he said his local followers “remain disappointingly low.”
I don’t get hung up on the actual number of followers, but you are going to get better engagement if you can connect with local people who are interested in their community. That number makes a difference. The more local engaged followers you have, the more successful your efforts at crowdsourcing, content distribution and local conversation. My suggestions to the editor, edited slightly:
I’d take the following measures to try to build that local following. The first three relate to following more local people (many, but not all, of whom will follow you back):
- In Twitter.com, click the “who to follow” tab and search for the name of your city, with and without your state. You will find some local people to follow. (Can obviously do the same for other nearby towns).
- In Twitter advanced search, at least once a day, fill in your city’s name in the “places” box and set the radius as wide or narrow as you want. Then hit search and you will see recent tweets from people in your community.
- When you follow someone local, check his or her followers to see if you can find some more local people to follow (don’t have to check them all; a screen or two usually turns up some good people to follow). Check also their recent tweets to see if they are talking to and about some other local tweeps.
- When someone local that you’re following tweets something interesting, reply or retweet. If they aren’t already following you, they might follow, once you’re conversing with them. They also might reply or retweet, which places your username in their Twitter stream, and some of their followers might want to follow you, too.
- Be patient. Building engagement on Twitter takes time. But it does gather momentum.
Very good tips but I would also add putting links to local content, event news, youtube videos etc. in posts people want to know whats going on in the local area.
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Thanks for sharing the above…I have been looking for the best of the following two twitter tabs combined: “Who to follow” tab and the “Browse Interest” tab that sits right next to the “Who to follow” tab. Any insights from you or your community would be appreciated. Have a great Sunday!
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Re: my comment above: to be more specific…I am trying to find people on twitter in certain zip codes that have the same interest
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Jim, I don’t know a way to search exactly as you say, but in Twitter’s Advanced Search, you can do a pretty tight local search with keywords that might reflect shared interests.
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I think that the best part about Twitter is its conversational aspect. I love interacting in this way. Course, I was the kid who always got in trouble in class because I liked to socialize and talked too much. Got used to standing in Mrs. Beshore’s corner.
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Many thanks for more solid advice. Am sharing this will an editorial page editor I know who can put this to immediate good use (follow him at @EditorBrad).
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Stalking him already. Looks like he’s got plenty of room to grow.
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[…] more successful your efforts at crowdsourcing, content distribution and local conversation.” (SteveButtry.com)8Coupons founder Landy Ung has relaunched the deals service to go in some radically different […]
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[…] you’re unclear on the concept of engagement.Steve Buttry, Journal Register, October 22, 2011 The Buttry Diary: I don’t get hung up on the actual number of followers, but you are going to get better […]
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[…] on becoming conversational on Twitter, Time for me to stop syncing Facebook with Twitter and How do you attract interested local followers on Twitter? And Advanced Twitter techniques for journalists ranked fifth, behind that 5 W’s […]
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Twitter is very hard to gain local followers, every time I try I get followers from markets and countries I have no interest in. This article was a good read and has promoted me to find someone who can help. I found this website http://local-twitter.com and it actually help me out a lot. I cancelled after the free trial but it did work while I used it. I am thinking about going back, hope this helps!
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Hi, i read your blog occasionally and i own a similar one and i was just
curious if you get a lot of spam remarks? If so how do you protect against it, any plugin or anything you can advise?
I get so uch lately it’s driving me mad so any help is very much appreciated.
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