My Personal Guide to Increasing my Twitter Followers is shaping up quite nicely! Instead of just doing nothing and waiting for organic followers, I’m testing out some of the tools available and learning new ways to engage with my current followers, while increasing visibility of my profile to attract new Twits.

I started with Strategy #1. Follow Your Followers.

This was followed by Strategy #2: Using an Account Manager.

Now it’s on to Strategy #3: Make Some Twiends.

So the most fabulous service offered to grow your Twitter following is Twiends – hands down. Twiends is a discovery tool and community-building service that helps users to grow their Twitter audience and reach. The site is generally well regarded – plus it’s fast and free! I joined in April 2016 and within 30 days my follower count rose from 669 to 1474 (as I am writing this I just received a new follower!). Currently, I am averaging 15 – 25 new followers daily, with a little over 60% retention.

Now, I read a lot about Twiends before joining. First, I wanted to make sure it was for real. I researched the company and read through the frequently asked questions. I checked out review sites for more information. I did my due diligence. Second, I made sure that Twiends did not violate any of Twitter’s service guidelines (it does not). Third, I played around with the free portion of the service to figure out how it worked. And finally, I researched Twiends follower retention.

Here is what you need to know:

1. Your Twiends network is based on Impressions.

An Impression is an ad display – similar to putting yourself up on a big billboard – with the goal that people will see you and choose to follow you. Twiends also acts as a directory based on interests, so you know who you are connecting with based upon their Impression. By hovering over an Impression, you can see the person’s profile, their friend-to-follower ratio, and their latest tweet.

Being active on Twiends (following new people) increases the number of Impressions you get organically on the site. You can get a nice amount of followers just by being active. I found that there was a 1 in 3 chance that when I added a new connection, I received a new connection.

You can also “feature” yourself by buying Impressions, and choosing how you want the number of impressions to be allocated throughout the day. Note: I added a Featured Impression subscription, and I love it – but I still make sure to follow new people with similar interests on a daily basis.

2. Twiends followers are definitely worth having.

I read that many of the followers obtained through Twiends are “not worth having”. Sure, I was following new people and they were following me – but did they remain my loyal followers or did I lose them after a day or two?

I found that many of the new followers I picked up are still around, and engaged! This is partly due to my amazing tweeting skills (of course) and partly to the Twiends feature that lets you view and follow people with similar interests. Sure I got a few spam accounts following me, but who doesn’t? Out of the 805 new followers I have gained, less than 40 were spam accounts (I checked this through TwitterAudit).

3. Integrate other tools to get the most out of Twiends.

Overall, I found that while a portion of people will unfollow fairly quickly, there are others around that are in it for the long haul. If you really want to make sure that you are not following someone who unfollowed you, it’s easy to check and unfollow them right back with CrowdFire – super simple and also free – simply check your ‘Recent Unfollowers’ daily and remove the offending follow. TwitterAudit aka Audit Your Followers (also free) allows you to discover just how many fake accounts are following you, and block those users.

4. Follow back – but not everyone!

It is important to follow back – but only if you are truly interested in that persons activity. In order to gain the followers you want, BE the type of follower you want! Twiends allows you to see the person’s account profile and their latest tweet right from the dashboard. Everyone wants tons of people following them, but many don’t actually want to follow anyone in return. You can quickly see if someone is by looking at their friend/follower ratios. If their follower count is significantly larger than their friend count, it’s pretty clear that they don’t follow back and probably unfollow very quickly.

Many people expect you to follow them back, and if you do not reciprocate, they will quickly disappear. Some will DM you asking for a follow back (I usually respond directly to these people and follow them – they cared enough to reach out, so it doesn’t hurt to be courteous.) But it does no good to follow every follower if you are just not interested in what they are about.  I follow back about 40% of those who follow me, but only if I am not opposed to reading their tweets!

And that brings me to the Breakdown:

I learned that Twiends are good to have, stay active to generate organic impressions, use tools to deal with your new followers, and only follow accounts that truly interest you. Twiends is working out for me, and I find it to be a great service.

Time to move on to Strategy #4: Twitter Upkeep. In order to keep your audience engaged and your timeline looking fresh, you have to stay on top of your Twitter account. In my next post, I will discuss several tools you can use to clean up and streamline your account. If you want to tag along with me, you can either email me directly or tell everyone about your experience in the Comments!