Here's the second installment in the notes that Lee Feldman, Pat France and I are putting together on how we can make the most out of our involvement with Twitter.  I hope you find it helpful:

Building Your Twitter Follower List

At this point in its development, Twitter is primarily a broadcast media.  While interactive opportunities exist (more to come on this in our next note), the goal for most of us today is to utilize Twitter’s social media structure to build a new audience channel for our content and drive traffic to that content via newsfeeds and story links. So, increasing the number of followers for Incisive’s business and personal brands is key to “succeeding’ on Twitter.

A number of techniques and tools exist to help accomplish this:

• Promote your Twitter presence – As a media organization, we have a unique advantage, namely the numerous mass media channels available to us to ask people to follow us on Twitter.  This includes adding the “Follow us on Twitter @XXX” message prominently on Web sites, blogs, e-newsletters, Webinars, e-mail blasts, collateral and other marketing materials.  Add your personal or organizational Twitter address to your e-mail signature, and consider asking all your brand employees to do the same.  And, when you’re speaking to groups, don’t forget to mention that you’re on Twitter.

• Follow to be followed – One key to attracting more followers is to actively add “high value” Tweeters (i.e. those with large numbers of followers) to your own follower list.  Many will follow you back (some users do this automatically), and their retweets will bring your content to the attention of a larger viral audience.

• Take advantage of targeted Twitter lists – Numerous free public lists exist that can help you target your efforts to follow more individuals. Twellow (www.twellow.com) is a directory of Twitter users. You can search by name and location, or browse its listings by category. It includes a law category, as well as subcategories for lawyers, judges and others.  In the legal sector, for example, LexTweet (www.lextweet.com) lists almost 2,000 lawyers and legal professionals who use Twitter, ranks them by their number of followers and provides rollover access to their profiles.  Other lists are even more specialized, such as BigLaw Lawyers on Twitter http://tinyurl.com/5l7tqr;
JDScoop’s 636 Lawyers I follow on Twitter http://tinyurl.com/6oogwr); and Legal IT Twitterers (http://tinyurl.com/blcj4f).  Simple Google searches will identify other lists that target job titles, geographies, interests, etc. (Using Twitter’s search tools is a bit more challenging, but some good advice is available here at TwiTip http://tinyurl.com/c6r9ln). 

• Tweet regularly – The more active you are on Twitter (regular posts throughout the day), the more likely you are to be “found” and followed.  As mentioned previously, those using newsfeed tools should avoid posting large bursts of stories, particularly at low-traffic times (late night/early morning).

• Increase your retweetability – The more your posts are retweeted, the more likely you are to virally increase your followers.  Make sure your posts and links are short enough to be easily retweeted without being truncated.

• Be creative – While simply hooking newsfeeds to Twitter may be the easiest way to get started, there’s no doubt that injecting personality and creativity into your Twitter presence will help build followers.  Tweet offbeat stories, as well as major headlines. Tweet reference sources and rankings that people will tend to pass along. Try live-tweeting from events you cover or attend.  Couple comments or questions with story links. Be human and not robotic.  Redesign your Twitter avatar to make it more visually interesting.  And, if you find an idea or technique that seems to work well, let us know so we can share it with other members of the Incisive Twitter community.