Six Sensible Tips For Growing Your Twitter Account!

As an active Twitter User I have found my experience evolving week to week. I have spent considerable time contemplating the best approach to growing my Twitter account. I am not only interested in building a follower base, but also figuring out which users to follow?

Often I hear other Twitter users say “its not about quantity, its about quality” in regards to growth of followers/following. I personally believe it’s both! Its about quality, with quantity…… Here’s why:

Quantity — Twitter is about developing “reach” or growing my sphere of influence. The more followers I have, the greater the impact of my tweets and message. To acquire followers I must follow other people …. so the math speaks for itself.
Quality — Twitter is also about learning new things, acquiring meaningful or interesting information which I can in turn share with my followers. To accomplish this I should follow people that post quality tweets consistently. This keeps information flowing!

There are as probably as many systems for building a twitter account as there are twitter users, but here is my formula for success:

Who to follow:

Someone with similar interests – the bio may not match up exactly, but if someone writes one that catches my interest I will definitely consider following them.
Follower/following ratio – a matter of personal preference but very important to me. I do not want to be reading tweets from spammers. So I avoid users having a significantly higher number of users followed than followers. For example if someone has 5oo followers but is following 2000 users, I will most likely pass them up.
# of Updates – I am interested in people that are communicators. I follow people that actively, consistently post tweets. If a user’s total number of tweets (updates) is significantly less than their # of followers then I bypass them. For example if a user has 3000 followers, but has only posted a total of 25 tweets they are off my list.
User Picture – This has been a challenge on Twitter recently as many users have not been able to upload a profile picture due to tech issues. So, at least temporarily, I will follow a user without a picture, as long as all the other factors are right. However, if their picture has a “salesish or pushy” feel to it, I avoid those users. As an example a picture featuring stacks of money is a turnoff!
User Name – This is something I analyze as well. A user name may reveal their intentions, or focus on twitter. Since I am interested in collaboration, not listening to a sales pitch I stay away from users whose perceived priority is to promote their services or products.
Reviewing Tweets – Finally I read a sampling of a users’ tweets. If I see a significant number of sales pitches, or MLM focus, (i.e. the infamous “get 16000 followers in 30 days”) I pass up these users.

I recognize everyone has a different focus and different priorities for their twitter experience. Some of my “hot button” issues may not concern other twitter members, and that’s ok… I get it!

What are some techniques you use to build your twitter account? If you have an innovative idea or approach please share it!