You can boost your presence directly on Twitter and indirectly all over the web only if you follow approved ways since Twitter has come down hard on users that try to spam their way to a huge following. Twitter has anyway set limits on the number of users that you can follow as well as others that wish to follow you.
Boosting followers the non-spammy way can provide several advantages such as valuable feedback, a chance to influence others, and a chance to get featured in the Who to Follow section that is displayed on the left side of the Twitter screen.
You should use tools such as Followerwonk to monitor your Twitter strategy. One important tip is to basically check when those users that you follow or your own followers are online and then Tweet with them. You can use the analysis feature of Followerwonk to get this data and begin tweeting at optimum times.
You also need to start conversations with those people that are connected to your industry and maybe also connected to your competitors. Once you sort the result by way of Social Authority then you can try to engage with those that possess the best responses. You can use the Pro version to set up additional filters to look at people whom you follow, but who do not follow back to you and vice versa. Additional reports and filters will help you better understand other users and the strategy you need to follow to boost engagement.
You should also get cracking to create new and unique content that acts as a magnet to attract other users towards your blogs and Tweets. Once you encourage and receive comments from other users then try to engage them even further by not only replying to their comments, but also asking them a little about themselves or by putting up another thought in your answer. You can also end with a question to encourage the user to comment again.
Such a move will soon be noticed by friends of other users and can encourage them to jump in with their thoughts. You must also ensure that there is a decent ratio between your followers and friends. You should also make sure that your profile as well as recent tweets that will be seen by others, is eye-catching enough to compel them to explore further. You must also try to achieve higher number of relationships since this can boost chances of more recommendations from viewers that go over your profile.
Another tip is to regularly retweet a person that you feel deserves it since this move can deliver a narrative for other parties. By using Followerwonk Pro, you can also analyze the number of people that are unfollowing you. You need to study that list in detail to find out if any big influencers have unfollowed you or specific days that result in a spurt in unfollowing. You can find out the precise reason as to why and when some of your followers seem to desert you.
In addition, you should also analyze your followers and those that you follow based on a long-term period. You need to look at why you seem to follow users that have not tweeted in the past year or a longer period and unfollow them. You also need to unfollow those members that tweet in an unfamiliar language or those that are merely following thousands of other members. This trimming exercise will enable you to cut the flab and focus on genuine followers and those that you follow.
You also need to compile a list of influential people that need to be engaged with an aggressive strategy. You not only need to follow them, but write on them and their achievements, mention them at regular intervals, and RT their tweets. However, if you fail to garner interest after a while then it is time to focus on someone else.
In addition to tracking unfollows through Followerwonk, you can also track follows from both sides. You can use filters to learn as to how many people have reciprocated positively to your follows as well as those that have not. You can also track the success or failure rate of your competitors and find out their winning strategies, which can then be duplicated by you.
You can also get time-based reports on Followerwonk to analyze what and when a user has tweeted. You can learn specific times utilized by users to tweet or times when they prefer to retweet. You can then adjust your own timings to boost your own success rate by reaching out to them at an ideal time.
While you must Tweet regularly, you need to ensure that you do not become too aggressive or keep on tweeting old content. You need fresh and unique content and can use Firefox or Chrome extensions to ensure that your Tweets do not become too intrusive.
Finally, you must make sure that you can respond to a tweet as soon as possible. If you can tweet within a few minutes then you can catch the attention of the user while they are still online as well as boost chances of a prolonged conversation. This, in turn, will boost chances of increasing your circulation across Twitter.
Use the above tips along with tools such as Followerwonk to add and maintain a healthy list of Twitter followers and friends as well as find out your strategies employed by your competitors.