April 6th, 2008 
In the First Part of Using Twitter to Raise Brand Awareness, I covered the following points:
* What is Twitter?
* Tools to Make Using Twitter Easier.
* How to Have Your New Blog Posts Automatically Post to Twitter.
In this second part I want to cover a few points including how to gain followers on Twitter.
Lets get started!
Why Do I Want People Following Me?
In order for you to use Twitter effectively and for Brand Building or Traffic Building you must have people following you on Twitter. Why is that you ask? Whenever you post a comment on Twitter whether it be Via the Web, IM, SMS, or Using one of the Tools we talked about in the first part, the only people that will see that message is people who are following you for the most part.
So in order to build brand awareness or increase website/blog traffic, you must have a following.
Okay, so here’s your next question I’m sure… How do I increase my Twitter Followers?
Follow and Thou Shalt Be Followed
Most people don’t realize that the best way to get people to start following you once you signup for Twitter is to simply start following others! Following people is very easy and most people, even the big names out there, will return a follow.
There is one thing I would like to mention. Don’t follow people just to follow them. You need to find and follow individuals that talk about or are interested in the same things as you. The reason for this will be explained a few points down.
What I have found works the best is to follow about 30 - 50 people, preferably people that are considered respected in your area of interest and have quite a few followers them self. Again more as to why will be explained a few points down.
Watch Others Twitter Replies!
If you just signed up with Twitter after reading Part One to this series, then you’ve had a few days to play around with it. You’ve probably noticed in many people’s messages Twitter Replies. What are Twitter replies? They look something like this.
@problogger Yeah, your totally right and I agree with your blog post 100%
Take note of the part in bold. This is someone replying to something that problogger said on Twitter that they read. The great thing about this is when someone does this not only does it allow the person to know they are talking to them, but it also makes a link going to the persons twitter page.
So for example in the above @problogger would be a link that would take you to http://twitter.com/problogger
The great thing about replies is that normally people following people are normally interested in the same things as that person. So as I said above once you have 30-50 people your following you’ll see them using @someone and you can assume 99% of the time that person is also interested in the same things so you can follow them, which takes you back to rule one. Follow and Thou Shalt Be Followed!
Easy Right?
Get in The Conversation!
Again this part has to do with @replies. A great method to getting more people to follow you is to have people talking back to you using @replies. The reason for this is because anytime someone says something to you and uses the @reply everyone that is following that person now has a link to your profile page where they can follow you!
So, again as the bold print says, make sure you get in the conversation. If you see a couple people talking about something make sure you reply and get in the conversation. By doing so, you’ll have people responding to you as well.
That wraps this little Twitter series up and I hope you found some helpful tips in these two articles. Make sure you Sign Up at Twitter if you haven’t already and then be sure to Follow Me On Twitter!
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Well I ended up on your blog via a friends Twitter feed. I went ahead and added you and subscribed to your feed so in essence, Twitter has increased the CC brand to an additional person. I think that you are right about followers following you back, however, you should make a point to have some decent ‘tweets’ on your profile before going out and friending the world as you want people to see you as the interesting person you are, and not some random loser out looking for friends.
Nick
twitter.com/illeat
Very good point Nick, I guess I assume most people have enough sense to do that first, although sometimes I’m surprised lol.
Its a definte must to have soem good tweets and to make sure you profile page isn’t just the same as everyone else.
I was thinking about doing a Part Three and talking about using additional features like your profile page to increase brand awareness as well, but I didn’t want the series to go too long.
Let me know if you think I should add a third section. Also, thanks for leaving your twitter page so I can follow you as well
Heh ya, I think a lot of people get anxious when joining these types of networks, post a ‘I joined twitter ftw!!!’ update, and go nuts adding everyone they have ever heard about.
Not sure if you need to do a full post on it, however if you got some gems I’d be interested in hearing them. Definitely have links to your blog/company as mostly everyone who visits your page will check them out. Also, having a unique background/avatar is a must as well.
Nick
I have been reading a lot daily about Twitter, I am thinking of using it but for now I only use it to follow other bloggers, it looks like a great tool for marketing as well.
It is a great program, and it does work really well for marketing, so far from the traffic I’m receiving from them there is only a 23% bounce rate. Thats the lowest I’ve ever seen from a traffic source.