Twitter Tips learnt from 8 years on twitter

It is #MyTwitterAnniversary

I have been on twitter for 8 years!

I hope you follow @fibrobloggers there. 

I have 13.8K Followers
and it has taken constant daily tweets to get these followers. 
BUT what I have learnt is it is not the amount of followers but the connections 

that I have made that are important to me.

Why Do I Care about Twitter?
People come to Twitter to share what is happening with them and
to find out what is happening to others and connect with them.

"Brand involvement in culture is especially important among consumer between the ages of 18 and 35, and those on Twitter vs the general population are more passionate, informed,& feel more strongly about brands aligning with culture." TWITTER

Your readers are already on twitter, and according to twitter they are ready to connect. 

So how can you reach them, make an impact, and get more readers?

My Tips learnt over 8 years on Twitter

Just like twitter I will keep it short. Maybe that is why I like twitter it keeps things short and to the point and that's my style. Let's get started...

• Use hashtags, but not too many, because it looks spammy.

• Link into other people's relevant hashtags to expand your reach. When I started out I linked in to #WednesdayWisdom #ThrowbackThursday etc. I still love #FollowFriday so I can showcase other bloggers.

• Be conversational. Start a conversation, join in one or keep one going. Thank people and ask questions. Visit your twitter stream at least once a day to join in, especially when starting out.

• Check out your notifications and interact with those people. They are liking, following and retweeting you and need some connection. 

• Use images. I use them more than 80% of the time because most people are visual. Create visual images that are the correct size for twitter 1600 x 900 px. Brand your images with your name or your blog's name so that share's are working for you.

• One simple idea per tweet works best.

• Retweet relevant content i.e. relevant to your brand.

• Share other people's content as well as your own.

• Work out what your followers like and do more of that.

• Don't just try and get click-throughs to your blog, think about creating your "brand". Who are you and what do you stand for? Stick to your brand's topic.

• After you get 1,000 followers it gets easier to get followers so work hard to get those followers by tweeting regularly and connecting with others.

• Mix it up by sharing a variety of tweets: I share quotes, jokes, links to other blogger's posts, awareness information, branded images and quotes and campaigns for different months linking in to international awareness days.

• If you are going to DM someone don't be spammy. It is the start of a conversation, not a sales pitch.

• Tweet everyday.

• Followback.

• Don't be stingy with the like button... that little heart gets noticed.

These tips may seem simple but if you follow all of these actionable twitter tips you will grow your twitter followers. 

Here are some tweet examples and why they worked. (by worked I mean were well liked and retweeted):

In September I linked into Pain Awareness Month. 

This was one of the most popular tweets.

It followed many of the things I have learnt about twitter. 

It was simple with one idea, 

it was conversational, 

it was an image,

it was branded.

This was another popular tweet from the same campaign.

   It connected emotionally with many people's experience 

   of living with fibromyalgia. 

People love humor. 

The following is from #FunnyFibro where I 

share a daily joke that people 

who have fibromyalgia can relate to. 

This was so popular because it is something relevant to my 

brand ("fibromyalgia awareness") and my followers.

I hope you have found something to help you on your twitter

journey in my tips.

If you have any questions about these tips I will answer them 

in more depth in the comments.  Also please let me know 

if you have a great twitter tip to share.