When you get started with social media marketing using Twitter, one of the first things that you want to do is build your following. Not only that – you want your following to be qualified, targeted potential customers. In order to build such a following, here’s what you need to do.

Perfect Your Profile

On all social media accounts, your profile is an essential element in ensuring that the right people follow you. Keep your profile current, and use it as a way to qualify those who might look at it to see if you’re the right person to follow. Use a good headshot, and use good keyworded descriptions within your bio. Your bio is the first thing a new person will look at to determine if they want to follow you.

Tweet Regularly

You want to create a social media plan just for Twitter so that you have a solid tweeting schedule that you can stick to. If you don’t tweet regularly, people will forget about you fast. Use technology if you have to that will automatically tweet out your new blog posts, or other information for you. If your account is dead, no one is going to follow you. There are software programs to cull inactive accounts from the followers of any Twitter account.

Engage with Your Followers

Even if you choose to use automation with software like HootSuite.com to help you manage your social media accounts such as Twitter, you still need to engage with your followers. Set up a particular time each day to look through the messages; you can use the search feature to find relevant messages that you will want to share and comment on. Also, please follow people back. This can take as little as 10 minutes each day but if you don’t engage, they won’t either. This action will help you get more followers because it makes you real and relevant.

Become a Resource to Others

Part of engaging with your followers is to also become a resource. You can use this method on any social media accounts that you have. If you see something that you think any particular user would like, send them the link on Twitter. Your followers will appreciate the fact that you care enough to help them out even when you don’t seem to directly benefit. By being active in discussions, sharing, and linking to important content, you will attract new followers almost automatically.

Learn the Lingo

If you don’t understand the short cuts and the use of #hashtags, it’s time to learn. Using appropriate hashtags in your tweets can attract others who use search to find relevant information via Twitter. Only use appropriate hashtags that are relevant to the content you’re sharing in order to develop trust.

There are many other things you can do such as join directories, add Twitter to your blog and website and other social media accounts as well as add it to your offline marketing materials. It will take a bit of time to develop a targeted, large following, but it will be worth it if you go about it right.