It shows expertise: A well-written bio explains who you are in a heartbeat. Whether it’s the awards you’ve won or the companies you’ve worked at, use this opportunity to prove your track record in the first few seconds.
It creates curiosity: Draw users in with your bio! There’s nothing like intrigue to entice users to dig deeper.
It conveys what you often tweet about: With social media, there’s a fine line between professional and personal. Do you only tweet about your work? Or do you also often share about your other passion projects? Your bio should reflect what you frequently tweet about.

Note how Amanda Natividad from SparkToro sums up her Twitter bio in only 19 words. Right away, you know what she does: Marketing. Plus, her unique job title, “Marketing Architect,” compels you to read further.

Amanda also proves her track record by tagging the companies she’s worked at.

Source: Twitter

These tags optimize her profile. When users search for these companies (e.g., SparkToro) and click the People tab, they’ll see her profile right at the top on the results page.

2. Use niche hashtags

It turns out, there is such a thing as too many hashtags.

Generic hashtags like #entrepreneur and #writing clutter up your profile. But niche hashtags like #MarketingTwitter and #JournoRequest? They help users of similar interest locate your profile.

The trick here is to use these niche hashtags sparingly in your bio. We use the word “sparingly” because you do not want these hashtags to distract users from your website URL. This is crucial if you want to funnel your Twitter followers to your site!

Morgan Ulrich, a digital marketing specialist, has #MarketingTwitter in her bio, which attracted many new followers.

Source: Twitter

Hashtags boost visibility. Note how Michelle Garrett, a PR consultant and writer, promotes her Twitter chat shows, #FreelanceChat and #PRLunchHour.

Source: Twitter

Whether it’s hosting a Twitter chat, participating in one, or getting in front of your audience, consider adding niche hashtags to attract new followers.

3. Show who you are in a pinned tweet

A pinned tweet is a tweet fixed at the top of your Twitter feed.

It’s one of the first few things people see when they visit your Twitter profile, along with your Twitter bio and banner image.

These tweets usually show a high engagement level. If you look at your favorite thought leaders or brands’ pinned tweets, you’ll see a ridiculously high number of retweets, quote tweets, and likes.

But make no mistake: Your tweets don’t need to be viral to make it to the top.

Remember in tip 1 when we shared how your bio should reflect what you frequently tweet about? Well, you can also think of your pinned tweet as an extension of your bio.

In your pinned tweet, you could do one of the following:

Introduce yourself properly: Write a couple of full sentences—you couldn’t fit into your bio—about what you do, with a link to your portfolio
Show the core theme of your tweets in action: Share industry tips, talk about an industry issue no one is discussing, etc.

The latter is an interesting approach as it stops users in their tracks.

Our Chief Sumo, Noah Kagan, often tweets about entrepreneurship. Note how he picks this career planning bombshell as his pinned tweet.

Source: Twitter

Bonus points for a touch of candor and wit.

4. Tag thought leaders

Tagging thought leaders doesn’t guarantee a follow back, but we dare say that it’s one of the most effective ways to grab their attention—provided you ask a great question, of course!

Benji Hyam, co-founder of Grow and Convert, successfully landed an interview with Rand Fishkin on Twitter. Note the specificity in his tweet.

Source: Grow and Convert

If you’re a content marketer constantly using Twitter to source quotes, you’ll attract several followers looking for media coverage.

Fair warning, though: This might expose you to backlink diggers and a slew of notifications.

5. Retweet your tweets to boost reach

It’s true what they say about social media: always follow the 80/20 rule.

The 80/20 rule indicates that 80% of your content should be valuable to your audience and 20% to promote your business.

For this tip, let’s talk about the latter.

Retweeting your own tweets increases your reach significantly.

When Alfred Lau, a marketing lead at ReferralCandy, retweeted his own tweet, it generated 9,697 impressions, 203 engagement, and 94 likes.

And guess what: The original tweet had only 2,356 impressions, 93 engagements, and 30 likes.

It’s incredibly easy to apply this strategy. All you have to do is identify your best-performing tweets on Twitter Analytics and retweet them after a few days or weeks.

Remember to tweet as per usual in the meantime. You don’t want followers to see the same tweets over and over again. Otherwise, you run the risk of annoying them and losing followers.

6. Quote tweet to stand out

A retweet blends in a sea of notifications.

But a quote tweet with your unique insight? It stands out and allows you to connect with thought leaders who don’t have you on their radar yet.

Here are three best practices on standing out with a quote tweet:

Share a personal experience: Did a thought leader’s tip improve your business? Consider expressing gratitude and letting them know. Think of it as a mini case study that drums up the hype of their work.
Add a contrarian view: Opposing viewpoints add a refreshing dose of originality. The next time you disagree with a thought leader, share your reason and back it with your experience. Remember to be respectful—it’s all about promoting healthy debate!
Avoid generic comments: Tweets like “Awesome tweet” and “Well said” don’t do much for you. At worst, they can appear spammy. Keep them to a minimum.

Quote tweet combines the benefits of retweeting and commenting: You share your unique insights and promote other users’ work, further building rapport in the process.

7. Interact with users within your community

No amount of networking on Twitter will work if you’re interacting with users outside of your industry.

Imagine a B2B SaaS content writer only connecting with book and travel bloggers. Of course, it’s absolutely fine if they’re using Twitter to feed their love for books and travel. But if the writer is using the channel to grow their business, it’s a terrible plan.

Here’s what you should do:

Connect with users who fit your ideal customer profile.

Using the example above, a B2B SaaS content writer might connect with content managers, editors, heads of content, or CMOs from B2B SaaS companies.

To identify these folks, enter relevant keywords on Twitter and click the People tab.

Here’s what pops up when you type “content appsumo” on Twitter.

That’s Dean, our content manager at AppSumo!

Now that you’ve located these users within your community, interact with them using the tips we’ve shown you in this guide. You should be able to increase your number of followers and attract a few dream clients along the way.

Elise Dopson, a B2B SaaS content writer, successfully sold her freelance community membership and digital downloads, thanks to building an audience on Twitter.

It’s little surprise that her most popular tweets revolve around freelancing, as most of her followers are freelance writers.

Source: Twitter

When you have a community of like-minded folks who want to hear from you, selling becomes more effortless.

8. Publish ahead of time

17% of marketers struggle with maintaining consistency across different social media channels.

Luckily, this is where social media automation tools come in handy.

You can schedule and publish multiple posts on multiple platforms ahead of time, streamlining your workflow and improving time management simultaneously.

Zigma Social takes the hassle out of social media management. It schedules your content across major social networks, including Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and LinkedIn.

There’s also built-in file storage, image editor, calendar, and auto watermark system. That’s right, now you don’t need to worry about your images reproduced on other websites without your permission.

Zigma Social starts free, with paid plans scaling from $14/month. Grab the Zigma Social lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $28 (Usual price: $960).

9. Promote your Twitter far and wide

If there’s anything we’ve learned about customer behavior, it’s that our target audience only buys from us after going through multiple touchpoints.

That said, promote your Twitter profile everywhere you can think of once you get it up and running.

Here are five popular places:

Email signature
Digital products you sell (e.g., author page in ebook)
Webinar and podcast appearances
Guest post bylines
Other social media channels

Here’s an email I got from Massimo Chieruzzi, CMO and co-founder of Breadcrumbs. Note how he promotes his website, personal blog, Twitter, and other social media handles.

99% of consumers check their emails every day—all the more reason you should leverage the channel to grow your Twitter followers.

Enter: EmailBadge, an email signature solution that optimizes your email signature in 100+ email clients on mobile, desktop, and more.

Upload your headshot and adjust its size. Add a Twitter icon and change the size and color. You can even add a call-to-action button to direct recipients to your best tweets.

If you don’t want to start from scratch, choose from our 10+ templates and customize it accordingly. Once you’re happy with your signature, install it in your email clients in a few quick clicks.

Grab the EmailBadge lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $9 (Usual price: $96).

10. Create public lists

A Twitter list is a curated group of Twitter profiles. It acts like a bulletin board that informs followers about the topics they’re interested in.

Here are some ways these thought leaders use Twitter lists:

Buffer uses Twitter Lists as a staff directory.
Ahrefs’ CMO Tim Soulo makes a list of SEO experts to track what’s happening in the industry.
Kaleigh Moore, an ecommerce content writer, has a list of retail and DTC thought leaders. No doubt she references it when working on a new piece for ecommerce clients.

You can even create a private Twitter List to keep tabs on your competitors! And no, they won’t get a notification that they’ve been added.

Here’s an idea we like from Aaron Lee, a regional manager at AgoraPulse. Create a Twitter List of followers who retweet you often.

Source: Twitter

With this list, Aaron can easily engage with his followers and share their content. It’s a win-win as he’s boosting their reach and encouraging them to retweet more which increases his visibility on Twitter infinitely.

11. Join Twitter chats

Don’t know what to post on Twitter? Start with Twitter chats.

Besides connecting with users on a broader scale, you’re also learning what’s buzzing in your industry.

It’s easy to get started right away as there’s no registration required. All you have to do is follow the chat schedule, reply to the host’s tweets, add the designated hashtag, and chat away.

These Twitter chats usually last around 30 minutes. The host will ask a series of questions at intervals, and participants respond accordingly.

When #BufferChat was alive and kicking, I frequently networked with marketers, writers, and entrepreneurs. Along the process, I gained a few followers, including Buffer.

Source: Twitter

Here’s a list of 1000+ Twitter chats if you want to give it a go!

Start gaining followers on Twitter

Twitter is a never-ending scroll of memes and GIFs, but it can be a powerful growth machine when used well.

Here’s a recap of what you’ve learned:

Dazzle with your bio to grab attention and persuade people to take the next step.
Use niche hashtags (e.g., #FreelanceChat) to boost visibility in front of users with similar interests.
Give users a taste of who you are in your pinned tweet.
Tag thought leaders with a great question to capture interest.
Retweet your tweets after a few days or weeks to boost your reach. Remember to post your usual tweets in the meantime.
Quote tweet to stand out from the pack and seize attention from prospective clients who don’t have you on their radar yet.
Interact with a community of like-minded people, so selling becomes more effortless.
Publish your tweets ahead of time to streamline your workflow and improve time management. Grab the Zigma Social lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $28 (Usual price: $960) to schedule your content across major social networks at one go.
Promote your Twitter far and wide. Grab the EmailBadge lifetime deal on AppSumo today for $9 (Usual price: $96) to share your profile and direct recipients to your best-performing tweets.
Create a public Twitter List of followers who retweet you often. Engage with them and encourage them to retweet more, so you can increase your visibility on Twitter infinitely.
Join Twitter chats to connect with users on a broader scale and learn what’s buzzing in your industry.

There’s a lot more to learn about Twitter as a marketing and sales channel. For now, we’ll stop here.

In the meantime, check out our current Twitter software deals on the AppSumo store! From deleting thousands of tweets at once to automating your workflows, we got the tools you need to scale your presence on Twitter.