Maybe you already have a Twitter account or maybe you are considering creating one to promote your business or art. This post is going to go over a few techniques to up your Twitter game and get more followers. If you haven’t already you should check out my earlier post https://gildedoctopusstudios.com/twitter-for-gamedevs/ for some basic information about Twitter. It’s aimed at #Gamedevs but most of the tips are applicable for everyone.
I’m not the most successful person on twitter or the most well known. In my short time on the social media platform though I’ve learned a few tips and tricks.
Hashtags– that ubiquitous # mark. What requires it? When should you use one? Think about it this way if you go to the library and wander into the #horror section wouldn’t you like to know? Hashtags can be used as a way of categorizing your tweets and posting about trending topics. Some hashtags feature in lots of tweets others are only in a few. For example #lookingforSpeakers doesn’t have very many tweets on the other hand #Gamedev does.
This introduces another way to use a hashtag, as a way to point out that the tweet is relevant to a particular group of people. Adding #Gamedev to your tweet about your favorite types of soup makes no sense. Adding it to a post about your #indiegame you are developing does. It says “Hi other #Gamedevs look what I am doing”. Be careful in your use of them don’t use too few or too many. It becomes too many too fast when you can’t read a tweet for the hashtags. If every word is a hashtag you have a problem. If none of the words have one well live a little dangerously and toss one or two in.
Followers– How do you get them? The average twitter account has 208. https://yourescapefrom9to5.com/average-number-of-twitter-followers-is-208-infographic has a nice info graphic about twitter stats if you’re interested. How do you go from being average or below to above average? So start by following a few people in your area #gamedev, #artists, #writers, #honeybeekeepers, #geeks, etcetra. Watch how often they tweet, the content they post, and how many followers they have. Once you’ve followed people in your area and gotten some follows back try expanding to other things you are interested in. Tweet occasionally about your hobbies, vacations, random questions, but don’t stop tweeting about your main thing. Start finding some people outside your area to follow who aren’t famous. If you aren’t a streamer follow some streamers. If you aren’t an artist follow some artists. Follow people that you find interesting and don’t necessarily do the same thing as you. Interact with people who aren’t your competition.
Don’t market to your competition– Way to many people think that only interacting with other people with the same exact interests and skill sets is the way to go. Yes Twitter can be a very supportive environment and it is great to support people in your field but at the end of the day you are both offering each other the same piece of cabbage. You need to find some people who are grain farmers and dancers, people who have something different to trade than what you are trading. You should talk to the other cabbage farmers about problems in your fields and tips but ultimately you are not selling another cabbage farmer your cabbage.
Post regularly at different times– I’ve been keeping slightly odd hours due to having a very small child. The benefit to this is I can interact with people in different time zones. My twitter account is followed by a surprisingly high number of UK streamers who do to the time difference happen to be up when I’m up. You don’t have to post or interact every hour but a couple times a day makes a big difference.
Don’t assume your followers are from the same culture– Some of the most interesting conversations I have had are because some of my followers are from vastly different cultures with different weather patterns. Tornado’s for example are a staple of where I live but many places in the world don’t get them. Try posting things about what makes the location you live or the culture you live in unique. There are so many differences in the world that we can celebrate.
Those are my advanced Twitter tips. Let me know in the comments if you have any advanced Twitter tips you would like to share.
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