The undisputed heavyweight champion of Twitter – Katy Perry – entertains a whopping 65.3 million followers (KatyCats) with her tweets. Her next closest contenders are Justin Bieber (60.4 million), Barack Obama (55 million), Taylor Swift (52.7 million) and YouTube (48.9 million). (See the rest of the top 100 here at Twitter Counter.)
Most people in the top category are newsmakers or news organizations, not small businesses, and this graphic from Roy Povarchik illustrates The Hierarchy of Twitter Greatness.
So, while it may not be realistic to make it to the top of the pyramid without celebrity status, there are still some things we can learn from Katy Perry about how to cultivate a larger Twitter following:
Share interesting stuff like this picture and story.
Tweet several times a day. One tweet a week gets lost very quickly in newsfeeds.
Use hashtags and videos and reference high profile people and incidents:
https://twitter.com/katyperry/status/540500632277225473
Make your tweets engaging and easy to retweet.
Take the high road. If you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say it. No bad-mouthing your competitors! A fight on Twitter gives an impression that may not be consistent with your brand. While “celebrities” can’t help themselves sometimes, don’t take the bait like poor Amber Rose did in her feud with Khloe Kardashian:
Know your customers, engage them and respond to them. Followers appreciate a conversation and the opportunity to answer a question or a poll:
Keep it real and don’t take yourself too seriously. People want to deal with likeable, relatable entities. Humor and humility go a long way:
Link your social media platforms. Facebook and Instagram users, for example, might be introduced to you via your tweets.
For daily marketing communications news, subscribe to LGK’s free, online, MarCom Digest.