How to Grow Your Followers as a Nigerian on Twitter 2024 -

It won’t sound odd to say that Twitter is the best social media platform in Nigeria at the moment. One feature that still fascinates me is the publicity it gives to businesses as well as individuals. Let’s not even forget the most fantastic thing about it: paying its influencers. I do not think there is any social media beating that now. I think I’m the happiest on payday because that is one of the less stressful ways to make money. All I do is tweet from the comfort of my home, attract engagement, and get paid.

But let’s be real, engagement is not as easy as it sounds because your tweets have to be either educative, funny, or some even go ahead to start controversies, but be very careful not to breach Twitter guidelines. Not only that, you should have enough followers to repost or retweet, quote, like, and share your tweets. All these sum up to your impressions and views that you get, which will determine how much you will be paid.

It’s safe to come to the conclusion that you cannot do much without a large number of followers to engage your tweets, even if the tweets are educational, and whatever they are, they might end up being stolen by people with higher followers. So how do you go about gaining followers? Walk with me as I break down the easier way to grow your followers on Twitter organically.

Why Are Twitter Followers Important?

Having followers on Twitter (now called X) has a lot of advantages to offer to both individuals and brands. Having a large following increases the potential for your tweet to reach more people, which will influence your ability to spread messages to promote causes. The more your content is shared, the higher the possibility of it going viral or becoming more visible online.

Influencers and individuals with large followings may have the opportunity to monetise their Twitter presence through sponsored content, partnerships, and other revenue streams. With recent developments, Twitter will calculate your impressions and views and then pay you accordingly.

What is better than a platform where you can promote your product or service with minimal effort? You just need to tweet and wait for your followers to share your content. This is very beneficial to business owners because it can lead to increased sales.

Key Points

Building a significant Twitter following enhances visibility and opens up monetization opportunities

Effective growth strategies include optimising your profile, posting engaging content consistently and leveraging trending hashtags.

Buying followers can result in low engagement, damage to reputation, and the risk of account suspensions.

How to Grow Your Twitter Followers

Now that you know why Twitter followers matter, I can tell you want to get more Twitter followers. Let’s delve into important steps on how to grow your twitter followers organically

#1. Optimize Your Profile

The first step in growing your account on Twitter is to optimise your profile so it can attract followers. Your profile picture should be the centrepiece of your Twitter profile. It should have your face or that of your brand. Keep in mind that marketers and profile pictures are displayed as a circle. So you will need a picture that measures at least 400 x 400 pixels. Also, make sure you change your Twitter profile as infrequently as you can.

Whether you are using a professional photo for yourself or your brand’s photo, you want to make sure that the most important aspect appears at the centre. Unlike your profile picture, your cover image can be changed as frequently as you want. Your profile should be complete by describing what you do, your title, what company you work with and where you operate. Give your audience a taste of your human side to attract followers.

Using the right keywords can help your X profile appear in searches, which can lead to more followers. By just looking at the profile above, you have already learned the necessary things to know about what she does for a living. You can also check out the shape and size of her profile picture.

#2. Post Engaging Contents Consistently

Like I said before, it’s not just about posting anything. You have to post something that is going to keep people engaged. This is the mistake that most people on Twitter make, but I’m glad I didn’t and I won’t allow you to do that as well. You have to think of something that can educate people, make them laugh, or even start arguments. When doing this, make sure you post on Twitter consistently. This is why it took me a lot of time to get Twitter followers; even though I had nice content posted, I was not consistent with it. If you can, please post every day and engage in other people’s content too. Your content should also be the right content for your target audience, especially if you are a businessperson.

I gained a lot of followers by consistently engaging with other people’s tweets, engaging them to bring them to your profile and when they see you have what they want, they won’t waste a second clicking on the follow button. You can start by creating a content calendar with one to four posts daily. But keep in mind that the next important part is publishing consistently. To maximise engagement on Twitter, prioritise visual content and also use trending hashtags.

You don’t always have to post alone; sometimes, consider partnering with others in your Twitter community to create threads, host spaces, or get featured. The more you work with other influential accounts on Twitter, the more you can elevate your own. Find and follow influencers in your industry. For example, if you are in the food industry, find and follow famous chefs. Do not forget to also engage your replies and quotes. Here is an example of a good content calendar for your weekly posting:

Content-Calendar-Template Download

#3. Tweet at the Right Time

Choosing the best time to tweet is more important than you might think. If you post when the audience is offline, your content probably won’t get much reach. Uniting your activity with a tweet every one or two hours can maximise your visibility. Also, stagger your tweets, so you are not bombarding followers. The logical solution to this problem is to post when most users are on the platform.

If your audience is in Lagos, you can get a high impression by tweeting around 8 a.m.–9 am or 5 p.m.–6 pm. That’s when most people are possibly back from work or less busy to engage in your content. That doesn’t mean you can’t tweet at other times but this specific time will give you more engagement. This will increase your followers and help you reach a wider audience

#4. Use Trending Hashtags

Hashtags are arguably the most powerful feature on Twitter. See what’s on the trend list and look at competitors’ tweets for ideas, I normally go for other influencers’ tweets. You can also create a new one that might take off. Many successful hashtag strategies also include trending hashtags that are relevant to your brand or niche. You should naturally post about popular topics and connect them to your brand to attract more followers.

This is what a trending hashtag looks like. All you need to do is add a hashtag in front of the trend in your tweets. Imagine you are a food vendor or food influencer. You noticed that #foodreceipe is trending. This presents an opportunity for your potential followers who are interested in some food recipes. You could create a Twitter thread with a series of recipes for local dishes, desserts, side dishes, and foreign dishes. This will increase your visibility and help you attract new followers who are passionate about the topic.

#5. Subscribe to X Premium and Run for Ads

This is optional but it gives you an edge over others. Subscribing to X Premium, formerly called Twitter Blue, gives you access to things that can boost your growth. In many cases, organic campaigns can help you reach your Twitter follower’s goals. The objective is to get your content in front of more people. No matter the way you choose to grow your followers on Twitter, do not buy followers.

Premium subscribers have a series of features that help increase their followers, such as prioritising their notifications, faster engagement with others, and the ability to edit tweets, which helps to avoid accidental tweets and improve your overall brand image. They also have a special AI feature (Grok) that can answer their questions at any time. Running ads can help you reach a wider audience by targeting specific demographics and boosting your visibility.

#6. Engage Your Replies, Quotes, Mentions and Community

Twitter content should be a key part of your strategy if you want to grow your Twitter followers. If you focus on just tweeting and engaging in replies, quotes, and mentions, you risk broadcasting to your Twitter followers or creating a one-way conversation. The easiest way to keep your follower’s attention is to keep the conversation flowing by responding to their replies and quotes.

Don’t just tweet and leave their replies and comments unattended to; even if you don’t know what to say, you can just like their tweets and move on to the next person. When you see their own tweets, treat them just the same way they treat yours, like, repost, and comment. This will keep attracting them to your page and eventually you will earn a following. Don’t just stop after they have followed you, continue engaging them and they won’t see any reason to unfollow because a lot of people unfollow when you stop giving them what they want.

Why You Shouldn’t Buy Followers on Twitter

Whether you find it challenging to build your audience or you want to reach a certain number faster, you must have considered buying Twitter followers. At first, I thought about this but then I realised it wasn’t much of a good idea. Do you want to know why? Walk with me, and I will explain them briefly.

#1. Low Engagement

One thing about this kind of follower is that once they have followed you, that’s it. No engagement, no likes—you will feel the forced vibe. You can imagine when you have 100k followers, but you are getting 4 likes, no comments, and no reposts. Anyone can tell that something is not adding up. After paying for followers, you will definitely get a large number of fake accounts among your number. The numbers might look good at first but after a series of tweets without engagements, trust me, you will get tired of them.

#2. Loss of Integrity and Reputation

Not only does buying followers make you look desperate, but it also shows that you are desperate and unable to run valuable social media accounts. Low engagement rates will force brands to analyse the authenticity of their followers. This brand might blacklist you and never call for your services again.

#3. They Are Easy to Detect

We have all seen great technological advancement in the past few years, and Twitter is not letting them leave it behind. Twitter has been consistently updating its algorithm to purge fake followers from the platform but people still find loopholes to exploit. There are also a lot of new tools that can be used to detect fake followers. This will put your account at risk of being suspended or even banned.

#4. Risk of Account Ban

Buying fake followers can distort your followers or following ratio. The Twitter algorithm can spot accounts with an even follower or following ratio. Twitter’s terms of service make it very clear that any account that is caught doing so will be suspended and, in worse scenarios, banned.

How to Spot Fake Twitter Followers

Even if you don’t buy followers, you might find yourself being followed by these accounts. Blocking this fake follower can keep your Twitter account safe. The following are ways to spot them:

#1. Accounts Without a Profile Picture

This is one of the ways to spot fake accounts, because why will someone who wants a connection with people not add a profile picture? It shouldn’t even be a picture of the person or brand; it can be anything, even a picture of food, but something just has to be there.

#2. Accounts That Lack Basic Information

An incomplete Twitter follower can be an indication of a fake follower. When you are done looking for this without a profile picture, also look for people with an incomplete profile. While doing this, you can sometimes misplace them with new users, so you should be very careful when blocking them.

#3. Accounts With Weird Usernames

Most organic followers have unique usernames or something that can relate to the person. Some even go as far as using their full real name. But fake followers use weird names—something robotic. Accounts with weird usernames are mostly fake followers, spam, or roll accounts; either way, you are better off without such an account.

#4. Uneven Follower-Following Ratio

Fake followers also follow multiple followers on Twitter, but they themselves have a very low following. Don’t get me wrong; I’m not saying that the following should equal the followers, but the margin shouldn’t be much. Imagine when someone has 1000 followers and then 2 followers; it does not add up at all.

What Should You Do When Someone Follows You on Twitter?

You do not need to approve a follow. If you want, the interaction can end there, but it is best if you follow them back if you like their content.

Why Do People Follow and Unfollow on Twitter?

One of the common ways of doing this is by following people in the hope they will follow you back. If they don’t, they are often unfollowed. Aside from this, the biggest reason is that you are not providing them with the information they value, or worse, you are being overly promotional or spammy.

How Can You Tell the Hashtag Is Popular?

To identify the popularity of hashtag keywords, you simply need to check the number of times a hashtag is used. Instagram and Twitter show you hashtag stats, such as the total number of times this was used or reached impressions.

Conclusion

Learning how to grow your followers on Twitter is as important as consistently tweeting very engaging content. Leaving your followers unengaged can cost you. Try as much as possible to engage their comments and their quotes on your tweets. You should also try to engage with their own content; seeing that you reciprocate gives them more reason to engage with your content whenever they come across it. And lastly, do not follow the shortcut of buying followers.

How to Grow Your Followers as a Nigerian on Twitter 2024

Why Are Twitter Followers Important?

Key Points