Social Media Blog

LinkedIn Groups Moderation features

Posted Wed, 01/09/2010 - 14:33 by Lucy Goetz

After the controversial changes made to LinkedIn groups with the introduction of the new interface at the end of June 2010, LinkedIn have responded by introducing a new moderation system for group owners and managers.

As part of the new group interface, the 'News' section was merged with 'Discussions', which left some group mangers complaining that it became more difficult to monitor group discussions as RSS feeds that were previously being fed to 'News' were now coming up and flooding the group discussions.

This negative feedback members gave has prompted a response from LinkedIn who have announced some new moderation features that will hopefully solve the group moderation issues currently faced by group managers since the new interface was introduced.

One of the most important features added is the email alerts you can receive for every new discussion. You can then delete posts directly from the email you receive. You can set up these email alerts in 'My Settings' under the 'More' tab, which will bring up this screen:

This seems like a helpful new feature for group owners and managers, however having to action more emails in an already over-flowing inbox may not be an ideal solution.

It has now been made simple to delete entire discussion threads, just be going to More > Delete from the top toolbar.

There also seems to be more emphasis on group moderation by members with the development of 'Promtions' and the 'Flagging' system.

You can now promote group members (who you sincerely trust) to moderators of your group, so they can help you moderate your group, which will save you time. However they must be members you can trust who understand your group to moderate it in the way you would like.

Members can also 'flag' discussions and comments as inappropriate, which will be seen by group moderators in the group 'moderation queue'. From there they can then either delete the post, clear the flag(s) or 'Remove Member, Block & Delete contributions.' You can find the 'moderation queue' when you go into 'Manage' in your group.

You can also set a flag limit that will mean posts can be deleted automatically when they receive a certain number of flags from members. The default setting is 10 flags, but you can change it to whatever number you would like. Again this can be found from 'Manage' in the top menu and go to 'Edit Group Settings' from the toolbar on the left.

 

These changes will hopefully make managing groups on LinkedIn easier, however it seems to me that these new moderation features have only been implemented to compensate for the difficulties caused in moderating groups in the first place with the merging of 'News' and 'Discussions' as part of the new group interface.

Have you found it easier to monitor your LinkedIn group?

LinkedIn Group Changes

Posted Mon, 16/08/2010 - 15:59 by Lucy Goetz

LinkedIn has made some major changes to the groups in the past few weeks. The new interface was rolled out for all LinkedIn groups and has caused quite a stir amongst members.

So what has actually changed?

From the outset the groups look very different compared with the old format. The first thing you will notice is the scrolling carousel of discussions at the top of the page, that have replaced the old list of discussions. You can scroll through discussion topics and 'Like' them in a similar style to Facebook. Admittedly, this is an attractive looking feature, however this does make it more difficult to see all the discussions at one glance as you could previously see them in a single list.

Another new feature you immediately notice in the groups is the larger size of the profile pictures! Members have commented on the Facebook similarity. However, you may also notice that the professional headline that used to appear next to a persons profile has now disappeared. You now have to hover your mouse over the profile photo and a box with the persons professional headline will appear along with new clickable options. For connections it gives you the options to view the persons profile, send them a message or download the persons vcard. For members you are not connected with it offers links to 'View profile' and 'Invite to connect.'

You can also see the profile pictures of the last three contributors to a discussion and a small preview of what they said by rolling the mouse over them and you can click on them to get to the part of the discussion thread they contributed to.

It does feel a bit more personal, a bit “Facebooky”, but do members need or want a more personal feel for their professional network?

The groups also allow you to comment on discussions on the front page of the group, without even going into the discussion itself. Also, in the actual discussion, you already have a comment box on the discussion, where you can add your comment without opening a new window. (Again much like Facebook!)

A major change you will notice is that the 'News' section has disappeared from the top menu. That is because news items have now merged with discussions. This may force group managers to monitor their groups more closely to check that relevant discussion content is seen on the group page, as news items could often be places for advertising for members. Articles are often posted, which members can comment on, however they were not classed as actual discussions until now and some will argue that it is inappropriate to merge these news items with discussions.

This may also have an impact on the digest emails that members can choose to receive from their groups. For example the featured discussions displayed in the email may include news articles, which may not be related to the purpose of the group. This could perhaps disillusion some members.

Other changes include the 'Managers Choice' box displayed on the right hand side of the group page, which has links to the discussions that were previously prioritised by the group owner or manager, and always seen at the top of the discussions page. Managers can now choose up to 10 discussions to be featured on 'Managers Choice' with the selected top choice being displayed on the group page.

There is also a new feature called 'Top Influencers this week' which lists members with a bar indicator on how much they have contributed and who have stimulated most participation from other members. Members with a lot of followers will often be the main influencers.

A welcome added feature to groups is 'Search Discussions', which allows you to find discussions in topics you are interested in just by adding relevant search terms.

One of the more notable added features to the groups and also to LinkedIn use in general, is the ability to set up email alerts for people you are following. This allows you to be notified of the activities of select members of your group or other people that you are following.

If you go to 'Following' on the drop down menu.

Then you will see a list of the 'People I'm Following', where you can put email alerts on any of the people you follow. This may help you to keep track of people you see as influencers or competitors. LinkedIn sets the default so that you will automatically be following all your connections, but you can un-follow any of your connections by clicking 'stop following.'

What do the LinkedIn members think?

These changes have been implemented for about a month now and the reaction has been very negative amongst members, seen by the numerous discussion threads in the LinkedIn Answers section. Members are not happy with LinkedIn looking more like Facebook and the merging of discussions and groups in particular, making it harder for managers of groups to monitor content and also the removal of the professional headline above members photos.

There have also been many negative comments made on the LinkedIn blog post about the changes. And it also prompted a very angry blogpost on the difficulties the changes have caused in managing groups

So, what do you think about the changes to the groups on LinkedIn? Do you think LinkedIn is trying to be too similar to other networks like Facebook? Or do you embrace the more personal feel to the groups?

Let us know what you think in the discussion on the new changes in the Reach Further LinkedIn Group.

Do you have a social media policy for your organisation?

Posted Thu, 29/07/2010 - 13:01 by Lucy Goetz

As social media has become more important in the work place and for employees themselves, you may need to consider informing your employees in how they should or should not be using social media, whether it be in or outside of the workplace. If your organisation has just begun to use social media, do you have a policy in place for your employees? If you are using it to market your organisation, you may need to put in place some guidelines and terms of use to make sure that social media is being used appropriately for your organisation.

You need to consider your company brand, and how your employees may represent that brand in their use of social media. You need to be aware of what they maybe saying about your company online. Whether you want your employees to use social media as much, or as little as possible, you need to let them know your expectations.

Liz Cable talks about the "haves" and the "have nots" in an organisation. Those who speak for the organisation and those who should only speak for themselves (and not during working hours.)

The BBC has two separate social media policies, one for the BBC use of social networking and the other for the staff's personal use of social networking.

The policy for the BBC use of social media sets out clear guidelines for how staff should use social media for the corporation.

“The guidance complements the BBC Social Media strategy principles, including the following:

· With conversations, participate online; don’t “broadcast” messages to users

· Don’t bring the BBC into disrepute

· With moderation, only police where we have to; trust our users where we don’

· Be open and transparent in our social media dealings ”

From the BBC use of social networking, microblogs and other third party websites online document. 

The BBC social media policy for the personal use of staff gives guidance on how staff should behave in their own use of social networks.

 “All BBC staff should be mindful of the information they disclose on social networking sites. Where they associate themselves with the Corporation (through providing work details or joining a BBC network) they should act in a manner which does not bring the BBC into disrepute. When a staff member is contacted by the press about posts on their social networking site that relate to the BBC they should talk to their manager before responding. The relevant BBC press office must be consulted.”

From the Personal use of social networking and other third party websites (including blogs, microblogs and personal web-space) online document.

Like the BBC, Coca-Cola has a social media policy in place that relates to both personal behaviour and behaviour of designated online spokespeople for the organisation.

The policy for online spokespeople states key expectations including 'Be a “scout” for compliments and criticism. Let the subject matter experts respond to negative posts. Be conscious when mixing your business and personal lives.' 

The expectations for the policy for personal behaviour include 'Be Certified in the Social Media Certification Program. Be mindful that you are representing the Company. Fully disclose your affiliation with the Company.' 

So there are some clear distinctions between staff who are directly responsible for representing the company brand online and those who represent the company indirectly, simply by being an employee.

The American Red Cross provides an extensive social media handbook for all of its local units, that sets out their national social media philosophy, encouraging the units to participate in their national social media presence and create their own local social media presence. It covers the social media strategy of the organisation and how it should be implemented, the measurement of success of the strategy and which tools should be used.

These organisations have understood the importance of social media in their organisations and how, just like in any other work activity, a policy is needed.

There are also specific policies for particular social media tools. The IOC (International Olympic Committee) has guidelines in place specifically for blogging. This shows how detailed an organisation can be in monitoring related social media use.

When putting together a social media policy for your organisation you may want to consider some of these existing policies or use a policy template or sample.

As social media is such an important marketing tool and continues to grow at such a fast rate, it becomes more important to establish guidelines for employees. It is important to decide how social media fits in to the job roles of your staff and how you want your staff to use social media for the benefit of the organisation.

Its also beneficial to relate your social media policy to your overall social media strategy so that staff understand exactly what the company wants to achieve by using social media, rather than just having your Dos and Don'ts. Much like the Coca-Cola policy, which has 'five core values of the Company in the Online Social Media Community' that the staff are expected to adhere to.

Whether you want your employees to use social media as much, or as little, as possible, it is a sure bet that they are already using it in some way. Which makes it all the more important to have a social media policy.

What's your social media policy?

 

Linking LinkedIn to my Twitter

Posted Fri, 18/06/2010 - 11:04 by Lucy Goetz

LinkedIn first integrated the use of Twitter at the end of last year and they have now extended that integration with the 'Tweets' application. Instead of just being able to integrate your LinkedIn and Twitter status updates and display your Twitter account on your profile, you can now control your Twitter account from inside your LinkedIn profile.

The new 'Tweets' option allows you to tweet directly to your Twitter from your LinkedIn account and have the option to share it to your LinkedIn status, rather than it be the other way round as it was previously. So you now have the option to update only your Twitter account from inside LinkedIn. Just go to the 'Tweets' item on your homepage menu.

You can see the status updates of the people you follow on Twitter that are also your connections. You can also reply, re-tweet and display your recent tweets on your profile and view the Twitter feeds of the people you follow from inside LinkedIn. The 'Connections to follow' list allows you to see the people you are connected to on LinkedIn that you are yet to follow on Twitter.

There is also a 'Connections' tab, which makes it easier to follow any of your LinkedIn connections on Twitter by giving you a list of the connections you can follow and the connections you already follow. You can start following them or unfollow any of your connections without having to go directly to Twitter. You can do it all from inside LinkedIn.

One of the best features of 'Tweets' is being able to create dynamic lists of your LinkedIn connections. You can create a private 'Twitter list' whereby you save all of your connections and LinkedIn will keep the list up to date with which of your connections have Twitter accounts. So you will be able to keep updated on which of your connections have Twitter accounts and what they are Tweeting about.

So LinkedIn couldn't have made things much easier to control your Twitter account from your profile. They've made it easy to keep track of your Twitter account and to find new followers from your connections who are on Twitter. It seems that LinkedIn are keen for users to use their LinkedIn accounts as their social media dashboard.

Twitter Trending Topics

Posted Fri, 21/05/2010 - 10:58 by Lucy Goetz

If like the rest of us in the office you are tired of seeing Justin Bieber constantly topping the Twitter trending topics, you may be glad to know that it may be the last time the tweens and teens will be able to get their favourite popstar to the top of the trending topic list on Twitter for weeks on end!

Trending topics were initially introduced to reflect the most popular topics that Twitter users were tweeting about. However because the trending topics related to popular topics, these became dominated by some of the same consistently discussed topics on Twitter, like Justin Bieber, which has been tweeted most regularly for a long period of time. For many including me, this had begun to de-value the trending topic feature.

One of my favourite things about Twitter is being able to see what is going on in the world just by looking at trending topics that reflect what Twitter users are talking about at that moment. As one of my followers re-tweeted, it is a superb way of finding out all the latest news in a very small space of time.

 

 

So it is annoying that some of the more recent topics are being kept off the trending topics by other topics that had been more popular but over a longer period of time, keeping the more immediate topics off the trending list.

In response to the Bieber Twitter phenomenon, Twitter announced on Friday 14th May that it is changing the trending topics algorithm. Here is what the developers at Twitter said:

“Twitter is about what is happening right now, and we have recently updated our trending topics algorithm to reflect this. The new algorithm identifies topics that are immediately popular, rather than topics that have been popular for a while or on a daily basis, to help people discover the "most breaking" news stories from across the world. (We had previously built in this 'emergent' algorithm for all local trends, described below.) We think that trending topics which capture the hottest emerging trends and topics of discussion on Twitter are the most interesting. While this is very much a work in progress, with this tweak we have taken a big step toward capturing how trends quickly emerge and grow on Twitter. We also think it's compelling to know what the "most popular" topics are, and we will look to capture this in some way in the future.

It is important to note that this new algorithm does not "block" any topics from trending. If topics you saw regularly in your Trending Topics menu have disappeared or are not showing as consistently as before, do a saved search for them on your homepage. That way, in one click, you can view search results for topics that matter most to you. Also consider localizing your Trending Topics menu, as shown below.” 

Well said Twitter! They even sent a tweet to Justin Bieber to explain the changes after the complaints from his fans. Although they said that it was a planned change and not a direct response to the high volume of Justin Bieber tweets.

 

But I'm afraid that we may be celebrating a little too early as the Bieber fans seem to have found ways round the new trending topics criteria. Instead of just tweeting about 'Justin Bieber' they have invented new trending topics related to Justin Bieber such as 'Twieber' and 'Jieber.' By leaving out the whole phrase 'Justin Bieber' the Twitter system judges it as a completely new topic unrelated to 'Justin Bieber.'

The trending topics on Monday 17th May showed the affect of the new topics created by the Bieber fans already.


 

Justin Bieber has even responded to what his fans have been doing.

We'll see how long they can keep this up but hopefully it is just a short lived response to the changes.

 

Sharing made easier on LinkedIn

Posted Thu, 06/05/2010 - 14:34 by Lucy Goetz

As Facebook introduced their new controversial social plug-ins that seem to be taking off at great speed as 50,000 websites have now integrated them, LinkedIn has also introduced some major changes.

LinkedIn has now integrated new features to its status updates as it is now easier to share things from the web. Your LinkedIn status updates had been quite basic and limited up until now as they seem to be following the sharing idea as part of your status updates that Facebook introduced a while ago.

You now have more control over what you share and to whom as your status updates can now be shared with either everyone, a group, just your connections or a specific person. So you can be more selective about what you post and who you want to be able to see it. You can now include images and brief excerpts from a link that you want to share, again much in the same way you can do this on Facebook.

 

LinkedIn has also introduced its own version of Twitter's re-tweet feature as you can now 're-share' what one of your LinkedIn connections has shared. They will also be attributed as the source of the link you are sharing when you share the link yourself in your status update. If you just click on 'share' on the post you want to re-share you can post it to your group, send it to individuals or you can post it to your updates as seen here.

LinkedIn status updates and posts can also now be deleted much in the same way you can on Facebook with a little cross next to each post and status update that you can click on. So now you can get rid of any embarrassing typos or anything you may have changed your mind about sharing.

LinkedIn has also added a new feature related to company profiles. If you want to keep track of companies you are interested in on LinkedIn, you can 'follow' a company by clicking 'Follow Company' on the company profile of your choice.

 

This allows you to receive notifications by email or in your network about company profile updates, new job opportunities and when employees join, leave or are promoted in the company. You can edit these notification settings in the same way as your group settings.

So just as you re-tweet something on Twitter you re-share on LinkedIn and just as you follow someone on Twitter you follow a company profile on LinkedIn. I hope you're keeping up!

 

 

Facebook Open Graph for Business

Posted Tue, 04/05/2010 - 16:56 by Lucy Goetz

What is it?

Open Graph is a new tool from Facebook which allows web pages to add a Facebook [Like] button to any web page and then have this information link in to Facebook. Each web page becomes an object which is then used by Facebook to aggregate across the site.

Since Facebook announced the integration of Open Graph whereby the [Like] button is extended to web pages outside of Facebook, 50,000 websites have started using the feature after only an initial few were announced as launch partner websites. The number is likely to keep growing and maybe you should consider adding the feature to your own website or blog to help drive traffic to them as the feature seems to be taking off.

An example of a smaller business using the Facebook [Like] social plug-in is local recruitment agency AVRec, which has added the plug-in to its blog and is already seeing traffic from it.

Take a look at how it works with their latest blog post:

http://blog.avrec.co.uk/training/are-all-your-eggs-in-one-basket

If you click on the [Like] button than a box will pop up asking you to log in to Facebook unless you are already logged in. Then as you click on the [Like] button Facebook automatically puts a new post on your wall saying that you [Like] the page.

 

 

This is how some of the bigger businesses are using the Facebook [Like] buttons.

http://store.levi.com/

As you can see products can be [Liked] and people can see which products are the most popular as well as seeing them [Liked] on their walls.

http://www.yelp.com/biz/tanguito-san-francisco

 

Click on the attachment below to download a pdf on how to add the Facebook [Like] buttons to your website.

 

AttachmentSize
How to add the Facebook [Like] buttons to your website.pdf724 KB

Facebook goes one step further in bid to takeover the web

Posted Thu, 22/04/2010 - 16:35 by Lucy Goetz

After it was revealed only last month that Facebook had received more visits than Google in the US it is hardly surprising that they are making more changes to try to takeover from Google and make the web increasingly more social.

At Facebook's F8 conference Mark Zuckerberg unveiled Facebook's latest feature that will allow Facebook to be seen across the web by extending the 'like' feature through social plug-ins. The 'like' feature that Facebook initially introduced allowed users to 'like' a person's status or photos and now instead of being a fan of a page you 'like' a page. Instead of a fanpage having say 20,000 fans, it now has '20,000 people who like this.'

The changes announced yesterday now mean that instead of just liking things actually in Facebook itself, users can 'like' things on other webpages outside of Facebook. Partner websites of Facebook will have a Facebook Like button that once you've clicked, the link to that webpage and some of the web content that is 'liked' will be shared on your Facebook profile. This can only happen if you are logged in to Facebook which is obviously want Facebook want. At the moment only a few partner websites have been announced including Sky, Yelp and Pandora.

Facebook have also announced that users will now be able to create and share Microsoft Office documents with their friends using Facebook Docs. So users can upload Word, Excel and Powerpoint documents on their walls and share with their friends who can then comment or 'like' them.

These latest changes came as it was revealed the day before the F8 conference that Facebook has closed down 'Facebook Lite', a stripped down version of Facebook that was introduced a few months ago. Facebook didn't give a real reason as to why they decided to shut down Facebook lite as users are now taken to the main Facebook site.

I'll try and keep on top of anymore changes Facebook seem to enjoy rapidly making!

 

New social media courses and dates announced

Posted Wed, 24/02/2010 - 16:27 by Graeme

Reach Further are pleased to announce a raft of new course dates coming up in the next few months. As well as the hugely popular LinkedIn and Twitter courses, there are courses to help with blogging and all aspects of social media.

So whether you’re a complete newbie to social media or are familiar with it but could do with a boost to help in maximising the potential of your social media activity and gaining as much as you can from it, then attend one of our courses or workshops and let Liz or Helen guide you through the process and begin using social media to have a realistic impact on your business.

Our upcoming courses include:

Kickstart your blog:

This is a very practical and hands-on workshop suitable for beginners and new bloggers as well as those who’ve started blogging and would like a boost. The course takes you through a series of practical exercises getting your blog up and running and working for you.

More information

Dates:
Thursday 11th March
Tuesday 13th April
Wednesday 14th July

Book:
To book a place, visit our booking page.

LinkedIn and Twitter Double Bill:

LinkedIn: This session will take you from amateur dabbler to professional networker. You will understand which activities give you the most exposure, which will raise your ranking on LinkedIN, which aren't worth doing, and how to use LinkedIN's permission-based marketing tools to drip-feed your marketing message to your audience every day of the week - free of charge.

Twitter: Once we've got you started on Twitter, with a profile and routine, we'll look at how to maximise Twitter's potential for growing your business or brand. Using tried and tested tactics Liz will show you how to build up a following of relevant Twitter users, and how to find the ones you should follow yourself.  How to use Twitter to reduce your emails, connect with your networks, and feed your brand message across all social networking platforms.

More information

Dates:
Friday 12th March
Monday 19th April

Book:
To book a place, visit our booking page.

How to Blog (9 Week online course):
Learn to love blogging! This online course shows you everything you need to know to build your blog - in around 3 hours a week. Learn any time anywhere over a period of 9 weeks. You choose the time you learn.

Can you afford 2-3 hours a week to get started with blogging? You can begin our course right now and in nine weeks' time you could be an established blogger!  We will take you through all the practical steps of starting up and developing your blog.

More information

Dates:
Monday 15th March

Book:
To book a place, visit our booking page.

Social Media for Business:

This workshop will answer the SIX* most-often asked questions about Social Media: *In the last three years, Reach Further has helped hundreds of businesses to get started with social media, these are the SIX questions we've been asked most often.

  1. How much time will it take me?
  2. What will I say?
  3. How will I know its worth it?
  4. Do I need to change my website?
  5. How do I find out what people are saying about us?
  6. Can I do it myself?

We'll share case studies and best practice in:

Social Media Marketing, Social Networking, Online Communites what they are, what's the difference, how they can help your business, and how you can get started.

More information

Dates:
York: - Monday 15th March
Leeds: - Friday March 19th
Manchester: - Tuesday 23rd March
Sheffield: - Tuesday 6th April
Nottingham: - Thursday 8th April
London: - Thursday 22nd April

Book:
Book a place in York.

Book a place in Leeds

Book a place in Manchester

Book a place in Sheffield

Book a place in Nottingham

Book a place in London

Following the Leader

Posted Tue, 26/01/2010 - 14:25 by Liz

A quick guide to jumpstarting your followers on Twitter.

Unless you already have a strong reputation, offline following, or brand name that will mean people look for you specifically on Twitter, you need to find another way to get people's attention. 

You could tweet usefully with lots of niche keywords to help people find you when they search and you can put all the right keywords in your bio on your homepage, for the same reason.  But this is very passive and gives you no control over speed of following.  (you should niche tweet in the long-term still)

You could @reply people in the hope of starting a conversation, but this is very time-consuming.  (you should engage tweeps in the long-term still)

For most of us unknowns, the only way to get people to follow you, quickly, is to follow them, and then be so irresistible they follow you back. 

Some people will follow you back automatically, yay! Apparently the statistic is about 64%.  However, Hubspots January 2010 “State of the Twittersphere” report shows that Twitter users are getting much more sophisticated, which means they are using the tool to build relationships for business, and being careful about the networks they build.  So “automatic” follows may be on the decrease. 
 
Others will check out your profile and make a decision about whether you are worth following (this often means the same as “you are worth re:tweeting” because people want good information to pass to their followers to keep them loyal.)  Lots of people don’t use Tweetdeck etc to manage zillions of followers, and 85% follow less than 100 people (from Hubspot’s report), so you have to make it worth their while.
 
Create your Content
 
So first, make sure you have some great tweets on your Twitter profile.  Think hard about the top 6 to 10 tweets that will show up first in the list on your page when people check out your profile.  Make sure at least one or two is an @reply (to show you are human and have conversations); a couple should be links to useful stuff for your audience (use bit.ly to track when these links are clicked); two should be links to something associated with your brand including MAYBE some sort of discount/offer (bit.ly again), but more importantly, it should lead to useful, well-written non-technical information.
 
Your Tweets should make your Retweeters look good.
 
Have an Offer
 
Why should they follow you?  If you create an offer, you can not only tweet about it, but seed content across the web with a call to action of following you on Twitter to get access to the offer.
 
You can use SocialOomph or Twitter Sniper to send DMs (Direct Messages) to new followers automatically with a link to “Your Offer” in this first tweet they receive.
 
Find your ideal Followers
 
You can find people who have your niche keywords in their bios using TweepSearch. 
You can find people tweeting about your niche keywords using SocialOOmph
 
If you want a geographical bias to your audience, check-out loudmouth tweeters in your area using Twitter.Grader for your location(s) or use one of the many twitter directories. (You could also just search their profiles using Tweepsearch)
 
You could find bloggers using a service like http://blogrovr.com/ and then check out their twitter accounts.
 
Twitterhawk could be useful for niche keywords+location
 
You can also find relevant people on LinkedIN, by searching on industry, and see if they have Twitter accounts.  You don’t need to LinkedIn to them to follow them on Twitter, and once they follow you back, its easy to send them a Linkedin invitation on the basis you’re already “friended” on Twitter.
 
Follow everyone as you go along.  Tweepsearch makes it easy. But sometimes it will be a case of profile by profile, hitting the follow button.
 
Create Lists as you go
 
As you are going to be visiting a lot of profile pages, thank about setting up some lists that will be useful to you or your followers (It also makes you look like a useful and savvy Twitter user), and add people to lists as you go along.
 
People will see on their own home-page they’ve been listed, and as we all have narcisistic tendencies will go look to see who’ve listed them and BINGO! You’ve got their attention, and hopefully a “follow” will follow.
 
Find the Influencers
 
You should always follow competitors, providers, suppliers, commentators, critics and reviewers in your niche as well as potential customers.  The early adopters, and the people who are doing it “right” may have established your perfect audience – now you just want to get access to it.  Watch and listen, check out profiles, see how many lists people are on, how many followers they have.  Check out Twitteranalyzer to see who retweets the most.
 
Once you’ve identified the key Tweeters or Influencers in this area you can use a tool like refollow to automatically follow all of the Influencer’s followers, and hopefully, some of them will follow you back.  ESPECIALLY if you can be seen to be engaging that person they follow in conversation using @reply - even if the Influencer doesn’t @reply you, the Influencer’s followers will see the conversation, make the connection, and be more likely to follow you back.
 
Influencers are like Influenza – they’ll spread your word fast. That’s why they call it “viral”.
 
When Followers become “Friends”
 
Send genuine @messages to new followers – find out where they are, what they are interested in, go out of your way to find stuff on the web of interest to THEM PERSONALLY and tweet them the link in an @reply.  They will love you, and you may get some retweets to their followers. 
 
I just got a personal DM from a guy in Melbourne with 27,000 followers, and I complimented him on the message (it was sweet) and asked him if it was him or a robot, as I was a little surprised he had reached out to me as one of his many followers.  This was his reply . . “Contol C Control V is the answer.  But please don't tell - that DM was just for you, not theTwittersphere.”  Which just goes to show, even the big Influencers have to dispense with robots for some of the work!
 
A “friend” is the Twitter term for when you follow someone and they follow you back.  You need to decide early on whether you are going to go for the “follow everyone who follows you” strategy – adopted by Barack Obama amongst others, or the “I’m too busy/important/cool to follow you, accept the crumbs of wisdom from my table” strategy, which many seem to think denotes the ideal twitter profile i.e. loads more followers than following.
 
This is your own decision.  My personal belief is that your CONTENT, and your CONVERSATION is more important than your RATIO.  However, if you do go for the “I’m too cool” option, remember you can send @replies to anyone to engage them, and you DON’T have to follow them to do it.  So you could send lots of @replies to particular people, including Influencers, in order to come to their attention and let them make the decision on whether to follow or not.  This is a common marketing strategy adopted by many applications and web tools that want you to buy or try.
 
My own profile falls somewhere in the middle.  Plenty more followers than following, which shows I’m useful (people aren’t only following me to get me to follow back, they are interested in my tweets even if I don’t).  But very many followings too, which shows I’m engaging in conversation and open to new ideas, and willing to retweet.  At least, I hope that’s what it shows.  Check it out at http://www.twitter.com/lizcable and let me know.
 
Goodbye, Farewell, Alpeiterzein, Adieu
 
Finally, about two weeks later, you can chose whether you want to UNFOLLOW anyone who hasn’t FOLLOWED you back, to make sure your ratio is more followers than followees.  Use refollow to do this the quick way, or twitter karma to consider each case on its individual merits.
 
This is a quick and dirty guide to increasing your followers, but not as quick and dirty as the pyramid scams which abound.  These break the terms and conditions of Twitter which could leave you open to having your account suspended (and by “suspended” we mean its NEVER coming back).  So be warned, don’t use any tools that guarantee you followers.
 
All the while be thinking, when I look at a profile, what are the judgement calls I make?  How many followers means someone is worth following?  How many tweets?  What sort of content?  How recently must they have tweeted? What about their ratio of following to follower? 
 
And be aware that these are the judgement calls people will be making about you.