How to get the right followers on Twitter (2)

Now after my blog on the general strategies for your Twitter usage and some insights on how to connect your blog, website, Twitter account and other social network presences, here are some simple points for getting followers:
- make sure that you mention your Twitter account name in everyone of you other social networks and invite your friends to follow you on Twitter, or invite them to open a Twitter account (most of them will then follow you);
- celebrities have it easy to get followers: as soon as they are on Twitter, word of mouth will spread (or their manager / agent will make sure this happens) and they will get their fans following them in masses (you can observe this with Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore, Oprah and the like). Normally they will only follow a few of their personal contacts. If you make it on their list, big advantage.
- for the rest of us following brings followers. Start with a few people who have many followers and just follow them (like Guy Kawasaki, Pete Cashmore aka Mashable etc.). Some of them use auto follow services and will automatically become your followers. They also will publish a lot of insights on Twitter to help you for next steps.
- you can also use auto follow websites and the system will make sure that you follow anyone who follows you. I recommend to use TweetLater for this. They also allow you to send your tweets at the time you wish them to go out (ideally when many users on Twitter are online).
- now you should start to use a more convenient interface than the standard Twitter one. I recommend to use TweetDeck or Seesmic, in which you can build groups and have a more selctive view on your followers. These interfaces also allow you to follow others in just a click.
- this is also the time to start tweeting and re-tweeting (RT). Many of those you RT will become followers. What to RT? Up to you, this can be news, interesting insights from others, tweets with interesting links etc. Showing what interests you will make it easier for others to decide whether they want to follow you. Be aware that at the same time you also become more transparent to all kinds of people in the online world by showing your preferences.
- you can also use link shortening services like Adjix which allow at the same time to multiply your tweets by sending them out several times (ie for Asia, Europe, US morning, midday and evening)
- your tweets should be attractive, interesting, unique, vivd, special, in order to attract followers. Otherwise you would just be one of many contributing to the information overload.
- the next thing is to be interactive, asking specific questions via @replies or DMs, thus building closer connections.
- also, you need to be generous by re-tweeting interesting tweets from others. Some will thank you by following.
- if you find especially cool twitters you can help them, by nominating them for #followfriday on Fridays (format: #followfriday @top007, that's me), again, often they will follow you.
- and then, of course, as mentioned before, the interaction of your witter acoount, blog and website will start to pay off.

When starting up you can't follow more than 2000 twitters, as twitter has built in limits to avoid spam. Once you have reached 2000 followings you need to weed out a bit and develop you follower base to come near to 2000. This is a major hurdle with which I'm currently struggling.

In my next blog I will publish a few selected links to additional information and videos.