As a micro-blogging platform where posts are limited to 280 characters, Twitter’s approach of using brevity sets it apart from the other social media giants like Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
Twitter is a place for brief thoughts, and even when the social network doubled the character limit of tweets from 140 to 280 characters, only 1 percent of tweets actually hit that 140-character limit.
Roughly 13 years after Twitter’s founding, the brevity formula continues to be a strong draw for users.
While Twitter has had problems with millions of fake accounts and spam (forcing the company to shut down tens of millions of accounts and causing its total user base to fall), it still boasts a high engagement rate, with daily active users increasing in the first quarter of 2019.
For social media marketers, the challenge is figuring out how to get in on that action.
This is where social media marketing tools designed to help you grow your Twitter audience come in.
Let’s take a look at five of the best tools to increase your Twitter followers.
1. Owlead
Owlead’s value proposition is geared specifically toward Twitter audience growth, helping you “get real Twitter followers effortless.”
The platform works by categorizing, filtering, and finding the most valuable accounts that match your target audience.
This also ensures that you’re not just growing your follower count, you’re getting real Twitter users who may actually benefit from your product or service.
Owlead does this by allowing users to set audience filters, which include:
- Keywords in a Twitter user’s bio.
- Language.
- Geographic location.
- Gender.
Owlead then automatically follows (and unfollows, if necessary) 50 relevant Twitter accounts every day in the background without requiring human intervention.
You can also notify the platform of an industry leader or competitor’s Twitter account so you can reach out to their audience.
Owlead also lets you track your daily audience growth and provides the analytics insights to understand your audience better, including their demographics and interests.
The platform is available on a 10-day trial, with plans starting at $19/month.
2. Hootsuite
No list of social media management tools is complete without mentioning Hootsuite, a social media marketing tool loved by marketers the world over.
The beauty of Hootsuite lies in its robust features, allowing you to manage multiple profiles across a wide variety of social media platforms at the same time.
Unlike other Twitter management apps, Hootsuite lets you manage multiple profiles – great for agencies or enterprises with sub-brands.
From a single dashboard, Hootsuite lets you manage your Twitter presence, monitor conversations, track lists, and grow your audience by:
- Scheduling tweets.
- Using UTM codes to monitor the content that brings in the most traffic.
- Monitoring @mentions.
Hootsuite also publishes several helpful guides on different topics, including how to grow your Twitter audience using the platform.
Hootsuite’s plans start at $19/month and go up to $599 for enterprises that want the full experience.
3. Crowdfire
Crowdfire’s user-friendly interface and accompanying mobile app make it a popular social media management platform among small business owners.
The platform’s Crowdfire Plus plan, the most affordable plan, allows users to add 10 social media accounts.
In 2018, Crowdfire introduced Mentions, a one-stop tool that helps users stay on top of their brand all over Twitter. The tool lets you track mentions, comments, and replies through notifications sent to your team inbox.
Aside from Mentions, other features on Crowdfire include:
- Scheduling posts in bulk.
- Adding and managing team members.
- Replying to social media mentions with the Crowdfire app.
Crowdfire’s social media analytics also helps you spend less time digging through your data, providing all your analytics insights on a profile, individual post, and competitor basis in one place.
Crowdfire is free for one account per social media platform. The premium plan starts at $7.48 and is ideal for solo-preneurs and small businesses.
4. Tweepi
Tweepi is a Twitter-specific platform that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to grow your audience on the social network.
By leveraging AI, you only need to spend a few minutes on the tool each day, with Tweepi automatically taking actions to grow your followers.
This also helps you focus on more strategic goals, such as content ideation and brand strategy.
Tweepi’s AI-driven approach to Twitter management works in the following steps:
- Set up your account: Add your target hashtags and users relevant to your topics of interest.
- Letting AI do the work: Tweepi then scours Twitter to search for the best tweets and users to engage.
- Grow your account by as much as 100 followers daily: Tweepi, like Owlead, makes sure to engage relevant users only.
Tweepi’s plans start at $129 annually or $10.75 / month.
5. Buffer
When it comes to social media management on Twitter, often the best way to grow your audience is to draw them in instead of reaching out to them.
This is where content comes in, and where tools like Buffer, with its ability to schedule tweets, can help you save time while still getting results.
Buffer does this by allowing users to automatically post tweets based on your existing content.
For example:
- Take 10 blog posts on your site.
- For each blog post, write three unique tweets, which gives you 30 tweets.
- Add these tweets to Buffer and schedule your tweets to go live twice a day for 15 days.
You can also increase the frequency of your tweets to maximize your content’s exposure on Twitter and increase the likelihood of getting new followers.
And remember, Buffer’s features aren’t limited to Twitter — they cover all the social media platforms.
Buffer pricing starts at $15/month and includes 8 social media accounts, 1 user, and 100 scheduled posts.
Over to You
It’s important to remember that even if you use the tools listed above, it’ll be hard to grow your Twitter followers organically if you don’t:
- Genuinely engage with people.
- Share valuable content.
- Retweet relevant tweets regularly.
These tools should not be used as crutches, but rather as a way to augment your core Twitter strategy.
Bonus tip: Don’t forget about Twitter’s advanced search functionality … and it’s free!
More Resources:
Image Credits
In-post Image #1: Statista
In-post Image #2: Owlead
In-post Image #3: Crowdfire
In-post Image #4 & 5: Screenshots taken by the author, November 2019