Dipping one’s toes in the buzz worthy world of Twitter for the first time can be quite an intimidating experience. It can either be a flurry of disconnected 140 messages or a lonely and blank silence.

Many established users of the micro-blogging platform Twitter will have anywhere from tens to hundreds or even thousands of followers. However, for the newcomer, the first question will be: “how do I get people to follow me?”

Now, the first thing you will learn when diving into the twittersphere is that there are many different approaches, philosophies, and strategies on how to use Twitter and no real right or wrong answer. Twitter is essentially an open communication platform and there are few restrictions on exactly how you should use it. There are puritans, that revile any commercial influence in their world of twitter; the ‘get rich quick’ people that spam and will try to sell you something new at the turn of every tweet; twitter celebrities; bloggers; socialites and many personalities as varied as the offline world.

Personally I use twitter to network, discuss and collaborate on new ideas, engage people with personality, and connect with people in my industry that are working towards the same objectives as myself. As a result I have made some great business contacts, connected with those already in my network more intimately and learned lessons from some of the greatest minds in my field.

The following tips are a part of my personal strategy that has evolved from my objectives. This is not a blueprint but rather a conversation starter to evaluate your own personal strategy.

Define who you are
Twitter is not like facebook or MySpace where you have the ability to input pictures or reams of text to convey your message. Often times the only way people evaluate you is by the 160 character description and your last twenty tweets. This makes it all the more imperative that you concisely convey who you are, what you are interested in and what exactly people can expect you to tweet about. Often people will determine whether to follow you or not, based on your 160 character description, effectively deciding whether to continue the conversation or not.

A few questions that an effective 160 character description should answer: who are you, what are you interested in and who should follow you. Don’t try to close the sale in the first 160 characters, it puts out a bad first impression and most people probably won’t follow you.

Follow wisely
There are some interesting theories and strategies on following. Some will auto-follow anyone that chooses to follow them, others are very selective about whom they add, and those that will add and then once you follow, unfollow – a ploy to buffer follower numbers.

People will tell you to identify and connect with the ‘influencers’ in the community. However you will come to learn that the true influencers reached that point by engaging people at the grassroots level. If you want to become an influential voice you have to build relationships, there is no quick fix.

I have found that often the obsession with follower numbers is often vain and ego satisfaction. Many of the most interesting and influential (real world influential that is) people I have connected with, wouldn’t be considered influential on twitter from a purely numbers view point, as a lesson – focus on connecting and engaging not on numbers.

Any strategy such as auto-follow and any form of mass-following is counter-intuitive to the true objectives. Twitter is what you make it and your feed is a summation of who you follow, therefore, what you get out of twitter is a result of who you are following. By following without consternation you are filling up your twitter stream with noise which makes it much harder to engage the important conversations or from a marketing or PR point of view: the key conversations.

Here is how and why I follow people:

• People I meet in person
  When I meet a person at an event and we share the same interests, I continue those conversations from the events online through twitter.

• I read their blogs
  I read hundreds of blogs but even the best bloggers only post a few times a week. I like to continue the discussion in between posts

• Followers of a friend
  Often the most effective method of finding new followers is identifying smart comments and conversations with people I already follow. That is why it is far more important to reply, retweet and engage rather than just broadcast your own content if you want to grow your network.

• Identify conversations
  Following hashtags opens you up to conversations outside of your network and you can connect with smart people outside of your local social circles.

Engage and Provide value
This post may have lured you in with the headline on how to develop a following but really my intention is to get more people to not just focus on developing a large following in terms of numbers, but instead aim to build an engaging and rewarding connection to the community.

When engaging the community, it relies less on strategy and more on being active, giving back and being yourself. Here are four ways you can engage the community more effectively:

Reply

Ask questions, answer questions, ask for advice, give you opinion, basically engage in conversations and build relationships.

Retweet and contribute relevant articles
Share the knowledge of your followers. Forward interesting articles related to your common interests and develop though communities. Only pushing your own blog content is not considered engaging, it is called broadcasting. Be an active part of the conversation, contribute and build relationships.

Extend your brand naturally
Your twitter stream should be continuation of your offline identity and train of thought. Talk about what is relevant to you, not just what is trending. Develop and extend your brand naturally, be yourself and the audience will follow.

If I have learned one lesson it is that if you stop counting the number of tweets and the number of followers and focus on engaging and connecting, not only do your followers increase but the return on your investment will follow suit.

Photo credit, Misfitgirl