How to Build Authority on Twitter

Twitter is great for businesses, organisations and SEOs like ourselves who are trying to build more contacts in our industry.  Not only can we make beneficial connections, but it’s also nice to find out what other people are getting up to in the search marketing world.

Social networking sites have the power to make news and information explode at a viral level, and businesses would be foolish to miss out on the social revolution, but having a Twitter page alone won’t boost your traffic or improve your brand awareness.  Growing social authority takes time and effort and here we share our thoughts on the best ways to do that. 

What is Social Authority?

‘Social authority’ is the way in which search engines such as Google and Bing measure the importance and influence of a social media user.  The search engines have confirmed that a person’s authority will influence social links in terms of rankings, so becoming an influential Tweeter could really pay off. 

The WMG Twitter profile has over 4,000 followers and we have nurtured our social authority over the last few years.  We share our latest blog posts, our news items and we use it to interact with other people. 

Here are our ideas on building author authority on Twitter:

1. Establish your personality – developing a Twitter personality is very important, especially if you are a business / organisation.  How can you make your Tweets more personable and more human?  People are more likely to communicate with real people, so add a little character to your Tweets and make some genuine connections.

Establishing a personality means creating a character, if you haven’t got one already. Having a good profile picture and a descriptive bio is important.

Source: www.seomoz.com/blog

2. Tweet regularly – Tweeting on a regular basis will keep you on the radar with your followers and it will also keep your page active.  The optimum number of Tweets per day may vary from niche to niche, but daily Tweeting works for most users, and KISSMetrics conducted a study to show that the optimum amount should be between 1 and 4 Tweets an hour. 

3. Encourage retweets – it’s not always easy getting your information retweeted by other users, but there are a few ways you maximise your potential.  Use Timley.is to analyse your most successful retweet periods, which could indicate the best times for you to Tweet.  Interacting with other users will help you build beneficial relationships and those who consider you as a friend are probably more likely to retweet your information on a regular basis.   

4. Be interesting – if you want more followers and more followers who care about what you have to share, make sure you make your Tweets interesting.  Use Tweet Effect to have a detailed look at which of your Tweets are gaining your followers and which of your Tweets are causing you to lose followers.  The results could be random, or you could discover a pattern. 

5. Interact and share – if you want people to share your Tweets, you have to return the favour.  Interact and share with other people and you will get the “thanks” in return.  Join in big conversations and use the hash tag (#) to take part in trending topics but always stay relevant to maintain follower retention.