Twitter Success Marketing freelancer Work Your business Twitter

 Chapter 05 - Finding the Right

 Niche Influence Leaders on Twitter

At this point, it should be fairly clear that you need to follow the right people on Twitter. Otherwise, the tips I've shared with you will not work. If you're just going to follow random people on Twitter you don't know who you're influencing. In fact, you don't even know if you're influencing them at all.

You have to understand that on Twitter some people generally follow a general rule: if you follow me I follow you. Nowhere in this does it say they're actually interested in what you have to say. That's a big problem. If you attract the wrong following you're not going to get many results from Twitter 

marketing. In fact, the results you get would be the same as if you did not do Twitter marketing at all. That's a waste of time.

You need to find real people. You also need to find real influential people.

This isn't bad enough, you need to find real influential people in your niche.

How do you do this? Here's my step by step guide.

Pay Attention to Their Biography

Look at their bio. Is it on point? Does it indicate the persona of a person who is truly interested in your niche? This is crucial. If there are no niche related keywords

there or it's not obvious that this person is part of your target demographic and it's not some sort of passionate or credible enough authority in your niche. Then this is probably the wrong person. You may be barking up the wrong tree. 

Look at Their Follower-to-
Following Ratio

This ratio is simple. Look at the number of people this person follows and look at the number of people following this person. If this person's followers greatly outnumber the accounts this

person is following. Chances are this is a real account.

It is not some bot that is fully automated. Instead, this person actually has influence because for how many people he or she is following, he is followed by hundreds if not thousands of more people.

This is very important. If it turns out that the number of people following this person is pretty much the same as the number of persons he is following is probably not a good idea to follow that person. This person is probably just using some sort of software to take advantage of the fact that when you follow people they follow you back. Some of them follow you back.

Pay Attention to Their Level of Engagement

Look at the stuff that they talk about. Pay attention to their tweets. What do they constantly retweet? What do they tweet about? Are they talking about the same stuff most of the time?

Does their account get a lot of retweets and posts, retweets, and engagements? Do they get a lot of favorites? Is there a lot of engagement with the content they share?

Even if this person is totally focused on your niche but it turns out that their tweets don't get much engagement. They may not be all that influential. Becoming credible with them and getting access to their market may not work out for you. Their audience may not work out for you because they're not really authorities.

Pay Attention to the Specificity of Their Posts

Look at their posts. Here's a rule of thumb if 80% or more of their posts have something to do with

 niche follow them. Follow them if all the other points I raised above apply.

But if it turns out that this person's bio is on point. It has more followers than the accounts that he or she is following. It has a high engagement level. But this person focuses on generalized content. This person may be a dud. In other words, this person is some sort of Twitter celebrity. This person is only an authority because of their personality and not much else. They're not an authority because they focus on a niche.

They're not an authority because they are truly passionate about a niche. People only follow them because they think their personality is interesting. So, what you get is some sort of individual celebrity market. That's not what you're looking for. You're looking for a niche audience.

Chapter 06 - Follow and Engage

So, what do you do when you find a niche specific and truly authoritative account on Twitter? First of all, they have to meet all the criteria listed in Chapter 5. Assuming they pass with flying colors, you follow

them. Don't stop there. This is just the beginning.

Once you follow them, you engage. Now a lot of people have all sorts of misconceptions regarding what engagement means. Some people think that if they just click the heart button that they are engaging. They think that if they retweet that they are engaging. No. It goes beyond that.

You actually have to engage in a one to one conversation with the person tweeting. You click the reply button. I'm not talking about the direct message button. I'm talking about the reply button. Here's where it gets a little tricky. You can't just use a stock answer like hey good post or you're a genius. I admire you. I love you.

No. That doesn't work. Those are worthless. Why? True authorities get those all the time. They're credible. They know what they're talking about. So, they get a lot of Hey, good post. You're a smart guy. You're a genius. So what!

They get those all the time. You're not going to stand out. Remember the whole point of engagement is to get on their radar. You want them to notice you.

This is all but impossible if you're doing the exact same thing everybody else is doing. Everybody thinks that they're a genius already. Yet another guy piping up and saying the same thing is not going to register.

How Do You Truly Engage?

Here's what I do. I ask questions. I know that sounds basic right. But you have to ask the right question. You have to ask a question that indicates to

the person loud and clear that you've read their post. Maybe you click 

through the link that they shared. Maybe you analyzed their tweet. Whatever the case may be, your question must communicate this.

Your question must get them to think or analyze or look at things with a new perspective. When you do that you get respect. Why? You're pushing them. You're challenging them. You're not just asking a throwaway question that they already know the answer to. You're not asking something that they have answered 100 times before.

You're basically letting them earn a chance to prove why people think they're experts. Most mature adults respect this. They're not scared by this. They're not threatened by this in any way. Even if you do come across somebody who has a thin skin or views this as an attack you still gain authority and credibility because other experts are following that person. When they see that engagement, they quickly see that you actually have a working brain.

Imagine that. You're not just a blind follower. You're not just another face in the crowd. This makes you stand out. Even if the expert that you are asking questions to reacts in a negative way. It's on them. It's not on you because you're just asking a question.

Of course, you have to ask in a respectful way. You cannot use loaded questions like when did you stop beating your wife or how was it the first time you got hooked on drugs. You see where I'm coming from. Don't ask those types of questions.

Discuss Controversial Point

Another way to get on people's radars is to focus on controversy. Now please don't mistake this for being a troll. I'm not saying that you're

going to create artificial controversies. I'm not talking about stoking divisive issues. I'm not talking about any of that. You see in any kind of subject, there will always be two sides.

This applies to niche subjects as well. There's always the conventional wisdom and then there is everything else. What if there are techniques or approaches or strategies that would get better results. For some reason or other, these are just not talked about. For some reason or other, these are kept under the rug.

When you discuss these or raise these with experts this highlights that you, yourself are an expert. After all, if you've fully explained these or fully describe these accurately, you are basically lecturing in an underhanded way people who are reading your tweets.

You're letting them know of something they may not have heard about. You are hinting at a body of knowledge that either they're trying to run away from or they may have an unclear understanding of.

The fact that you tease this information communicates to them in a clear way that you are some sort of expert. Let's put it this way, you stand out from the crowd and you're not just this random person saying hey good post or you're a genius or what do you think about this topic which has been raised millions of times before.

Whatever You Do Focus on Real Engagement

This is the bottom line. Real engagement means real person-to-person contact. This means picking somebodies brain. This

means sharing information on a real profound personal level. This may not be always comfortable. It definitely is not always convenient but it's absolutely necessary. You have to reach out. You have to engage.

You have to communicate. You have to get the point across. This doesn't mean that you have to always be 100% in agreement. However, it means that you have to always be 100% respectful.

I know this is hard to do if the person that you are engaging would feel threatened or get soft on you in the worst way. It's very tempting to fight back. It's very tempting to push back. Fight fire with fire right?

Well here's the thing. If they act in a very unprofessional way and you keep your cool. Who wins? Your brand wins. People start seeing you as an 

authority. People start seeing you as an alternative. This is how you get on the radar. Either things work smoothly and they agree with you and would love to help you or things don't work out.

When things don't work out, you can still win. How? Through your professionalism. You just have to control your emotions. Twitter is notorious for flame wars, troll attacks, and all sorts of hassles. But if you're able to keep your head together and focus on what you're trying to accomplish things will work out for the best.