How to Build Your Twitter Following as a Coach

Twitter is an excellent social media platform that lets us keep up to date on news, popular culture and other trending topics. It can also be a useful way for coaches—and thought leaders of any industry—to showcase their expertise and build connections, 280 characters at a time. As is the case with any social media network, having a substantial audience can help amplify your message and boost your credibility.

Here are some steps you can take to grow your following on Twitter.

Interact

You’ve already established a target list of key reporters and influencers for regular outreach. In addition to emailing a reporter on how you could be a great resource, you can also probably find many of these reporters on Twitter. Follow them, and demonstrate your expertise by commenting when they share relevant articles or other posts.

Here’s an example:

A reporter that covers career trends tweets their latest article about ways organizations can better prepare first-time managers. This is an opportunity for you to respond with some additional insight, which could include facts from the ICF and Human Capital Institute’s Building a Coaching Culture with Millennial Leaders research about how managers are more effective when they using coaching skills with their team members.

Alternatively, you could retweet the reporter’s post (be sure to include the reporter’s Twitter handle) and share your own perspective, additional context or praise:

“Great insight from @AdamYosim on how companies can empower first-time managers. Collaborative and coaching managerial styles are much preferred to micromanagement.”

This could increase the chance that a reporter “likes” your comment and/or also share it with their followers.

It’s important to further the conversation with additional useful tidbits of information instead of including something that could be construed as blatant sales or marketing. You should also diversify your Twitter engagement, so you’re not liking and commenting on every single tweet from the same reporter. Consider it similar to getting to know someone new at a party or networking event—be friendly, positive and useful; don’t stalk, sell or pick an argument.

With time and persistence, these touchpoints can turn into the start of a relationship with the reporter.

Create Timely Content

Keeping apprised of current events that could align with coaching allows for a timely way to share engaging insight and content with your followers.

The #MeToo movement is a prime example that lends itself to offering ways to empower female leadership and have tough conversations. Including relevant hashtags in your tweet can also lead to new followers who discover your content from a specific topic based on the hashtag.

Cross-promote

If you already have a sizeable following on another social media network, such as Facebook or LinkedIn, invite your audience to follow you on Twitter. You can also include your Twitter profile and a call to action at the end of each blog post or newsletter that you distribute.

Remember to keep in mind the different nuances of each platform so you are repurposing content and not posting the same thing verbatim across all of your networks. Twitter is all about brevity, so changing up the content length to align with the platform’s parameters is key. Have a lengthy LinkedIn post about a remarkable breakthrough you had with a client? Summarize the main points and convert it into multiple Tweets, also known as a Tweet thread.

Get In the Habit

Just like you might schedule tweets to provide your followers with a steady stream of content, it’s important to get in the habit of using these tips and others on a regular basis to build your following. Meaningful human interactions, creating timely and captivating content, and cross-promoting on multiple networks are strategic ways that will help you and your future followers form engaging and insightful conversations.