Thought I would scribble down a post about Twitter before I sign off for the night. I recently had a student and fellow tweeter send me a message asking me how I gained so many followers (which, let’s be honest, is nothing compared to others, but I’m perfectly okay with that). He’s looking to increase his Twitter influence, and I wanted him to know that influence doesn’t always mean that you have a high follower count.

So I want to share a few things I’ve personally learned since my Twitter start. Take what you will:

1. Engagement is key. Work hard to engage who you’re talking to on Twitter. After all, we’re using it to communicate with each other. Engagement means participating in ongoing conversations, tweeting to people using @username, and using hashtags (the #topic). These are just a few things you can do the next time you sign on.

2. Seek people out. Looking to find people with your same interests? Search under “Find People” on Twitter, or visit WeFollow.com for a comprehensive list of every interest you can think of, and add yourself under that interest. You don’t have to stay in this interest when you’re tweeting, but you’ll be more likely to tweet about things you’re interested in than not, right? The same goes for companies and brands looking for consumers. People are less likely to find you if you’re just starting out on Twitter – you’ll have less tweets and less followers. Go out and make it happen.

3. Don’t “blind tweet”. I just coined this term right now, but it seems to coincide with what I want to say. Don’t retweet (or repeat what other people are saying on Twitter) without genuinely being interested. My personal guideline for my Twitter is if I don’t find it worthy of bringing up around friends or family, then I don’t retweet it. Twitter followers want to see your personality and interests, not someone that is recycling everyone else’s tweets.

This is just a tiny beginner’s guide, but I’ll make sure to include more posts about Twitter in the future. So stay tuned!