I was in the middle of a #LATISM party having so much fun last night.  All of the sudden I refresh my account and Boom, I noticed a loss of over 200 followers.  I kept refreshing for a few minutes, hoping for a mistake, or just my eyes flipping with all the Latino noise we were making.  Others at the party started noticing the drop in their accounts too.  At that point we were taking things personal with phrases like “if they don’t like Latinos, so what” LOL!

After the party, I decided to look up at some of our clients accounts since we closely monitor their progress and track their numbers on a daily basis.  They had nothing to do with the party, however they had also been affected by the same disease. 

Through Mashable, I came to learn that it was not a virus or a personal attack.  It was a Spammers Cleanout executed by Twitter.  Now what? Twitter live goes on and this is a great opportunity to learn a few tips about how to bring your followers back while keeping the conversation personal and a sense of community.  Here are my findings from my personal experience:

Treat others the way you want to be treated

1) Follow those who take the time to @reply to your tweets.  They will follow you back.

2) If someone follows you, give them a chance and follow them back.  You will never know who they are just by reading a short bio.  If they spam, unfollow them.  But at least you give them a chance.

3) Be humble & be proactive.  Do not always expect others to follow you first.  Use the Twitter “Find People” functionality, look for your target audience and follow those who have a post that is recent and interesting.

4) Actively participate in Twitter groups.  It gives a sense of community and belonging.  Usually the group uses a hash tag and updates are easily found in http://Tweetchat.com or http://twittgroups.com

5) Be consistent.  If you just update once in a while, people will not recognize you. Relationships are not built in a magic moment unless you work on them day after day.

6) Use a method.  It does not have to be an algorithm or fancy formula.  My method is as simple as 3 steps: Step 1) follow all those who followed me, @replied, @asked and/or @sent me public messages. Step 2) Then search for keywords in my target category and follow 30 to 50 new Tweeps.  Step 3) Unfollow those who didn’t follow me back in the last 3 days (unless they are extremely interesting).

7) Tweet valuable content and links.  If you are there just to talk about your personal issues, some people will not find any value and will unfollow you.

At the same time, keep it personal.  You are a person and not just a brand or a company.  The more of “YOU” people find in your tweets, the more likely that they will trust and follow you.  

9) This might be obvious but, Stay professional.  Try your best not to curse in every other tweet, or attack a fellow tweep in public.  Just like in every civil environment, you want to keep the harmony.

10) HAVE FUN!! Don’t get too serious and enjoy Twitter as much as you can.  I use the tool for my Tweelaxation moments.  So relax and your followers will steadily increase. 

I also found a few Twitter Guides on how to increase your followers:

1)  Kevin Rose – 10 Ways to increase your Twitter followers

2) How to get more Twitter followers

3) Top 20 strategies for more Twitter followers

5) 10 Extraordinary ideas to increase your Twitter followers

6) How to increase Twitter followers