There's no one guaranteed way to get lots of Twitter followers, but here's some recommendations that will certainly improve and increase your number of followers:
1. Make sure your Twitter profile is visible in all your other public profiles. Facebook, G+, LinkedIn, any blogs you have... This will bring in connections you have made on other social networks.
2. Use a real picture, and one that stands out and raises people's interest. If your profile photo is generic or looks fake, then you'll turn a lot of people off.
3. Work on your bio. Summing yourself up in a few lines is tough. Instead, try to focus on sharing the kind of information that is likely to appeal to the "kind" of people you want as followers.
4. If you say in your bio that you're interested in digital marketing (or some other profession), then stick to that in most of your tweets.
Straying off topic will show you're not a robot, but do it too often and people that followed you because they wanted to learn more about your profession will soon drop off.
5. Be geo-specific. Even if you don't plan to meet up with any of your followers in real life, sharing something in common like living in the same city will indicate that your tweets could potentially provide them with useful local insights - yet another reason to follow you!
6. Share and tweet useful stuff. People will only follow you if you can provide something useful to them.
When someone lands on your profile, they'll see a view of maybe 3 of your tweets... Those tweets need to have an immediate value, so posting engaging info 100% of the time is the best way to hook in followers.
7. Use hashtag trends - they're a bit like throwing yourself into a global conversation.
People interested in that trend will be more likely to accidentally stumble upon your profile this way.
For example, I used the hashtag #SXSW, the name of a conference I was interested in attending. As soon as I posted a tweet with that hashtag, companies and individuals that planned to attend the same event began interacting with me.
8. Use your own "themed" hashtag. If you're a web designer, occasionally drop in the hashtag #webdesign in your tweets. This will distinguish you as a regular member of the web design community.
9. Follow people. The trick to following people is to only follow people of value to you.
Every time someone checks out your profile, they'll be tempted to have a look at who you're following - to see what you're all about.
Following people that provide useful and relevant content is great because it gives you a source of retweets. Use the search and hashtag discover to find people.
10. Be nice and positive. Flattery wil get you very far on twitter. People also respond well if you message them using the @ symbol, asking them questions that show how useful or intelligent they are.
Posting positive messages is also a great idea, no-one wants to follow someone that's always complaining about stuff (unless it's in a humorous way), so keep your tweets upbeat!
