Twitter followers -- for some, it's a status symbol, the holy grail of being on Twitter, for others by-product of successful community building. However, no matter what your motivation is, the more followers you have means the more people you can either influence or learn from and this is priceless (there goes a royalty fee to Mastercard). 

Please continue to read below and learn how to double or triple your Twitter following in eight easy steps: 

1. Become a celebrity, high-paid executive, best-selling author, or part of a highly-publicized scandal. What??? You're not there yet? That's okay… skip to step number 2.

2. Identify your audience: As I mentioned in my previous blog post, you need to identify what you're interested in learning or accomplishing by using Twitter. Once you do that, it will be crystal clear who the target audience is. This is not only helpful but also the foundation of the other steps in this post.

3. Follow influencers: There are people that are most likely influential in the areas you're really interested in learning about or connecting with. Follow those people and others that are relevant. A good percentage will follow you back, assuming you have an interesting bio, and are posting helpful and fun content.

4. Show your unique personality: You don't have to be a comic or some hyper social person but you do have to show your personality. If you were at a party and meeting someone, what are the 3-5 things you'd want to share with that person to help them understand who you are? That's what you should include in your bio and find a picture that captures that vibe as well.

5. Trending topics: You'll see trending topics on the left hand side of your Twitter home page once you log in. Those are trends around the world and it gives you an opportunity to branch out and connect with an audience way outside of your network. Make sure to include the hashtag or the handle of the influencer talking most about this.

6. Schedule tweets: Every wonder how someone Tweets so much during the day? They're most likely using a scheduling tool to help streamline their day. Spend 30 minutes in the morning or night and pull together a handful of tweets you want to send out or RT. Then use Buffer, Hootsuite, or even Tweetdeck to sprinkle your tweets throughout the next day.

7. Join TweetChats: TweetChats are usually reoccurring events where people who are interested in a certain topic will gather via Twitter and discuss key points. There is usually a moderator and a guest to help spur the conversation. Take part in the relevant ones for you and make sure to use the hashtag associated with that tweet chat. You'll meet new people, get great ideas, and most likely have folks follow you back.

8. Be thankful: I recommend thanking people for following or retweeting your content. Shocking, I know! They've got busy lives just as you and the fact that they took the time to communicate with you, deserves a thank you.

If you follow these steps, you'll see your Twitter following increase very steadily over time. You might not grow to 5 or 10 thousand followers in 1 month, but you will be growing a very solid network that shares similar views, and is interested in what you have to say. As Gary Vaynerchuk says in his book, The Thank You Economy, “It’s not the number of followers you have or “likes” you get, it’s the strength of the bond with your followers.”

Remember have fun and tell your followers that Nathan told you to.

I’d love to hear your feedback so share it in the comments section or just hit me up on Twitter -- @natespeak.