To have a successful Twitter campaign, what matters most is the quality, rather than the quantity of your followers. To make the most of the micro-blogging service, you need relevant followers who have the potential to interact with your business or become future clients. You can get such an audience by adding targeted followers.

What are targeted followers?

To add targeted followers, you first have to define the profile of the audience you are interested in, then find users who fit that profile and drive them to your account. You can add target followers by their location, specific keywords or through competitive analysis. Location targeting allows you to add followers according to their ZIP code, their city, state, country or region. Keyword targeting allows you to add people who have used a certain word, hashtag or phrase. Targeting by competitive analysis enables you to find and add users who are following your competitors. The advantage of targeted followers over generic followers is that they are more likely to engage with your content.

The following are 5 methods you can use to get free targeted Twitter followers.

1. Craft Tweets for your target audience

Once you have defined your target audience, know the kind of content they are interested in. Craft and curate your tweets so that they are interesting to the kind of followers you want to attract. Send tweets on a regular basis and include relevant keywords in your tweets. Give offers, promotions and discounts on your Twitter account to attract potential customers.

2. Retweet, like and follow targeted users

Find relevant Twitter users and like, retweet and follow them. This will get them to notice you and if they like your profile and tweets, some of them will reciprocate and follow you back. You can find these targeted followers using Twitter’s advanced search, which allows you to search for people based on specific keywords and phrases they have used in their tweets, specific hashtags, people they are tweeting to and their locations. You can also do this by finding influencers in your target market or industry and targeting their followers.

3. Harness the power of the hashtag

Hashtags are a good place to find targeted Twitter followers. Hashtags index and group together all the tweets around a certain keyword. They provide a way of bringing together all the people interested in a certain topic or industry. Do research of the most popular hashtags related to your industry and include them in your tweets. You can do this using Twitter’s advanced search or using various other online hashtag tracking tools. This will put you in front of users who are interested in your industry, and some of them might end up following you. Most importantly, find relevant users who are also using these hashtags. Follow them and start engaging them. This way, many of them will end up following you as well.

4. Craft your bio to appeal to your targeted follower

Your bio is what lets people know what your Twitter account is about. Though it is only 160 characters long, it can be the difference between followers who ignore your every tweet and those who engage with your tweets, liking, retweeting and clicking on your links. You need to craft a bio that will appeal to your target followers. People follow you because they either want to learn something new from you or share their interests with you. Let people know outright what they will gain by following you. Use the same words they use so that they know right away you are worth following. Because the bio space is limited, write only what you think is relevant. You also want to be found by people doing searches about your industry, therefore, find relevant keywords in your niche and include them in your bio.

5. Promote your account through other channels

Another great way of gaining free targeted Twitter followers is by linking your Twitter account to your other accounts. Share your Twitter handle on your other social media pages like Facebook, Tumblr, Pinterest and FourSquare and ask your followers on these sites to follow you on Twitter. Include a link to your Twitter feed on your blog or website and ask your visitors to follow you. You can also use widgets to easily add a Twitter follow button on your blog or website. Include your Twitter handle in your email sign off and encourage people to follow you. Don’t forget to include the Twitter logo and your handle in your printed material, such as business cards, brochures or banners.

Interested in learning more about how to grow your Twitter following? Don’t miss our in-depth guide: How to get more Twitter followers.