10,000. Imagine yourself with 10,000 Twitter followers.

Tons of people waiting to hear what you have to tweet. Tons of people waiting to share your content. Tons of writers to talk to about books.

If you haven’t gotten there yet, it seems far away, doesn’t it? Impossible, maybe.

You spend 30 minutes on one tweet, edit those ratchet characters within an inch of their lives, and agonize over the perfect (and hilarious) gif, then post it.

Pop. +1.

One heart. One stinkin’ digital heart for 30 minutes of your life.

What happened?

What’s going on?

How come nobody’s showing your brilliance any love?

You’re trying hard. And probably getting madder as you look at those posts with 185k retweets. Little sparks of envy like fetus fireworks popping in your body.

“wink wink… jelly doughnut for dinner” Seriously? What the real hell?

It gets you down. Makes you feel like a loser. All those numbers. All those people.

Why don’t they want to follow you? Like and retweet your stuff? It’s good, so why is your throat raw from shouting into the void?

Well, it could be many reasons, and I don’t have 10,000 followers yet, but I wanted to share some of my tricks that help me get more writing friends.

I know that one day we both can

Join the 10,000 followers club…

by lasering in on engagement.

Plain and simple.

Except it isn’t. If everybody knew how to do it, we wouldn’t be crying at night watching our posts get buried with only our eulogy to send them to Mars.

So, to focus on engaging with your fellow writers and readers, ask them:

What do you prefer: paperbacks or hardcovers?

Writers are nerds at their cores, and this question has gone viral in the past.

But, how does this trick help your Twitter engagement?

By asking people for their opinions.

People love telling you what they think — about everything.

From reviews to surveys to comment sections, letting people weigh in on things helps you satisfy a need they have. We all have.

To be heard. To be appreciated. To be helpful. To be part of something bigger.

You can ask their opinion about a book cover you’re working on, a famous author’s writing process, or who’d win in a fight between a pigeon and a pigeon with a jelly doughnut.

And after you’ve soaked up their opinions — and responded to them — repeat this process with some fantastic writerly questions, and watch as your numbers increase.

Over months or more. Stay patient. Keep posting.

Become a writing leprechaun

Or another fixture in the writing community.

Another author uses this technique, not me, but building a writer-specific brand — complete with a signature tweeting style (like ALL CAPS in the beginning or a unique emoji) — is an awesome way to boost your recognition.

After you brand yourself, focus on putting out similar content. It could be inspirational, helpful, quirky, something else, or a little bit of all of them.

As long as you stick with this strategy for a while.

For example, if you become Twitter’s writing leprechaun, ask people to give you a gold coin while asking a question. Or request they put a rainbow in their tweets when leaving a comment.

Lift up other writers

consistently.

The biggest marketing tip that boosts my writing friends is to focus on others. Writers — people — are interested in what you can do for them.

How you can help them.

So, in my author marketing strategy, I schedule #writerslifts once a week. Not only do I get to sample (and buy!) a lot of books, I get to retweet my fellow authors’ books to my followers.

This is a subtle form of marketing, which I like.

It meshes with my style and highlights another important part of building your author career:

Always remember that marketing isn’t about you; it’s about other people.

Nobody wants to hear about your book all the time. You’re the only person who cares that much.

Okay, a formula for marketing

Them + them + them + them + them+ you + them+ them + them+ them + them + a gif of a yawning kitten + them.

Leave comments everywhere

Amassing followers like firewood in a forest is nice, but to really boost your author career, focus on making friends. Growing supporters.

A supporter is worth 10,000 followers who don’t know — or care — anything about you.

Comment, like, retweet, and quote-tweet a group of people so you’ll become recognizable to them. And they’ll recognize you.

Have long conversations about anything and everything.

Swaddle those envy fetuses until they’re silent, and cheer your fellows’ successes. Share their work.

These people will be your supporters, and even more importantly, they’ll be your writer friends.

Not much better than that.

In closing

10,000 is a big number in the jungles of Twitter, but you can reach it with a consistent strategy.

A few ways that may help are:

• Ask the #writingcommunity’s opinion
• Brand yourself
• Help other writers reach more readers
• Make friends, not just followers

Remember these four things, and you’ll be well on your way to the 10,000 followers club — and beyond!

See you there :).