There is a large number of tools, softwares and programs who claim that they help you increase the number of your social media followers as soon as you use them. Unfortunately many of them don't work. The number of followers may increase, but if none of them reacts to your tweet posts there is no point. You want a real, responsive network. In this post, I will explain how to gain more Twitter followers within a reasonably short period of time.

Post Unique Content
Millions of topics are discussed on Twitter every day. Although it may seem tempting to tweet and retweet multiple topics, the key is to focus only on your niche. Be aware each time that you are posting your content for your followers. This will ensure that the tweets you post are retweeted and as a result gain more followers. There are many users who tend to address all topics, which is not advisable.
Take an example of someone posting about politics and all of a sudden switches to lifestyle posts. It means that the followers who were following him as a result of political posts will not retweet such posts. In worst case scenario the individual keeps losing followers instead of attracting them.
Use Pictures/Gifs

Internet memes are the order of the day. Memes make your post more engaging and more interesting for your followers. There are those that might find the post not as interesting but when accompanied by a funny picture/meme there is a high possibility that they will follow you.
Postcron.com says that tweets with images are 34% more likely to get retweeted than tweets with no images.
Ensure the pictures you use are those that are unique and those that have not been seen elsewhere. Repetitive pictures in most cases become boring and therefore might not create the attention that you might be seeking.
Upload Videos
There are tons of trending videos that make headlines. If these videos are within your niche, this is your chance to grab them and post. Look on the left hand side of your twitter account and you can spot the trending topics. Copy and paste these topics on Google search or your favorite search engine and select YouTube videos or images. The search engine will give you a good number of them and you can select the funniest one or the most engaging.
Use The Right Hashtags

People search for topics in which they're interested by hashtags. Using the right hashtags in your post will help you get the right people to like and retweet. Tweets with hashtags will definitely increase your engagement rates. You are free to use as many hashtags in your tweet as you want, but it's not advisable to overuse them.
Use only relevant hashtags. There are two bad examples; one is to use popular hashtags such as #Trump or #ico in your irrelevant tweet purely to attract new users randomly. Obviously your existing users will be annoyed and potentially unfollow you.
The other one is to use #follow4follow, #followme to attract people who use Twitter for the sake of following game. Sadly there are millions of them, these users are barely interested in anyone's tweets, hence there is no engagement value or whatsoever. Needless to say, there is no point in connecting with such type of users.
Comment and Retweet

To engage with other users in social media is to show interest in what they do. So it is important to make sure to check your followers' tweets on a daily basis, comment, like and share whenever you can. It is a good way in which they will find you every now and again. Below your comment attach an image. It makes you stand out and attract more attention.
Direct Message
There is no doubt that you might have one follower that has more than 20k followers. Tools such as ManageFlitter can help you to find out by sorting your followers accordingly. Before posting your tweet, alert the selected users that your tweet will be going live in a few minutes. As soon as they reply, post your tweet and ask them to retweet.
As much as this method might seem hectic, it has worked for many people. By using this method, it is possible for you to gain a lot of followers in a dramatical speed.
Automatic Follow Software
There are many websites that will advise you on using some software. Most of them are practically useless because these followers will remain inactive and might not comment on or like your posts. You might end up having like 500k followers but your tweets do not get even 100 likes or retweet.
Conclusion
There is no magical method to gain more authentic and lively Twitter followers without an effort. Some tools can help you up to a certain level, but you cannot expect a good quality engagement. Use the correct method as suggested above, and remain consistent. The number of real, responsive followers will increase in time.

AshemaKevin is a Freelance writer. He covers all topics revolving around business. You can follow him on X @ashemakevin
Author // Kevin Ashema