Twitter is a really powerful tool for online social networking, promoting your online work and getting to know people in the web world around you. To maximize your use of Twitter, you want to gain followers on the site. The more people that you have following you there, the more likely it is that they will see what you’re doing and be interested in your work around the web. There are many different things that you can do to increase the number of people who follow you on Twitter. Here’s a look at the twenty things that you should do first to get more Twitter followers:

1. Use Twitter’s tools for finding and adding your existing contacts. If you follow them, they’ll likely follow you. Don’t stop there, however. Follow up with an email to each of those people letting them know why you really hope that they’ll follow you on Twitter. This follow-through increases the number of followers that you’ll get.

2. Make an announcement on your other social networking sites that you’d like to be followed on Twitter. Let your Facebook and MySpace friends know where they can find you to follow you on Twitter. Don’t just make this announcement once either; update your Facebook status with this info every two or three weeks to keep getting people’s attention back to your Twitter. You can also post to Facebook from Twitter and it will show up on Facebook that you did that so people will know that you’re using Twitter.

3. Add your Twitter information to your email signature. Every time that you email anyone, they’ll see that they can follow you on Twitter.

4. Blog about your use of Twitter. Mention regularly in your blog or on your website that you are a Twitter user and be sure to link to your Twitter contact information.

5. Add the Twitter widget to your website. In addition to mentioning your Twitter use yourself, you can actually show others what you’re Twittering by adding the Twitter widget to your site or blog. This encourages readers to check out your activities on Twitter and therefore to follow you.

6. List yourself in Twitter directories. Directories like JustTweetIt and WeFollow are great places to provide others with information about who you are and how to follow you on Twitter.

7. Improve your page. You can customize Twitter with a better background, avatar and bio info. The better your page looks, the more likely it is that people who see that page will want to follow you.

8. Be active on the site. The best way to get followers is to follow other people and then respond regularly to the things that they post. The more active that you are on Twitter, the more people are going to want to follow you.

9. Be interesting on the site. Don’t just be active without saying anything. Post things that are actually interesting so that people will be interested by you.

10. Offer to guest post on the sites of big Twitter users. Find Twitter users who have a lot of followers. Check out their blogs. Offer to guest post on the blog in exchange for promotion of the post on Twitter. This increases attention to you on Twitter and creates more followers.

11. Write articles around the web and promote them on Twitter. There are many sites that you can write articles on (HubPages being one of them) so write a few about Twitter and link to your profile. (Here’s my Twitter information!)

12. Participate in forums and blog comments about Twitter. The more that you’re talking about Twitter, the more that you’re going to get attention from other people online who are using Twitter and who may want to follow you on the site.

13. Request support from your Twitter followers. Once you’ve established a bit of a following, Tweet that you’re looking for more followers and would love people to let their Twitter followers know where to find you. Some just might help you out.

14. Create some sort of contest related to Twitter. Make up your own creative contest on your website or Facebook page that ultimately leads to benefits to someone else for supporting you on Twitter. For example, you might giveaway something to the friend who refers the most people to follow you on Twitter.

15. Make a Twitter Landing Page. This is a tip from Problogger that basically says to replace your website home page with a Twitter landing page which informs people about your use of Twitter so that they can follow you. Then they can check out your website.

16. Add your Twitter URL to your business cards. Make sure all printed promotional materials that you have include a link to your Twitter profile.

17. Follow people often. Follow new people every single day. They may follow you back. Follow everyone who follows you. Their followers may follow you back.

18. Join Twitter Groups. There are online groups that are all about Twitter and if you join them then you’ll meet people who use the site and who want to friend other users on the site.

19. Go to TweetUps. These are in-person meetups of Twitter users that are springing up all over the country. Meet people in person, put a face to the name and then you can follow each other on Twitter with some real impact.

20. Get creative. The main thing is to do all that you can to keep thinking of new ways to drive traffic to your Twitter account so that you gain followers. The more creative you get, the more likely it is that you’ll see success on the site.