This guest article was written by Gail Gardner

Connect with Gail on Twitter: @Growmap

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Social media influencers are busy and, apart from notable exceptions like Gary Vaynerchuk, many don’t do everything on Twitter manually. We use tools to automate some of what we do while not neglecting personal interactions. Tools make it possible for us to spend more time interacting.

The Importance of a Consistent Twitter Presence

Keeping your account active is the first thing to understand when you engage Twitter influencers. We use tools to unfollow dormant accounts. If you don’t tweet at least once a month you will start losing the most influential followers. Even if you are certain you always tweet more than that, emergencies happen. Better to be safe – especially when it is so easy.

All you need is the free tool Twitterfeed. By adding a few blogs that are relevant to your audience, their latest content will automatically be shared in your Twitter stream. Just be sure you choose wisely as you never want to use a site that publishes anything that would offend your followers. My tutorial How to Use Twitterfeed will guide you step-by-step.

Don’t worry about feeding too many sites as long as they are highly relevant. I personally feed 114 other sites into my Twitter stream. Remember that some only publish once a week or once a month. I don’t feed any site that publishes more than once a day. For large sites I feed individual writers rather than the entire site.

If there are influencers you would like to meet, this is one way to connect with them. One way to try finding relevant blogs is to use BuzzBundle. Don’t forget to add the best hashtags when you configure your Twitterfeeds. Find them using Hashtagify.me.

How to Get Other Influencers to Share Your Content

In the early days of Twitter, influencers would feed each others’ content using Twitterfeed. We still do that today. But we also have great tools that make it easy to ask for our content to be shared. You don’t need to know any influencers at all for this to work for you. Join these three sites:

• Viral Content Buzz

Viral Content Buzz (VCB) allows your content to be stumbled, pinned, tweeted and liked on Facebook. Earn credits by sharing other people’s content to use to promote your own. This video explains how to use it:

• Just Retweet

Similar to VCB, Just Retweet provides a way for your content to be retweeted, liked, and +1ed on Google Plus. Share other content to earn credits to spend promoting your content.

• Guest Crew

If you have a cause or event you want to promote or if you can tie your content into something like a national day, branded week, or awareness month, look into the new Social Campaign function on Guest Crew. This is similar to Thunderclap.

☀ ☀ Additional Suggestions ☀ ☀

In addition to the sites and methods mentioned above, the best place to find influencers is in established Twitter chats. There are several sites that contain lists of Twitter chats, but the easiest way to find them is to start with one and ask. To join a Twitter chat, simply search for their hashtag on Twitter.

Tuesday nights at 8 CST Deborah Anderson hosts #SocialCafe. This particular Twitter chat happens on Twitter and then the chat continues, but on a Google Hangout. The Twitter portion runs from 8-8:30 CST. The Google Hangout begins when the chat ends. You can find out more about Deborah and her #SocialCafe Twitter Chat / Google Hangout in Interview with the Hangout Queen.