TWITTER everybody knows about it and 145 million people use it to date. Are you one of the many who take part in this recent social media phenomenon? If so, how are you increasing your followers to leverage your business? You don’t have to be Le Bron James in order to find followers, as there are plenty of tips and tricks you can implement to gain a large audience. Below is a list of ideas you can use to help grow your Twitter presence.

1. Retweets: Encourage your followers to retweet your links. Retweeting pushes your @username into foreign spheres of influence, resulting in clicks back to your profile.

2. Leverage other profiles: Place links to your Twitter profile in as many places as you can. Link it on Digg, LinkedIn, Facebook, your blog, you’re Web site, your email signature, and anywhere else you have an online presence. It is also a good idea to include your Twitter profile on your business cards.

3. Hash tag it: What’s a hash tag? That's when you see something in a tweet that has a # prefix. Twitter uses these to help add additional context to your tweets and relate them to other tweets on the same subject. Quality content coupled with an easy way to find it never fails. If others enjoy your content, they’ll start following you.

Hint: Check the trends on your Twitter profile, and leverage them to your advantage (if appropriate of course).

4. Provide value: To grow your Twitter influence you need to provide your followers with valuable information. Unless you’re offering something useful to people (information, entertainment, news, education, etc.) they won’t be loyal to you for long. If you really want people to follow and continue following you, make it impossible for them to leave by providing them with high quality and interesting updates, whether that means linking out to an informative article or giving a thoughtful opinion.

Hint: Think before you tweet and ask yourself- “Would I retweet that?”

5. Pictures never fail: Pictures are heavily retweeted. Remember the photo of the US Airways plane in the Hudson River? A picture says a thousand words and is an effective way to quickly spread a message.

6. Start a contest: Offer some kind of incentive or prize to your followers if they can bring in a certain number of new followers.

7. Follow the top Twitter users: Begin to target well-respected and widely known figures within your industry through your tweets. Grabbing the attention of these figures can dramatically affect how many people become aware of your profile. If they like what you say - which of course they will - and see you talking to people they follow, they will follow you, too.

Hint: The more people you follow, the more likely they will follow you back.

8. Track your results: There are many different options when it comes to tracking your results. Try a couple of different software programs such as, Seesmic or Tweetdeck, as these are great tools to easily monitor your followers and activity.

9. Tweet at peak times: Studies have shown that Twitter rush hours are between
10:00 am and 4:00 pm with a peak rush hour being from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm. Tweeting during these hours increases your chances of gaining more visibility. On the flip side, it also means that the flood of information increases during these times.

10. Tweet often, but create space for reactions: The more active you are on Twitter, the more likely you are to have someone find you and add you to their list of “following.” Every tweet you post will appear on the “Twitter public timeline” – so increasing the number of tweets you post will help you appear on the public timeline more often.

Hint: Tweet regularly about nothing worthwhile and you will lose followers. If content is compelling, leave them time to respond. Make it a dialogue, not a monologue.

Plus One: Be conversational: Every time you reply to someone and have them reply back, your Twitter ID appears in the feeds of others which will expose you to more Twitter users. Asking questions is perhaps the best way to get a conversation started. Additionally, it is advisable to participate in other people’s Tweets. It is important to show good faith and sociability to others.

Hint: Oh, and one last thing: Don’t talk about yourself, it’ll backfire. Selfless narcissism is the great irony of social networks.