How Anton Perlkvist Got 9 Million Twitter Followers

Photo Credit: Anton Perlkvist

Anton Perlkvist is the largest Twitter publisher in Europe, with more than 9 million followers

Based in Malmö, Sweden, this “Twitterpreneur” has made his mark via Twitter accounts that serve up a variety of content—from science facts to art and design to photos of glamorous dream homes—with an emphasis on shareability and fun.

Despite his relative youth (he was born in 1992), Anton has built an impressive resume with Twitter accounts like @Fun and @GoogleFacts. As the CEO and founder of social media management firm Somedia, he’s created campaigns and provided managed tweeting (and retweeting) for such major corporations as Microsoft, Disney, Samsung, and Red Bull.

We asked Anton to share some insight about building an online brand and making the most of your relationship with your followers on Twitter.

WhoisHostingThis.com: How have you garnered so many Twitter followers?

Anton Perlkvist: How did Barack Obama become the president and get so many people interested in his politics? How did Coca-Cola get their first million customers? And how did I get more than 10,000,000 total followers?

I am confident that part of the truth is giving the people what they want. For example, by creating Twitter accounts worth following. However, understanding what goes viral — and how — has also been key to my Twitter success.

WIHT: How do you monetize your Twitter accounts?

AP: There will always be money where people spend time. I can reach millions of people in seconds, no matter where they are, as long as they have smartphones in their pockets. Monetizing Twitter accounts can be done in multiple ways: sponsored links, paid retweets, helping advertising messages, and branding projects to reach out are just a few.

WIHT: How much time do you dedicate to managing your Twitter accounts each day?

AP: Handling Twitter accounts as a professional takes time. Twitter never sleeps. I’m dependent on help from various resources to make this as effective as possible. Help from Twitter tools to help me tweet and retweet when I’m asleep, content writers who provide me with content when I don’t have time to write, and partners who help me be online when I cannot be online. But I’m still averaging 40-50 hours per week.

WIHT: What inspired you to create these accounts?

AP: I have a lot of inspirations in different ways of managing Twitter accounts. One of my biggest inspiration to start with Twitter was @_Snape_.

WIHT: What software do you use to manage them? A tool like Hootsuite? Something custom?

AP: I have used hundreds of different Twitter tools. Hootsuite is a good one. The ones I use mostly these days are Twitter for iPhone, Tweetdeck, and Bufferapp.

WIHT:. What one thing do you wish you’d known when you started out?

AP: That I understood how important the most basic thing is: your tweets are a huge part of all your followers’ Twitter experience. Every follower’s experience matters, and you can make it interesting.

WIHT: What’s the biggest mistake Twitter publishers make?

AP: Forgetting that every follower is a real human being. It’s easy to be blind and not care about every single follower when you already have thousands. Big numbers seems to have that effect on people.

WIHT: What’s next for you? Will you continue to build the accounts you have, build new ones, or move on to something else?

AP: I am working every day to make the Twitter experience more enjoyable for every Twitter user. Even if not everyone on Twitter is following me yet, I hope that most of them will have seen and enjoyed at least one of my accounts.

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