1. Follow 50 new people a week in your expertise and start building relationships with them. If you want people to be aware of you, you need to get in front of them. (Click to Tweet!) Reach out. Connect with them and follow them. Bonus points for following people in your field who are not just the key social media influencers with 100K fans, but the up-and-comers, who are making a mark and will remember you when they are on top.

2. Ask questions and thank people for promoting you. Believe it or not kindness goes along way especially in the social media realm. Always thank people for connecting with you and sharing your content, RTing or favoriting you. It’s a huge compliment and if you don’t take the time to do that, you risk potentially losing that relationship and fan.

3. Return the favor and promote other people. Be known as a content curator or as someone who shares excellent content all the time by the best and most credible bloggers and influencers. If you have a reputation for sharing the best, you will be associated with the best and you will soon be skyrocketing on Twitter.

4. Research those hashtags. If you think just putting a # in front of a word will really make a difference, it won’t—unless you look up the key hashtags for your industry, topic or post. For example, if you’re in the travel industry and not using#TravelTuesday, #SeetheWorld or #TheWorldAwaits, you are missing out on a huge audience. Use hashtagify.me to find relevant hashtags and the top influencers using them.

So take your Twitter game to the next level by following these four steps and don’t forget to be genuine, authentic and build trust with your fans.