Are you a Twitter mayor? 3 tips to boost Twitter influence

Then become one yourself, advises Marc Smith, director of the Social Media Research Foundation.

He calls them “mayors.” Engaging them on their terms can increase your Twitter reach and transform you into a Twitter mayor yourself.

Here’s how it’s done:

1. Find the mayor of your hashtag. You can use Twitter search or social media monitoring tools to track Twitter users who dominate relevant hashtags.

You might also use the free NodeXL application, which creates social network maps of conversations and groups on Twitter and other social media channels. The tool uses ” betweenness centrality” to find key people at the heart of any conversation. These are considered the “mayors” of a particular topic or hashtag on Twitter.