When I’m scrolling through my Twitter homepage, it always makes me really sad when I see people and companies I like touting services that “got them 100s of followers in an hour!”.
Let’s say you run a company’s Twitter account and you’re looking to gain more followers. You sign up for one of these instant follower services because you see someone else on Twitter that’s posted about it. And yes, within an hour, you’ve got tons of new followers and you’re autofollowing them all back. Now, all you have to do is sit back and tweet, confident that your message is reaching the right people.
Only, it’s not. Sure, you may have thousands of followers, but when you rely on a sketchy follower service, you’re not necessarily reaching the people that care about your message. If your followers don’t care about your message, they’re not going to be engaged. Because Twitter is all about conversation, engagement is everything.
Ultimately, there’s no substitute for seeking out likeminded people and replying to them, retweeting them, and following them. It’s going to take a lot longer to get a huge follower number, but if you’re playing well with others, people will notice.
If you use a scammy get-followers-quick scheme, people will notice that, too. If I’m one of those people, chances are, I’m not sticking around.
Tags: follower services, Giving a Crap, Twitter
#1 written by kristin July 20th, 2009 at 20:44
Is that how @bigelowtea found me? I made a post about getting burnt/betrayed by my morning tea, and within an hour, I was being followed by a tea company! I always wondered how that happened… it was kind of creepy.
#2 written by Kerry July 20th, 2009 at 20:53
They probably had a search open for “tea”. On my work account, I keep a search open for “Memphis” and follow people that mention living here or local news stories. It’s not that weird – I actually think that’s a good way to find like-minded people.
#3 written by joespake July 20th, 2009 at 21:56
Strange, most of the follows that I get are following thousands, have thousands of followers and have less than 10 updates. Is this some kind of f___ing game?
#4 written by Kerry July 20th, 2009 at 22:00
That’s really weird, Joe. Maybe it’s wrong to be, but I tend to be really suspicious of people that have tons of followers but don’t follow very many people back or don’t update often. Why would I follow you if you’re not going to be posting?
What sorts of people are these? Are they companies or individuals?
#5 written by Adam Robinson July 21st, 2009 at 13:27
Digging the blog.
I have friends in bands and I notice they use these features quite often. However I think I’d want real fans rather than “fake” followers.
For my personal use, though, it’s even less rewarding. I want people to follow me because they are interested in what I have to say.