Get More Followers on Twitter

Clearly there are a lot of people trying to “get more followers” on twitter. Most are new to twitter, and many are simply spammers. Period.

Why do I say that? Because people who recognize the true value of twitter realize that it’s about building relationships, not a popularity contest! Can you “get to know a few people, then add a few more, then a few more?” Yes! Can you get to know a zillion all at once? Of course not!

If you want more followers, be more “followable”! Be someone people want to follow! Be nice, engage, acknowledge, be helpful, share information, links, etc. Remember the old saying, the best way to “get friends is to be one!”

Ok, so for those who don’t care about all of that, let me give you a few more reasons NOT to go the “get more followers” route:

1) Twitter is now suspending accounts when it “sees” accounts following or unfollowing a lot of users en mass. (Kudos to twitter for this attempt at controlling spam and maintaining integrity!)

2) When you mass follow, you look like a spammer! If you are a spammer, that’s great! If you aren’t, not so good for you.

3) Many if not all of these “auto-following sites” will send tweets (from your account) saying “I’m getting more followers with..” or something of the sort. In fact, one young entrepreneur that I follow had over 30 consecutive tweets like this go out from her account. If you went to her twitter page, the first 3 pages were ALL these tweets!

Not only is that incredibly annoying!!! (If I hadn’t known her, I would have unfollowed her!) but what does it say about you?

that your authentic?

does it make your followers feel all warm and fuzzy and like you followed them because they were special or interesting?

that you’re a “getter” as opposed to a giver?

Just something to think about!

Oh, and one more reason! For those of us who actually check out our followers before following back, that “latest tweet” is more important than ever! Why?

Before I could go to my “followers page” and hover over the name and their profile would pop-up.

First, I would look to see if it was a photo or logo (if neither, I skip), then hover, read profile and then decide whether to follow back (based on whether they seem interesting, spammy or relevant to interests, etc).

Now that “hover/profile pop up” doesn’t happen, so I look at the photo and the last tweet and have to decide based on that alone.

If your last tweet was “I just got more followers at….” well, what do you think?

(And all of this of course, is just “my humble opinion”