Twitter was never bothered about following counts until tons of people started the “mass follow spam” in order to gain followers in return. Finally, they announced that people can only follow a maximum of 1000 twitter users a day. I think they have taken the right choice and the way they are expanding, you can expect a new policy on the direct messages soon.

First, believe me when I say this, the old days of following tons of tweples a day to get tons of followers are way gone. Well, this strategy still works because if you are new on twitter and are looking for followers, you can find several twitter mass following tools and gain lots of followers in return. Over time you can get thousands of followers indeed.  You wouldn’t be the only one doing this because I have tried that in the past and I still see lots of social and web enthusiasts, bloggers, marketers practicing this method.

Why are people constantly trying to increase their followers?

Without doubt, everyone is looking for benefit which is something in return. Some want to make money by posting and tweeting products and services. A lot of people want to improve their reputation by gaining massive followers in a certain niche. Now, who doesn’t want to be popular anyways! Most importantly, twitter is used for traffic. If you have thousands of followers, you are most likely to get tons of traffic. To keep it simple, if you have thousands of followers, more people checks out your tweets, easy traffic to your site.

Do you need massive number of followers to prove yourself successful on twitter?

I would say yes if it was the 90s but right now, no way! Who cares, I still see many people practicing this method. You really need to stop this if you want twitter to work out for you.

Why You dont need to Mass Follow

4 Reasons Why You do not need to use this Marketing Strategy

Valueless Followers: Mainly bots, Spammers and Self-Promoters

Twitter is manly used for marketing purposes and many twitter related products have been released by marketers who are looking for making a profit from the growing interest in twitter. These products or e-books are no different than the mass following strategy. They all tend to say the same thing which is using twitter tools to gain massive followers. Imagine, if people follow you, that is simply sweet. But if you make them follow you by following them, they are just returning the favor. That is not cool!

When you use tools to follow massive people and expecting them to follow back, you are not getting targeted traffic or followers. Basically you are building your followers list of spammers, bots, people who really are not interested, people who treat twitter as a game, people who really don’t give a damn about your stuff.

Its not about the follower count but conversions. I have mentioned this before in my earlier posts, that getting 100 targeted followers is much better and effective than having 1000 random followers who are not interested in your stuff.

It is very easy to get valueless/untargeted twitter followers and they will make your account look good since you might have 50k followers. Keep playing the game of mass following people; this will never work out. You will end up getting 50k followers who are not even bothered to check your tweets or even retweet them. So forget it

Twitter is not about Getting Followers

Twitter marketing is getting popular and millions of users are joining twitter everyday. People are getting obsessed with twitter and gaining followers. Unless you are a big shot, a celeb or someone famous, you can never expect to get tons of organic followers. I am not against twitter tools or mass following but I am just trying to share my opinion here. I just don’t think it is appropriate. If you are looking for natural followers who will follow you because of your work and your brand then you should get out there and hustle. Start a brand, improve your products/services, get a blog and spread good vibes

Who Follows You on Twitter?

If you have been practicing the method of mass following twitter users in order to gain followers then think about it, do they really care about what you have to say? Do they even check your tweets. Are these people interested in your business or products? When someone follows you, he must be interested in you. People following you automatically do not count as interested followers. Organic followers tend to be more active on twitter than people who follow you automatically. Active users , share your stuffs, retweet your posts and care about you. Who follows you is a great deal if you want to be successful in twitter because powerful Twitter marketing involves networking and relationship development and not just exploding links and spamming.

Are Your Audience Engaged and Active on Twitter

Responsiveness is the degree to which your Twitter audience is engaged with whatever messages you put out on Twitter. A responsive audience connects with you, retweeting your links and answering your questions. They interact with your Twitter stream.

Responsiveness and being active is very important. An active and responsive twitter user will connect with you, retweet your posts and engage in conversation. They try to connect to you and build a relationship. Now lets say you have finally managed to get 20-40k twitter followers. How do you know they are responsive? How about asking a question on twitter or posting something interesting and see how many of your followers react to it or respond. This way you can at least tell how many of your 20-40k followers give a damn about you.

It is difficult for a new twitter user to get lots of followers unless you are famous but if you can hustle, develop your brand, work, products and reputation, you can definitely generate organic followers. Give it some time and prove yourself and believe me, it will work like a charm.

You don’t want a large follower count but responsive and active followers. You can start by staying active yourself on twitter and interacting with others. People who are genuinely interested in you, will click on your links, retweet your posts and even respond to your queries. This group of followers can help you grow your business.

Feel free to add your thoughts and spread the word. Connect with me on Twitter