Subscribe Feed (RSS)Most people on Twitter want more followers. Followers are the people we communicate to or with and no one wants to talk to a blank wall.
There are good ways and scams, or unsuccessful ways to gain followers, even quickly. Unfortunately good people, especially those new to Twitter fall for the scams.
Like an adolescent experiencing a sudden acne breakout, Twitter goes through eruptions of Tweets that promise more Twitter followers.
Some of these “Free Followers” sites seem to advise their customers to follow people like me — who follow back –and then once we do follow back to unfollow us immediately. What these sites fail to tell their customers is that this behavior will only result in their being unfollowed, resulting in a loss of time and effort. Plus, some of us in the follow back group are now only following back people who do not have some version of the free followers message in their Twitter stream, as these people do not want a Twitter relationship or experience, just a notch in their belt. Who wants to be part of the body count?
These followers can come at a cost or be free, except that one must tweet the ads of the site that promises these followers.
What’s the Catch?
There are several catches to these schemes. How many catches varies by site and the reason(s) why a person who subscribes to the site wants followers in the first place.
Let’s assume that you want more people to follow you as this will give you a larger group of people to share your ideas and products to. Assuming that you have ideas worth sharing that people do and will benefit from this is a good goal. The people with the most followers on Twitter, including celebrities make it interesting and even fun for people to follow them.
This goal means that you want real, live and active followers. It is impossible to rally share with a robot, spammer or fake twitter account, because no one is reading Tweets.
Many of the schemes that promise Twitter followers involve fake or faux followers. These are accounts that are set up by one person or a group that exist for the purpose of following and spamming people with sales messages for products that they promote via tweets that are paid advertisements or affiliate sales messages. A site can promise you 100+ of these followers since all of these Twitter ID’s actually are set up, owned and run by the creator of the site. This may enhance one’s follower count, but will quickly downgrade your Twitter experience as these fake accounts spam you.
Another Scam that Can End Up With Great Results for All
Other sites and schemes offer lists of people who follow back. These reciprocal followers are also called Mutuals. The idea is that since Mutuals reciprocate and follow back, by following them one quickly gains followers.
I am well known as a Mutual who follows back. My Twitter ID, @judyrey is on most of these lists. If you think following people who follow you back works for you – and basically I highly recommend it—then this will work as a way to meet some interesting and often interactive Twitter people. Beware that some of these site also include spammer accounts that are setup to follow back but basically belong in the robot group mentioned above.
When a Twitter member follows me, or someone else who generally reciprocates with a follow, we both get a new follower who can become a friend and ally over time. An initial follow is a “Hello!”, not really a great commitment as anyone can easily unfollow.
The scam part happens when people follow a mutual with the mistaken idea that they will soon unfollow and somehow keep their new follower. This is a kind of bait and switch scam.
I do not know of any Twitter Mutuals who do not eventually unfollow people who unfollow them. Many unfollow and even block these scammers– and if they are spammers report them to @spam.
Along the line of Mutuals there are sites where a person can sign up to follow the people listed on the site and then become listed on the site oneself. This is not actual reciprocity of following but reciprocity of the number of people one follows from the site.
Since Twitter is a free site and service many people join, follow people and then disappear for days, months or even forever without closing their accounts. If these people have set their accounts to automatically follow back they can end up making the follow back lists and sites as Mutuals.
TIP:
If you are really interested in live people with active accounts then always look to see the date or time of a person’s last Tweet before you follow initiate a follow. By only initiating follows for people who have tweeted within the past day strengthens your odds of relating to an active Twitter account. Of course, the content of what the person Tweeted is also a factor in selecting people to follow.
Real Live Followers are Not Slaves
No one can give real live people to you as followers, nor can you buy them. This idea is nonsense unless slavery exists.
Of course, I suppose people could be paid to follow other people, but who hires an audience? Why would you want this?
Actual followers—people who want to see your Tweets and follow your links to articles and images — are real people just like you. And, just like you they deserve to be treated politely with respect. Probably, like you, they are worth the time to follow and to some degree get to know.
The best and easiest way to gain more followers is to reach out and follow people. Since you can always unfollow anyone, there is no risk to this. However, you probably want to change your settings so people only sent those thank you’s for the follow to your Direct Messages (DMs) and not your email also.
Use Wefollow.com and lists to discover interesting people to follow. If you follow people you especially like check out their lists to find interesting people to follow. Also follow people they recommend on Follow Friday. Many of these people will follow you back.
Perhaps my best piece of advice regarding gaining more followers, is to be your true self—the person you intrinsically are “meant” to be. Be authentic.
If you make a mistake, acknowledge it (I call myself the Tpyo Queen), but move on. Do not try to please others to gain followers.
As an artist I basically deal with art and inspiration, but verge off to other things that interest me, including social media, resulting in this blog. Tweet about what interest you, what you want to share to encourage, entertain, inform, inspire or even enlighten your followers. Some of this will be ReTweeted (RT) and will also gain you followers.
The Best Real Free Followers
The best real free followers are the people who actually read your Tweets and benefit from following you. This can involve interaction, but not always.
I am the kind of follower I would like most to have. I guess this is sort of a way to do onto others…As a follower, I lurk my Twitter stream, do read and follow links, but may not RT or comment on everyone I find that benefits or interests me. I RT based on whether the information will benefit my followers, not based on whether it will benefit the person who originated the tweet. However, except for news sources, I tend to basically RT the people who follow me.
Followers like me are free to gain. These followers are free to come, free to go, free to stay, interact and become friends. These are the best free followers.
Some people believe that having more people follow them than they follow somehow proves they are important. I figure that since I am interesting, and an artist founding a 21st Century theory of Post Conceptual Art, anyone who finds me interesting is probably pretty smart and interesting—thus someone I could learn from so I remain relevant and interesting myself. I am much happier swimming freely, even among bigger fish in an ocean, than being the biggest minnow in a teacup.
Happy, safe and fulfilling tweeting!
