Thoughts on getting twitter followers. (do not ever pay for followers!)

I wrote an article over a year ago about how to get twitter followers, and thought it would be a good idea to provide an update.

The key point I would make is:

You do NOT have to pay for twitter followers.

I have close to 5000 and have never paid a cent.  Yes it is a bit slower, but doing it over time will get you better followers, who are more likely to stick with you, assuming you provide decent, relevant content.

If you are a movie star (or Kim Dotcom), followers will come to you in flocks of thousands, so all you have to do is stit back and enjoy tweeting.   Assuming you are not in that crowd, here are simple steps to get twitter followers:

  1. Create a twitter account if you have not already done so.
  2. Add a picture, and a bio to your twitter account.    Mine for example is: http://www.twitter.com/dingfelder
  3. Look at interesting twitter accounts, in a topic you will be tweeting about, where you would like followers, and find someone with lots of followers.  Thousands would be great.
  4. Skip any followers that have a blue check next to their name, unless you really love following their tweets, as they are “confirmed” followers and are not likely to follow you back.  Also, try and skip the ones with < 5 tweets, or who have not tweeted in a long time, they are not active and are unlikely to follow you.
  5. Open up their list of followers, and add a LOT of them.  Note:  Don’t add a thousand in the first day or twitter may ban your acccount.   Do it over a few days.
  6. If you hit a limit and twitter won’t let you add more followers, it is because you do not have enough followers.  For example, you cannot add more than 2000 followers unless you have at least 1500 following you.  Right now, at close to 5000, I can still only follow about 500 more than are following me.
  7. Wait several days, and see how many follow you.  It won’t be thousands.
  8. While you are waiting, follow anyone who is following you.  This is important because if you don’t, they may stop following you.
  9. Go to this site and connect it to your twitter account, it is free.  http://who.unfollowed.me/
  10. Once you are logged in, click the link to see “who is not following me back”.  Un-follow all those people.
  11. Go back to number 3 and repeat.  After a few times, your numbers will start growing faster, and people will add you even if you don’t add them first.

Notes:

  • When adding users, the best kind are the ones who follow thousands of users, especially those who follow more people than are following them – those people are more likely to follow you.
  • As I am getting more followers, I have started deleting the ones that have never tweeted, and I always delete all the ones that are linked to naughty URLs or post absolute rubbish.   I don’t want to help them advertise for adult services.  I have deleted a number of questionable followers, so I would have a lot more followers if I had blindly accesped all of them.

Now, go and follow me, and I will follow you back.

http://www.twitter.com/dingfelder

 

About Andy Dingfelder

Andy is a Technology Manager with over 20 years of experience in Software Development, Project Management and Team Management in Telco, Healthcare and General SDLC. Full bio is available at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/dingfelder Follow at http://twitter.com/dingfelder Andy Dingfelder lives in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand with his wife and two daughters.
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