It’s amazing how many opinions there are out there about the ‘most valuable use’ of Twitter. Twitter users log into the platform for a number of different reasons. I actually get the majority of my news from Twitter. It’s the fastest news source out there. If you’re following credible Twitter users sharing authentic, newsworthy content, they’re bound to have breaking news before any traditional medium out there, in my opinion.
Others use Twitter to build their business and expose their products, some just like to chat with friends, some get their jollies off of spamming others and some just need an ego boost so they go out and buy as many followers as they can to display how ‘popular’ they are to other followers.
A common strategy to build a Twitter following is a method we call trolling for Twitter followers.
Why are people trolling for Twitter followers?
If you’ve ever used an app or website that displays who’s following you and unfollowing you (we recommend TwitFollow), you’ll be surprised to see how many follow you and days later (if not hours), if you don’t reciprocate with a follow-back, they’re out. Peace out. You didn’t give them love, so they don’t love you. This has been a Twitter strategy since the platform was created, it seems.
See, your new follower isn’t interested in what you have to say. They hope that since they followed you, you’ll follow back and you won’t be savvy enough to notice days later when they quickly click ‘unfollow’. They just got another follower (you) and they don’t need to keep seeing your content show up in their Twitter feed.
It’s strange, isn’t it?
Trolling for Twitter followers: a perspective
Martin Hughes had some good perspective on this topic on the TwiTip blog and offers a way to improve your artificial following strategy if you think you must.
When I started using Twunfollow to see who was unfollowing me, I was shocked by one single thing. Not the number of people unfollowing me, not a load of people who I thought of as great contacts, not anything negative at all.
Most users using an aggressive follow/unfollow technique consist of:
- spam accounts;
- promotional accounts;
- people/brands trying to push their ’social media expertise’;
- users boasting how many followers they can get.
I don’t understand why anyone still sees value in obtaining so many pointless follows like this. Thousands of untargeted and unengaged followers don’t automatically bring you greater coverage or retweets.
Boasting the number of followers you have is no longer a big deal. A successful account is one that provides value and engagement. If you’re not making a genuine play, even your followers won’t help you out.
Yet people still pay for services that offer loads of followers when you cough up the cash. What’s the point?
If you must improve your follower numbers in an artificial way, here’s one method. Next time you’re followed by an account that’s chasing only the people who automatically follow back, check that user’s list of followers. All you need to do is try following all those users in the hope that they’ll follow you back too! That method costs nothing other than your time…good value, huh?
But it’s not good value, because most of those users won’t actually care about what you’ve got to say. It’s much better to have interested, relevant followers. Isn’t it?
We agree, Martin. What are your thoughts on this strategy? Do you know any of your personal followers using it and what are their explanations for doing so? Leave some feedback in comments. Thanks!
Image: FineArtAmerica