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When i commenced my journey on twitter I would feel really bad not to follow someone especially when they are following me. Social Media services and consultancy is getting to be a complete mess in some instances. So when i commenced using Twitter every day i would login to Twitter and geez my dashboard would be full of updates that don’t matter to me. It would be annoying but I was in the process of learning the game. I was confused why i got followers who practically followed me for the heck of it and i was doing the same thing. The strategy of mass following still applies to many people as most people now use tools to auto follow anyone who follows them. This in turn makes it very easy to get a huge following within weeks, the question I guess is whether it’s worth it?

I notice on my twitter account that since i have used the auto follow tool I have spikes in my statistics where 1 week I may be following many and the next week my follower rate has dropped. At first it got me a bit worried that I was losing a follower base, especially if i stopped following them by now i guess with practice i have learnt the tricks of the game.

Most followers who are following you are after something. It could be

To make money of you: Most twitter feeds on the internet are selling some thing or the other. They are not bothered to give back to the community. It’s how we have been trained to keep taking rather than giving.

Improve their reputation: This category is especially classic for bloggers, social media consultants, marketing, etc. The key here is to gain a huge follower base so that you will be noticed. I am trying my level best to choose who i follow because at the end of the day my mission is to use the Internet in a way that i could enjoy the experience. People should want to follow not be forced to follow.

Increase Traffic to their website: We have been taught that the more fans and followers we have the better amount of traffic we could gain for our blog or website. The question here is whether the traffic that you are receiving is quality or just quantity.

Following a large user base is a low value proposition. Not because these followers are idiots but because the follower base that you have is a mix of non responsive, automated, spammer feed accounts. The followers did not actually opt-in to know more about you. This is when you feel frustrated and disappointed with your efforts.

They say when something is too easy then probably you are either a genius or you need to look a bit closer at your strategy.

If you plan using Twitter as your marketing strategy then there is more to twitter than just a follower base.

Let’s look at this a bit closer:
Unless you are a celebrity or a brand like Apple, you are not going to get a huge follower base in weeks. That’s an unreal expectation.  Sure you can fake it by manipulating your follower count but what’s the difference between self-promoters and you?

My Recent Follow Strategy for Twitter:

Auto Follow: I have now decided to stop the auto follow strategy. I was trying to be a complete Minimalist by using this method. Now I have set the tool to auto follow users, when they follow me. I then block 10 mins each day to filter through my list and de follow spammers, self promoters. At first you will feel terrible but when you do this regularly you will see the change.

Follow people who will give you attention: Now i go through my follower list and see who are genuinely wanting to connect with me. I then communicate to them either through direct messages or if i feel they are relevant to my field i follow them too.

Network with influencers: I take time to search and find tweets that may be relevant in my industry. I make a judgment call whether they would be influencers in the industry and then follow their feed. Once i have tried the search keyword and found good results i then save this search and automate part of this process.

Participate in the Twitter experience: It’s important not to keep talking about your self. Give credit to your followers if they have touched your heart in some way. Remember tweets are not always to self promote your business or service. It’s also alerting people about interesting aspects that happen in our daily life.

Finally opt-in because you want to make a difference not because you need a large follower base.

Don’t beat yourself up if you have  alow following, you probably have the right audience who is actually connecting to you. See the amount of conversations that are happening within your follower space and how much of that conversation is about you or with you.

If you have come across different other strategies that work for you please do share them either by using the comments below or by posting it on your feed. Good luck.