Could y'all please follow me on Twitter?

Aubie - here is how to get followers - pick a big name person that you admire - perhaps a famous writer you like that is on Twitter. Click on their followers and follow everyone on their list until you reach your limit. Then watch the followers pile up. Most people have an automatic refollow - so if you follow them they follow you. If you unfollow them, they unfollow you. You'll get hundreds of people in a matter of days.

I'm confused: what's the point of having so many followers? Is it just a numbers thing or what?

Bubastes said:

I'm confused: what's the point of having so many followers? Is it just a numbers thing or what?

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makes you seem more popular i would guess. there isn't really a payoff to it or anything, especially since most people who just follow unknown people they don't know don't actually read anything.

mulcahy67 said:

makes you seem more popular i would guess. there isn't really a payoff to it or anything, especially since most people who just follow unknown people they don't know don't actually read anything.

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Yeah, status on Twitter actually isn't follower based as much as it is ratio based. A person may have 9,000 followers, but if they're following 10,000 people, you know they got them through autofollows; whereas someone with 1000 followers but only following 100 people is someone doing something interesting and generating buzz somehow through a community.

My cat (http://twitter.com/BrunoFatCat) has 30 people following him. He's following 21 people. Selective in both directions :O)

You can call it a numbers thing - or you can call it marketing.

If you're using Twitter to tweet friends about your personal life, then disregard my post. But if you're looking to reach people for marketing purposes then you have got to have the numbers.

I mean, would you only sell your book to people you like and admire? Or are you in the writing business to make money and have people actually read your book?

If your favorite author only has 21 people he/she follows - just find an additional writer/literary agent etc. and repeat the process.

When agents use the word "platform" Twitter, Facebook, Blogs, websites - these things count.

One more thing about Twitter - use the # hashtags for every tweet that you want to be targeted. That way you reach people who aren't following you and vice versa.

For example - I only really tweet about homeschool stuff so every time I have something to say I put the #homeschool hashtag in my tweet and then I reach everyone who reads #homeschool.

It works much better that way.

In addition, if I want more homeschool targeted followers I search for #homeschool and find people who use the hashtag and follow them.

Effective Twittering really is an art.

You can find out more about hashtags here: http://mashable.com/2009/05/17/twitter-hashtags/