Twitter Trends

Posted by Gabe on May 1, 2009 under Social Media, Twitter, Twitter for Beginners | 14 Comments to Read

Lately I have noticed a somewhat disturbing trend on Twitter, and that is the proliferation of people who are telling me about a great way to increase my followers in a short period of time.  They are referring to a system that you pay for that becomes a short cut for increased followers.  I will not comment on the value (or lack thereof) of said system since I did not purchase it (nor do I plan to).  I am seeing these tweets in auto direct messages as I follow people (which immediately triggers an unfollow from me). I am also seeing them as tweets – also causing an immediate unfollow.

Now I am not against people having lots of followers on Twitter - I have made it clear that my goal at this time is to get as many followers as I can to spread the word about Kids Are Heroes.  To get these followers I really have to work at it each day.  So why should I “waste” my time working at getting followers when they can be purchased through one of many schemes going around these days? The answer is one simple reason – I want to control who I follow and who potentially follows me back. I look specifically for parents, philanthropists, educators and people that “get” social media and I also check out who my friends follow and their followers.  I want to help make sure that my audience will be listening to me.  I have said many times that followers mean nothing without connections. Twitter is what it is because of the people that built it – those who are interested primarily in social networking and not making money from being here.  If it becomes all about making money then what do we have?   Millions of spammers all spamming each other. Read more of this article »