My Take on Twitter Follow Limits

(Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons)

I have a client facing the ominous Twitter 2000 follower limit. You know, the one where you can follow up to 2K without the 10 percent rule being enforced, then after it is. 

The strategy for dealing with that phenomena is well-documented. You can read why Twitter imposed the policy here, get a further explanation here, and learn how to negotiate it here. 

Basically, the policy was put in place to prevent spamming and dealing with it involves an often tedious process of unfollowing those who don't follow you, balancing the follow/follower ratio, etc. It can be a pain. 

We're putting our focus in the wrong place

Instead of walking the Twitter follow tightrope, we should be focused on increasing our own follower count, not the list of people we're following, for there is no limit on how many people who can follow you. 

"I’m afraid this has gotten confused. There is no limit to the number of followers you can have," said Twitter co-founder Evan Williams in response to a blog post on the subject.

I'm not suggesting that we shouldn't follow others. If for no other reason, it is a point of common courtesy and evidences that you are a good citizen of the Twitterverse. I'm saying that, instead of ruining your day worrying about the 10 percent ratio, you should focus on doing the kinds of things that get people to want to follow you. 

Here are my suggestions:

Answer the right questions
Instead of answering the question, "What are you doing?" answer another instead: "What do the members of the community you are attempting to reach care about?" Or, "what resources would this community find valuable?" Address those questions and you are well on your way to getting lots of attention. 

Provide valuable resources
Similarly, if your focus is on the people whose attention you want to attract, then you will tune your mental radar to be aware of resources, both your own and others, they would appreciate. These could come in any form, from blog posts to videos to PDFs. 

Don't constantly pimp your own stuff
You may think that by only posting links to your own content that people will flock to you. I hate to disappoint you, but the likelihood is they won't. I'd use something like a 5:1 ratio of posting links to other's resources as opposed to your own. Five of theirs and you can reward yourself by posting one of yours. That's fair isn't it?

Don't spend a lot of time posting quotes
This is a pet peeve of mine, but I don't see a lot of value in constantly posting quotes. A few every now and then are okay, but unless your particular "schtick" is quotes, less is more. (Again, my pet peeve.) 

(Important to note: Twitter is a search engine and people are using it to find resources much in the same way they use Google. Why do you think both Google and Bing are now indexing tweets in search returns? I suppose some people would use Twitter to look for quotes, but more often than not, that's not the case.) 

Spend time engaging the community in conversation
This is perhaps less a reason people use Twitter now than in the past, but it's important nonetheless. It's what separates you from the bots. Conversations make you real. They allow me to get to know you at least in a perfunctory sort of way. If I know you and I like you, I'll probably follow you. 

Retweet other user's content
This is one of most valuable things you can do for two reasons: It sends a tangible message that you are a good member of the community, and it extends a digital handshake to the person you're retweeting. You're giving them an attaboy, a virtual pat on the back. I know that when others retweet my content, it assures me that I've contributed something others find valuable. 

Become a valuable resource
Notice I did not say, provide valuable resources. (I've already said that.) What I mean is that your focus should be on building a personal brand such that when others think of you, they immediately ascribe value. (BTW, auto-DMs do not help your cause in that respect.) 

How do you accomplish that feat? By doing all of the above. What will be payoff be? More followers and inclusion on more Twitter lists which translate into even more followers. 

Currently, I'm on 165 different lists and the number grows almost every day. As you know, Twitter allows users to follow entire lists, so it amps up the chances of being followed dramatically. Guilty by association as it were. It's a nice "lagniappe," as we say in south Louisiana.

The inevitable outcome is you don't have to worry too much about that darn 2K follow limit! It will be of little consequence. I know it may sound like a lot of work and I am not suggesting it isn't, but it sure beats the heck out of slogging through dozens of Twitter follows to find those who aren't following you in return...and it's a lot more fun! 

Comments

[Ike]

Actually, the solution is in the lists.

Follow people, then move them into a list for future tracking.

Then unfollow them from the main list, and follow different people.

[Paul Chaney]

Could you explain that in greater detail please? I'm not sure I get how that remedies the problem.

[Carri Bugbee]

Ike's suggestion to follow and unfollow people just to build up a list of followers is what I call a black hat technique and I don't advise it. I've seen people do it and followers call them out on it. Moreover, it's not in the spirit of conversational media, which should have a high degree of reciprocity.

@CarriBugbee
Social Profiles: http://www.CarriBugbee.com

[Paul Chaney]

I tend not to favor Ike's approach simply from a time management standpoint. It seems it could get confusing, would to me anyway. As to blackhat, Ike's always had a bit of gangster in him anyway! :-) (Love ya, man! Only kidding with ya, in hopes I can get away with it...knowing I probably can't.)

[Ike]

Paul, my stream is WAY too big.

Once there is a tool to make it quicker, I will move a bunch of people to lists.

I don't need to follow all my Politics folks in my main stream, if I want to check in on that realm I will do it in a list.

Same with those I follow for Wordpress development. You don't have to "Follow" them to follow them in a list.

Then I can save my Follow List for those I really want to follow.

[Ike]

Carri... you don't know me so you wouldn't know, but I would NEVER advocate following/unfollowing just to build a following.

Never.

Ever.

Not once.

What I am referring to is using the lists to keep your realms and spheres of influence sorted.

There are a lot of interesting people talking about economics, and I want to eavesdrop on them. But I don't want to have it scattered with the Wordpress Development stuff, and the Social Media stuff.

Likewise, there are a bunch of local people I want to follow to gauge local trends, but I don't necessarily want to grant them access to DM me.

Again, if I gave the impression that I was advocating empty followings, then it's my fault for not being clear. (Hell, my claim to fame is MOCKING those weasels. Ask Paul.)

[Alışveriş]

Thank you in advance for your quick answer !. Very nice post.

[Paul Chaney]

I knew I couldn't get away with it. Good answer Ike!