How many Twitter friends do you have? It’s really become quite a funny contest lately, and there are variety of ways in which some are increasing their “followers”.
I’m about to hit 1000 followers, and am proud to say I’ve done it the non-cheesy way. However, others are taking the Gorgonzola approach and doing all kinds of silly stuff to appear more popular then they really are.
Here’s today’s number one cheesy way to “appear popular” on Twitter…
Some people have a theory that if someone follows you, you should follow them. That’s okay if that’s how you want to do it. Personally I only follow a small amount of friends.
The reason to keep the amount of people you follow to a small amount can be for a variety of reasons. First, it’s just really distracting sometimes. Secondly, some people consider it a positioning thing. If they were to follow too many people it may look like a desperate attempt to garner a bunch of followers through reciprocal following. It’s a low perceived value! And hey, this game is all about perceptions right?
Following a bunch of people is fine, if that’s what you want to do. Nothing wrong with that at all. But here is where it gets all extra Gouda-ish (another smelly cheese)….
Follow a few thousand people, and get them to follow you. Then, all the sudden go on a massive “Unfollow” spree and delete all those people. Now, it appears like you have 2500 people following you, but you are too cool to do the same. Wow, you are so popular now!
It’s actually a pretty good strategy in a slimy and cheesy sort of way. But, it’s pretty lame if you ask me.
So instead I build my Twitter list the old fashion way, and focus on people that really do want to hear from me instead of gaming a bunch of peeps into following me, then just parsing them from the list.
Is it me, or is this a cheesy strategy? Would love to hear your opinions.
Cheers,
J-Mo
PS: Does anyone ever use these little bookmark thingy’s at the end of blog posts? I’m curious.
PPS: Follow me suckas!… http://www.twitter.com/jasonmoffatt (now that’s straight up Kraft Mac N Cheese style)
Quality every time. Having fun is good. My 3 yr old knows Havarti + ….processed cheese is rubbish!
You get what you put out. I am doing everything to keep up with you. Still want seat #21. I will honor the agreement, and then some.
JubilantJohn
I am inclined to use the method you yourself have done, except that I tend to follw more people than actually follow me.
Mainly because until people have a chance to get to know you, they really don’t have a reason to follow you. So if you follow them first, they may not even realize it at first until you start to responde to some of their tweets.
The object is of course to provide value to the conversation and not just spread your cheez whiz all over the place!
Have an amazingly cheese free day!
Micheal
http://twitter.com/mirrror
Yep! Definitely “cheesy” as Limberger.
Why are people so worried about how they look to others? Guess when you get as old as I am, you realize most ‘popularity’ waxes and wanes. So why bother gaming it?
Good post!
Brennan
I think the cheesy way is gay but thats just me, I like my customer to choose to follow me so I know the type of people that are following me and I know hoe to talk to them.
peace mofo
-andrew
I actually used to “Cut The Cheese” for a living when I was about 19 or 20.
I worked at a place in Portland Oregon called Pastaworks. http://pastaworks.com/cheese/
It’s a little fancy pants Italian grocery and pasta shop. Actually a great place. Good people.
However, I was the worst employee EVER! EVER EVER!
I turned a 2 hour cheese cutting job into like a 8 hour marathon, and the entire time I’d sit and eat the cashews out of a 5 gallon bucket. Those cashews were addicting.
Damn near ate half that bucket. Couldn’t help it.
Lot’s of good memories from cutting the cheese too.
That’s where I first tried a Vegan diet after seeing my buddy Kendall in action.
I have no idea why, but I have more than double the followers compared to those I follow. I have no idea who most of the followers are, let alone how they “found” me.
I’m pretty choosey regarding who I follow – I have really limited internet time and I want value for that time. And Twitter can be really addicting since I pop around and read other twits to see if there’s someone else I should be following.
About once a week or so I pick 3-5 people who are following me and go see what they are saying. I have ended up following a couple that way.
I have only unsubbed from 1 person so far. She is a colleague, I like her a lot, and I have purchased from her in the past. BUT, she has this really irritating habit of publicly tweeting a thank you to everyone who signs up to follow her. Yuck.
A direct message would suffice – unless it’s supposed to be a marketing ploy to show how popular she is. Anyway, it was enough to get me to unsub after only 2 days. Like I said, I’m looking for value. Plus, I hate it when I’m trying to catch up and there’s all this useless *&(# that could cause me to miss a great Twit!
I’m with you, J-Mo, organic growth is the way to go! Thanks for a great post!
Katie
P.S. The Cheesy method seems like a lot of trouble to me – why not spend the time doing something lasting?
Ha Ha, just got your direct mail response re: YouTube. Sent you a dm reply, but it doesn’t go through because you are no longer following me….not that I’m worried, concerned, offended, or anything else. But I am giggling!
Thanks for the response to my question ….
Katie
Hey Jason,
It is without a doubt cheesy. I really don’t understand the reason you would want someone following you that is following thousands.
If you use that strategy that is most likely the type of people you will get.
Then Twitter becomes obsolete for the most part because your message gets drowned out by the other thousands of tweet the user is getting.
So, it is cheesy and I would guess unresponsive as well.
Shannon
hey jason, I can’t access EasyVideoSales anymore… what happened?
marco
Hey Marco,
I just checked and you are still approved and should have no problems logging in. Send me a email if you can’t get in.
Jason
I am still learning the ropes on all of the social marketing sites but do love following those who talk about things I need to learn or want to hear about and did not even give a thought- who was following me and why, now I will pay attention, thanks
Yeah I’ve just digged you 🙂
I’ve had a handful of people subscribe to my tweets that I have no idea who they are. I think it is kinda cheesy to sign up to others just cause they’re there.
I follow the guys I want to keep track of… that’s it. I don’t want to see a ton of people’s posts that I have no idea who they are.
By the way if anyone follows me… I’ll follow you… (just kidding)
Save the internets.
and don’t follow me because i’m Mezkan:
http://www.twitter.com/davegonzalez
for that matter, save the internets too:
http://www.dontregulate.com
Love the cheese.
Just kidding go the slow and steady way but man you are killing me on the friend count!
Rich Muir
http://www.companiesnow.com.au
making registering your new company easy
Hi Jason,
I follow you because you crack me up. I only follow interesting people who send great links and because I want to know what the top interent marketers look at. I just strated to get a lot more followers since my blog started to get a bit more popular and I was just going to try out one of the cheesy strategies you reccomended. Maybe now I will rethink my strategy.
I haven’t spent enough time on twitter to assess what the best way to go since much of what I do is on Facebook.
I really enjoy your tweets, I found you because I am a fan of frank kern and you are one of his surfing buddies.
I actually wrote about you on my blog yesterday because that twiter whore video you linked to was so funny.
catch ya later
Ian
oh yeah, here’s the link if you wanna see what I wrote. http://tinyurl.com/4enzcr
Twitter though is getting more and more dysfunctional, so the cool kids, geeks, early adaptors or whatever are migrating over to Friendfeed and other sites. So, twitter will be like a yahoo before long. Facebook just plain sucks. I only follow ppl I know on twitter. I understand why web 2.0 and IM geeks follow me, but I still think it is funny.
lol… all this time and I still don’t get the twit thing…
Gotta get me some stalking software like that.. it is stalker like ain’t it?…
Can you get done for cyber stalkin’?… I reckon you twitting folks are gonna get busted for this..lol. jus playin folks..
Peace Jason
J