Automatic followers on Twitter - Just Say No

If you've taken the plunge and started using Twitter then it won't be long until you see a tweet that goes something like this...
"OMG, I JUST WENT ON TO (INSERT WEB ADDRESS HERE) AND NOW I HAVE A GAZILLION FOLLOWERS! IT'S AMAZING! TRY IT AND YOU TOO CAN BE A TWITTER STAR."

There are multiple sites of this ilk spamming their way around Twitter. All promise to find you a plethora of followers for minimal effort, applying the same principles as those chain letters that promised you 300 chocolate bars through the post if you sent out just one. (Remember those? If anyone ever actually got any chocolate I would love to hear from you!)

There are two major reasons for ignoring these sites:

1. They don't work

Example: Today the Vivid Twitter account (@WeAreVivid by the way) was followed by 'Warwuti'. I'm pretty prepared to accept that Warwuti may not even be real, a spammy bot of some kind designed to promote twitritus (detritus? Tenuous at best, but maybe?). But this account proclaimed the wonders of several follower sites, so I followed Warwuti back, watched and waited.

'Warwuti'

At the time of following (11.30am), Warwuti had 92 followers, and 365 that they were following.

At 13.21: Followers at 110, following at 365

At 14.42: 115 and 647

And at 16.07, 118 and 644. Nowhere near the hundreds of new followers promised by any of these sites. Lots of following going on, but noone willing to pay attention to Warwuti's (admittedly deeply unexciting) tweets. Which brings me neatly to point number 2...

Twitter is not just about how many followers you have. It's about making connections with people that will be generally interested in what you have to say, and that you can learn from in return. It's far better to take it slow and make sure you build up proper relationships with those you do follow than to play the numbers. Twitter isn't the playground, and to focus purely on popularity at the expense of finding valuable, interesting people to connect with will mean you do the site, and yourself, a disservice.