Obi Wan: But you cannot control it! This is a dangerous time for you, when you will be tempted by the Dark Side of the force.
Yoda: Yes, Yes! To Obi-Wan you listen.The cave! Remember your failure at the cave!
Luke: But I've learned so much since then. Master Yoda, I promise to return and finish what I have begun. You have my word.
Ahh.. Luke's failure at the cave. Remember that? He ran in, light saber blazing and ended up killing himself? That is what we tend to do when we start a Twitter account for our business and that's what I wanted to address. So as a social media guy, (note that I in no way said expert), the second most asked question I get is, 'How do I get followers on Twitter?' (The first most asked question is 'Why use Twitter at all?' But that would be a different article.)
Once people are on board with the concept of Twitter, the next driving desire is to get followers. Their heads are filled with Twitter success stories, wine guys that made millions tweeting, real estate agents that tripled their sales, and on and on. These stories are credible and happen to be true but just because someone hands you a light saber doesn't mean you're a Jedi.
What I observe is that when most people start Twitter, they start strong. "Look at me, I'm social media marketing!" They start following people like crazy based on how many people follow them, or their industry, or because twitter recommends it. Once they get a small following, it's blast time! They start sending out messages about their business, pertinent news stories, interesting facts about themselves, and they find... dead silence. Undaunted, they swing harder: coupon deals, give aways, requests for follows and still..mostly nothing.
I want to be clear here- I am not making fun of these people. I am these people. When I started tweeting I wanted ten thousand followers. I followed everyone and their mothers.I tried follow services. I was indiscriminant. "Why won't anybody retweet me," I wailed! "That story on microscopic robots was so sharable! Why does everyone hate me?"
Here is where my analogy comes in. Luke had a light saber and about two weeks of training and he decided he'd take on a Jedi. Where did it leave him? Plus one dad and minus one hand. A bad outcome. Where did my "get followers at all cost" model leave me? Following and being followed by a million spam bots that could care less what I have to say. So I slowed down. I went back to the Degobah. I put the light saber away and I started listening.
A good friend of mine who teaches how to Twitter, Joey Mcgirr (@joeymcgirr, follow him) said something that stuck with me. "This is not social media marketing; this is opt-in marketing." Meaning we aren't here to sell, we're here to learn and teach. Selling is a byproduct. If I am spamming you and you are spamming me then neither of us is listening, multiply that times thousands of followers and it's a loud mess.
So how do I use Twitter now? I couldn't care less about numbers. I follow people that interest me and I listen to them. I engage when appropriate about the topic being discussed. This is my recommendation to those wanting followers: Stop. Remember, if it feels like work then you're fighting yourself, like Luke in the cave. So my advice is regroup and listen to people who do it well. Be polite, and be real about it. My followers, and people I follow are low. I keep the number of people I follow to a level small enough that I can actually listen to them. It works for me. Find what works for you. Then one day you'll pull out your light saber and find you know how to use it.