The myth of the Twitter follower

As I’m going about my daily business, I hear a lot of myths from people about what they think it takes to build a dynamic online audience, particularly on Twitter.

Myth #1:  ”It’s best to just wait for people to organically find and follow me. If they want what I have to offer, they’ll find me.”  There over 75 million Twitter accounts. You are a needle in a haystack. And even if you are a well known name or brand, you will remain buried in the haystack if you don’t do something to poke through the straw.

Myth #2:  ”My friend with 10,000 followers sent out a tweet about me and included my @username in the tweet. Jackpot!” Sure, it’s absolutely great for someone to tweet about you and perhaps that will lead to interest from some people, but one tweet at one point in time among the hundreds of other tweets that people see on a daily basis is rarely going to capture people’s attention in a major way unless there is something really retweetable about you announcing your entrance into the Twitterverse. So unless you are an established public figure who already has a natural following or your friend tweets that people should follow you to see naked photos, you’re going to need to find more than one friend who is willing to do your bidding for that approach to work in a significant way.

Myth #3: “I used one of these fancy tools to grow my Twitter audience and now I have 100,000 followers! I am awesome and influential!” This is also usually a wrong assumption. Tools for growing your audience are great if you’re finding the right audience in the process, but out of the 75 million Twitter accounts in the world, there are a lot of people who will follow you back just because they expect you to do the same and they have no interest in participating in meaningful conversations because it takes away from the time they’re spending promoting their shady marketing scheme. If you have 100,000 followers, your influence is measured in the interaction you have with that audience and in the way they spread your ideas to their own followers.  If you have 100,000 followers but only interact with a couple people per day and no one ever retweets you, you are not influential (and you are probably being largely ignored).

Building a meaningful Twitter audience simply comes down to searching for likeminded people and taking an interest in them by following them, with the hope that they’ll take an interest in you. Most importantly, introduce yourself in a non-annoying way and be a good Twitizen. Think schoolyard rules – don’t harass people, don’t be rude, and don’t be a bully. Be friendly and introduce yourself to people who also seem friendly and then work to maintain the relationship.

Field of Dreams was a lovely movie, but “if you build it, they will come” is a myth.