Twitter Test: It’s easy to increase your number of followers but does it provide any value?
It seems that nonstop on Twitter people will follow you with the hope that you will auto-follow them back. Their goal is to just increase the raw number of followers they have. These new followers may or may not have anything in common with them... even worse they may not even be real users (many are just bots).
With all of the focus around the number of followers on Twitter I deiced to attempt an experiment to find out 2 pieces of information. The first goal was to figure out how simple is it to increase your number of Twitter followers using this "spammy" method. The second goal was to figure out if there is any value in increasing your followers in this way.
I conducted this test over a 20 hour period from the time when I began adding followers to when I took the final count. I started the test by finding a Twitter account with a massive number of followers that was clearly not providing any value back to it's followers. The account I found (I will leave the name out for now) had over 50k followers, was following about the same number of people, and had a total of 3 tweets. This was clearly not an account that had 50k followers because of those 3 interesting tweets.
I started by adding followers who were all ready following this account. In total I followed 930 people in about 1 hour. As I did this the number of people following me increased... quickly. By the end of my 20 hour testing period I had received 506 new followers. This gives me a 54.408% return on the amount of new followed received VS new followers added.
Followers added - 930
Followed back - 506
% followed back - 54.408%
The Bad
Ok, so this was much higher than I expected to receive in return but here is bad news... when I started looking at the new people following me it turns most were just spam accounts. The ones that were real people had very little in common with me and did not actually care to follow me. I tried to engage with these new followers the way I normally would with anyone else but received very little response.
To make matters worse over the next few days the number of these new people following me took a tumble. I did not track how many of them dropped off but I would guess it was over 50% of the total followers added (506).
Final Thoughts
Is it easy to increase your number of followers?
Yes, very easy. If your goal was to simply add followers then focus on that and you'll have 50-100k followers in no time.
Was there is any value in adding these new followers?
Very very little... it would have been none but I did find a couple great new people during this test (this is 2 or 3 out of 500+ new followers).
The bottom line is that if your trying to grow a community, build your brand, or meet interesting new people then this is absolutely not the way to go about doing it. Creating interesting content still wins....
Want to meet 52 amazing entrepreneurs this year?
Would you like to meet 52 amazing entrepreneurs this year? Would you like to meet 52 potential partners this year? Would you meet 52 potential customers this year? Are you networking once a week?Would you like to meet 52 amazing entrepreneurs this year? Would you like to meet 52 potential partners this year? Would you meet 52 potential customers this year? Are you networking once a week?
Networking events are a valuable entrepreneurial tool which is highly under utilized by too many entrepreneurs. It's amazing how many people spend 8 months building the next killer app completely in a bubble. Attending networking events will not only give you large amounts of feedback on what your building but also put you in touch with great people that you can potentially build a business relationship with in the future. Working in isolation can not give you this.
Use Twitter, Facebook, and Friendfeed to network? That's great but you need to know that nothing beats meeting people face to face. You can talk to people that you have known for years online but when you meet them in the person for the first time the connection will massively be strengthened.
Once your there make it your goal to connect with at least new person at each event. Do this each week for one year and you then have created 52 new connects. In realitly the number will even be much larger because each of the first 52 will help create many more connections. Start today and you will be amazed with the results.
Boston Tech Networking Events
Don Dodge put together a very comprenesive list of Boston tech networking events as well as other useful information for Boston entrepreneurs. The original post is here and the networking section is listed below:
Note: Don has a great named site but there is no connection between our sites
Mobile Monday – Monthly meet-up of mobile and wireless startups, VCs, and tech execs.
Tech Tuesday - is a regular monthly meet-up organized by Dan Bricklin, of Visi-Calc spreadsheet fame. Tech Tuesday is for geeks, tech savvy professionals, DIY-ers, press, and other industry luminaries for an informal gathering. Usually meets at Microsoft office in Cambridge.
Open Coffee - Bijan Sabet & Nabeel Hyatt organize this open meeting for entrepreneurs every Thursday at Andala Coffee House in Cambridge.
WebInno – Boston Web Innovators – Organized by David Beisel of Venrock, a monthly meeting of 200 to 400 startup people, VCs, Angels and tech execs. Free, open to anyone. Startups present / demo their new stuff.
MIT Enterprise Forum - Builds connections to technology entrepreneurs. The Enterprise Forum produces a series of educational programs about entrepreneurship and technology.
BYTE – Boston Young Tech Entrepreneurs – Organized by Will Crawford and Jeremy MacDonald. BYTE Nights are designed to bring together entrepreneurs, investors, aspiring entrepreneurs, and other startup-types in a casual networking environment. No web site. Contact Will Crawford.
DartBoston - a community of entrepreneurs, professionals and students under 30, helping one another start their businesses. A weekly podcast, Pokin' Holes which lets new start-ups solicit constructive feedback from our community. Each show is followed by a wrap cocktail party.
MTLC UnConference Twice a year conference focused on helping young entrepreneurs get started. Hundreds of tech exec mentors help startups with advice and introductions at this unstructured conference.
MITX - Mass Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) have lots of great events for technology based startups. Check their web site for upcoming events.
The Capital Network - TCN's network consists of entrepreneurs on their way, entrepreneurs who have lessons and talents to offer and investors who may have themselves drifted across the entrepreneurial line. TCN has 3 or 4 events a month.
The 128 Innovation Capital Group - The regular meetings are held on the second Thursday of every month at the Best Western Hotel on Totten Pond Road in Waltham. Every month an investor provides our formal program. After Q&A, our speaker generally remains to speak with audience members, one on one. After the meeting, a roster with the contact information of all attendees is made available to those who came to the meeting.
New England Angel Capital Conference - The Angel Investor groups of greater Boston meet once a quarter to review their best companies. Each group nominates companies to present. They are all looking for a round of funding that is bigger than any one Angel Group can handle. This meeting lets all the groups get a look at promising companies and pool their investment dollars.
Social Media Breakfast Boston - Features presentations by some of the country’s most advanced thinkers in community engagement programs - bringing a fresh and wide variety of first hand experiences and case studies.
Nantucket Conference – Small intimate conference in Nantucket that attracts creative and forward-thinking entrepreneurs, investors, technologists, and executives. Much of the value of the Nantucket Conference comes from impromptu hallway conversations, serendipitous seatings at lunch, and walks around town.
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- Boston Web Design – Sparkwire Solutions The leading Boston web solutions company
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- Rate My Startup Helping Startups Get Feedback
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