Do numbers really matter all THAT much? It seems like people judge you immediately by how many followers you have on Twitter – and that some numbers just don’t make sense.  Recently I came across a site with a total of 20 tweets, and it had about 7000+followers.  The tweeter certainly wasn’t a celebrity.  Clearly, there are people out there working the system, and finding ways to create exaggerated profiles of themselves.

But, since numbers seem to still have an influence, and since I haven’t made a concerted effort on Twitter until about 3 weeks ago (read:  As of the beginning of this blog, I have less than 200 followers) I thought I should see what could be done to accelerate my little sphere of influence, so to speak!

So I started doing some investigating into various websites.  Turns out you can buy followers, or buy “seeds” to get followers, or buy “billboards”.  Here’s the low-down:

1. www.fiverr.com  Well this site surprised and tempted me.  3200 followers for only $5.  The site is basically a classified dollar store, with a service theme –i.e. “what will you do/give for $5?”  People post things like “I will give you a video testimonial for your business saying anything you want,” “I will doodle your face” and really weird things like “I will be the secret admirer you never wanted” for 5 BUCKS.   While its by far the cheapest way I saw to grab followers, one has to question this….if Twitter is aware of these kinds sites (of course they are – because their mere existence undermines Twitter’s own legitimacy) then they might be “planting” fake accounts to catch people trying to buy followers.  This would be a really fast way to get your account shut down, wouldn’t it?  I’m also told that if you get phony followers, they will “unfollow” you just as fast, and that would be a waste, and a ruin of your reputation.
2. www.klict.com  I had a look at this site, and for some reason it wasn’t very user friendly. In fact, my browser said it prevented the site from opening no less than 18 popup windows.  So I should just hope I didn’t get a virus by visiting it.
3. www.tweinds.com  This looked like a legitimate site, where basically they use you “seeds” and advertise your account to people they think might want to follow your content.  It seemed kind of pricey.  You can state your interests, but not target geographically beyond the “country” level.  Packages range from $29.95 for a one time purchase of 1250 “seeds” to $99.95/week to get 1000 seeds daily.  You offer your “seeds” to other Tweeters as a bonus for checking you out.  Then, they can spend them to advertise for themselves.  It’s not directly “buying” accounts, but it sort of it like a “carrot”  – the problem is, nowhere on the site does it give any approximate performance numbers.  So I risked $29.95, and then another $9.95 (about $40 bucks)…and offered 8 seeds/follow (a little better than the 7 that the other were doing) and off these virtual “seeds” went.  It was a little like watching money fly away – but the followers did grab them.  Anyway, for my $40,  I purchased about 2000 seeds, and I’ve gotten 250 new followers;  but it remains to be seen whether any of them will stick!  I will keep you posted.  If they don’t stick, it probably isn’t worth it.  A lot of people will follow, and then “unfollow” very quickly, so as to ensure they look like they are being “followed” more than “following.”  Everyone wants to be chased, after all, not do the chasing!

With that said, I’ve done my wee “seeding” experiment.  I’m not sure if this is a good idea or not – but better to risk on our dime than our clients’!  I’ll post again in a couple days.  By the way, from the start of writing this blog, to the end, I went from 155 followers to 406.  If I’m back down to 155 in two days, I will let you know.  At least www.tweinds.com says they have a money-back guarantee.  So of course, I’ll tell you if that works as well, if I need to!