0 to 15,000 Twitter Followers in Two Months

It’s extremely easy to get caught up in the number game on social media. In fact, you probably clicked the link to this article because you thought there was an easy way to “painlessly” get to over 15,000 followers. Well, there is an easy way, but you may want to take the more timely alternative after reading this article.

But first, why would anyone want to attract a large following? Is it just for bragging rights or is there more to it than that? Traditionally if we see a user with over a thousand followers, we are more inclined to follow them. It’s actually a proven fact. Why? Because of something known as the “herd mentality.” If you are unfamiliar with this concept it essentially goes like this: if a lot of people follow an account there has to be a good reason, so you’re more inclined to follow the account yourself.

Here Are Three “Easy” Ways to Grow Your Twitter Following

1. Purchase Twitter Followers

Although this concept appears to be the easiest way to gain followers it’s by far the worst place to invest your money. You’d be more successful throwing your money into Twitter Ads to promote your account. Take it from someone who once had over 15,000 followers. Buying followers is a short-term tactic used by marketers that don’t know how to market themselves or a business. If you look at the image below, you’ll notice that the gigantic surge in my followers was short-lived (April-May 2014).

2. Follow a Ton of People

The second strategy goes like this: follow lots of Twitter users, wait a week or two to see who followed back, and unfollow the people that didn't follow back.

No hard feelings to those people that didn't reciprocate, right?

This approach was a natural progression from buying a robotic Twitter following since you can get real followers. In fact, 2/3 of the 1,000 people I followed in this experiment would follow back.

The logic behind this madness was that by following a bunch of people they would (hopefully) turn into lasting connections. However, in the long run (4–6 months) the majority of these followers will unfollow you. Why? Because they forgot why they followed you in the first place— nothing personal.

In order to successfully follow a lot of people quickly, I used FollowerWonk by Moz, which allowed me to target Twitter users based on their location, bio, and follower stats.

One big flaw with this strategy is that your timeline quickly becomes chalked full with people that you don’t care about.

You can quickly become disengaged from using Twitter altogether, which is a shame because Twitter is one of the most useful hubs of information if used correctly.

3. Fake It Till You Make It

After unsuccessfully growing a sustainable following on Twitter, I tried a new tactic — one that was more work, which was exactly what I was trying to avoid. Instead of following “randos” as I like to call them I started following thought leaders in my industry. So in an effort to become a thought leader I decided I would try to mimic them. Sounds straightforward, right?

I did all the right things: I posted relevant content about my industry throughout the day, reposted the same content multiple times, and marketed myself as a thought leader. This strategy had a detrimental effect on my account because I was alienating my current following and as a result I bled followers like it was nobody’s business.

Conclusion

These three strategies should be avoided altogether. Getting to 15,000 followers is easy, however, it’s just not going to be sustainable.

If you have any strategies that you've tried on Twitter, I’d love to hear them in the comment section below.