With the rising popularity of Twitter in europe, comes the amounts of people trying to figure out how to go about utilizing it to its full potential.
One of the issues that has arisen recently, is how to reach out to more people, i.e. get more followers.
Earlier today I had a brief discussion about how to go about this, and the consensus seemed to be that the only way to do it was to post interesting tweets, and to follow others.
And while I partially agree on this, I do not believe that this is the only way to go about it.
First and foremost, I believe that Twitter requires (dare I say demands) that users participate actively, and not just by “shouting”, but also (more importantly) have dialogues with their followers.
Secondly, consider the type of account one wants. It is purely for business or pleasure? Is it a mix of both (consider if this really is a good idea)?
Thirdly, consider using one of the many online tools that allow you to gain followers easily. There are several (no, this isn’t a shameless pug of one specific tool), and all have one thing in common: They help users gain followers.
However, a lot of these tools are on the razors edge in regards to “legality” concerning the means the followers are gotten. Many bots frequent these tools, thus basically boosting your followers purely from a qualitative point of view.
A few of the tools, on the other hand, require users to actively add themselves as followers thus earning the user credits that can be used to “purchase” more followers. The good ones allow/require you to add topics of interest. And this is where I find these tools very interesting. The ability to gain followers who are interested in the topics you write about, is great! Filter these users so you only allow users that don’t just follow and then unfollow, and you have a powerful tool for connecting with others.
Now, is this “cheating”? Is this on the line in regards to fair use?
I do not believe so. Twitter are quite clear on their terms, allowing users to follow and unfollow as long as they do not abuse this. So it is essentially up to one self, and ones ethics to decide if one wants to abuse the system.
Personally, I have found it a great tool. I have found quite a few very interesting tweeps whom I follow. And I have found more followers, whom I believe are truly interested in what I tweet about.
All in all, I see these types of tools as being quite powerful, if used properly. And I believe that this does not ruin integrity in any way or form, since the users easily can unfollow you, should your content/tweets not be of a satisfactory level.
What say you? Good tool, great tool, horrible tool?
