I have been on Twitter since the March of 2012. I do not actively try to grow my following or try to game it.

When I originally wrote this post, I had approximately 200 followers; and I followed roughly about the same number of people. So, in the Twitter scheme of things, I was no Twitterati! But then again, neither are most of the folks that I know and interact with.

Twenty-five hundred followers later, I still am not.

But, I can say that I have learned a thing or two about its workings. I did go through some of the initial doubts and “why would I want to know what Lady Gaga had for breakfast?” type of skepticism. Nonetheless, I figured that the insights I acquired may be of benefit to some of my readers.

Developing a Twitter following takes work

Twitter is all about engagement. The more engaged you are, the more you get noticed. This can be in the form of tweets, retweets, or mentions. For a beginner, tweeting is the hardest part and often does not come naturally. It often helps if you start by tweeting content that you come across in your day-to-day life. Most blogs and websites have a “Tweet this” button that will enable you to get started.

Start with friends and acquaintances

Look up your friends and peers to see who follows them. It is likely that if you follow them, they will follow you back. You have to start somewhere; so, no harm in a little self-promotion. If you are on LinkedIn, a number of your “connections” may have a Twitter profile as well and may be interested in following you. If you have a decent profile, you will be noticed.

My first five followers collectively had less than 30 followers!

Look for high-profile Twitter users who are not opposed to following

Generally speaking, Twitter celebrities like to be followed rather than follow. However, there are exceptions. A quick look at a person’s followers-to-following ratio will give you an indication of a person’s propensity to follow back. Here are two high-profile Marketing celebrities, that I follow, that have completely different approaches to following. Though these statistics are dated, it goes to prove my point.

People follow people who others follow

Twitter is no exception to the herd mentality. When Christopher Penn, of Marketing over Coffee and What Counts fame followed me back, I saw a boost in the number of my followers. You may want to try the “who to follow” tool within Twitter to see if there are recommendations that match your interests.

Followers are not always about you

People choose to follow you for various reasons. Some people do it because they genuinely like you and respect what you stand for. Others do it for their own reasons. A primary reason for this is “follow-back.” When a power user follows you, there is an expectation that you will reciprocate.  If you do not follow back, you will often see them quickly “unfollow” you and move on.

Bots (web robots) love new Twitter users

If you are relatively new on Twitter, you probably receive a number of followers that are not real! There are Porn Bots, Marketing Bots, Human Marketers, and other types of spammers who will ardently follow you for a period of time, to see if you will follow them back or fall for their pitches. Make sure that you block or stay clear of unwanted followers. The last thing you want is for someone to look up your profile and find that more than half of your followers are Porn Bots.

In conclusion, as the concept of Return on Influence (RoI) grows, companies like Klout, Kred, and PeerIndex use a person’s Twitter profile as one of the primary measures of that person’s influence. So, building up a Twitter profile may be a good investment for the future.

Happy tweeting!