If you are on Twitter, you will have undoubtedly noticed how there are people have set up a systematized, automated process to follow and unfollow others on Twitter, in the hopes of “catching” a following. It is uninventive, uninviting and certainly unincumbered with engagement.
Digital marketing hamsters?
In fact, the number of people that keep spinning through other Twitter users in the hopes a follow back is rather frightening, if it were not also fatiguing. There are probably five a day that show up on my doorstep. Then about three to five days after they disappear as if using a revolving door They run the gamut between the obviously corrupt, spammy and sincere. However, I don’t and won’t join in that game. It is similar to the link swapping that many untoward blogs wish to do with me. Empty. Impersonal. Irrelevant. Only thing is, sometimes, I see the same people coming through my door. Funny thought: Oho, they found me again. Yup, but they continue to use the same approach. But, there is no recognition, no adaptation. If you do what you always did, you are going to get what you always got. It holds true in the real world. It remains the case online.
There are still many brands that continue to consider the number of fans or followers the true gauge of success. Using automatic follow and unfollow systems is akin to buying fans. There is clearly a misconception that having 20,000 followers on Twitter will mean that you will have a large audience for your tweets. Whether buying clicks, fans or followers, the real question is: what do you want to do them? If these people had a legitimate answer to that question, they would probably stop doing it.
The wheels on the bus go round and round
I have to believe that these Twitter-automatoms are living for the greater number, much like the hamster who counts how many times it has managed to make the wheel go round. Possibly, some brand marketers will be duped into believing that someone with 20,000 followers is a digital expert? For having tried occasionally to engage with “them” (for example, by following back and sending a tweet), the overwhelming majority never deign to reply. A couple did, but they ran out of steam very quickly. Pity the brands that pay for such services or advice.
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