Bloggasm

For some reason, thousands of Twitter users have gotten it in their heads that it is somehow impolite to not follow back someone who is following them, and of course many social media tools “experts” have cashed in on this politeness, employing programs to mass follow users with the hope that many would follow back. That’s why you’ll often see someone with 15,000 followers who is somehow inexplicably following 16,000 people. It is an utterly useless one-way channel that provides little value. I’ve noticed that receiving links from these kind of twitter users doesn’t drive must traffic because their network is artificial. So therefore I receive much more traffic from a person following 100 people who is followed by 20,000 users than one who is following 20,000 users with the same follower count.

I honestly don’t care if these people engage in this practice — if they want to dilute their own network, then fine — but apparently Twitter does care, because they’re installing tools to fight back against those who are trying to “game” the system.

With Twitter taking a stance against this practice, this means no longer will users be able to quickly inflate their numbers and get around the ratios Twitter has put in place to keep this “gaming” from happening. From users I have talked to, some over major brands, some are not happy. The threat of suspension will come welcome to those getting tired of meaningless followers however. While not a welcome sight to some, it is simply a change in “Game”. Users will need to adapt and use more effective methods of gaining new followers, such as maybe, providing good content? Regardless, I expect people to continue to find new ways to game the system. We’ll see if Twitter can win this “Rat Race”.

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