Twitter Following Tips & The 2,000 Follower Barrier

The 2,000 follower barrier or to be more specific the 2,000 following barrier is something that everyone has to pass. I don’t know the exact numbers but if I had to guess I would say that 9/10 Twitter users never pass this barrier. The barrier I am talking about is one that exists preventing you from following more than 2,000 users without having 1,850-1,950 followers yourself. The reason for this is obviously to stop spammers from gaming the system. *Note that gaming the system by following a ton of people, un-following those who don’t reciprocate and then repeating the process, will almost certainly get you banned.

3 Things that will get You Nowhere in a Hurry

1. Following 500-1,000 people in a day: Now there is no exact figure known out there that will get you banned but I have personally experienced, both with personal and corporate Twitter accounts, that if you follow 500-1,000 in a day you can expect to be suspended.

In fact, if your follower and following count changes by 500-1,000 in a day you can expect to be banned. This means for example, if you followed say 300 people and used Huitter to un-follow around 500 people you can expect to be slapped by Twitter. Note that Huitter service is no longer available, instead use TweetSpinner and TwitterKarma to get mutuality.

2. Following Completely Random People: This is a common newbie mistake. Especially those who are under the 2,000 follower mark (since you can only follow %10 more than the # of who follow you) they often are stuck following 2,000 people and unable to follow anymore.

What good are 1,000; even 10,000 followers if they are not likened to your interests? You should be honing in on your target market and using sites like Twollo and TweetSpinner to help.

3. Getting caught up in numbers: Twitter is growing so rapidly in it’s popularity nowadays that people are jumping on the bandwagon and coming out of the gates full speed ahead in an attempt to catch up with everyone else. They get wrapped up in numbers and think that Twitter and followers is strictly a number game. Remember it’s not how many followers you have but how you use them that matters.

Don’t be in a hurry to get followers. You’ll end up running out of steam and find that initial zealous enthusiasm you had when first coming on to Twitter has turned to frustration. Persistence is the key to be successful with Twitter and a sure fire way to bury yourself in frustration is to get obsessed with numbers.

Conclusions: Don’t Put Yourself in that Position

This 2,000 Twitter following barrier is easily overcome. But if you’re uninformed, unaware and unprepared then it can be z very frustrating situation and can even get your account suspended. If you’re following users in the wrong way you’ll find yourself stuck at following 2,000 people with only 1,130 followers for example.

This can be a nightmare situation. When you’re here you’ll end up having to un-follow people who haven’t followed you back. Once your following counts are similar again you’ll then likely begin following more people in hopes of follow backs. You may then end up following 2,000 people with around 1,300 follow backs.

Getting followers strictly from follow backs is a slow process and the main problem here is Twitter documents your activity. In other words they watch your following patterns and if you end up following, un-following, following and then un-following too often (or the same people) this can also get you suspended (even if you stay under a few hundred per day).

There are much more efficient ways to get followers than hoping for follow backs. Being social and active with your account, this means using @replies and retweets, is the best and most important way to get followers. Blogging and writing about Twitter is another great way to accumulate a following. The list goes on, you may want to check out my List of Must Have Twitter Tools to make the entire process more efficient and easier.

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