How insignificant it is that people buy Twitter followers



Contributing Writer
Photo: Sale Web Button Credit: Yello Dog


Two stories in the past week have highlighted high-profile people who have purportedly purchased Twitter followers.  USA Today columnist Danny Sheridan and PeerIndex CEO Azeem Azhar were both outed as consumers of purchased Twitter followers, with Sheridan picking up 380K followers in the last two months (to add to the 11K he had accrued in the preceding years).  Many questions are being asked about this, except maybe the most important one – who cares?

You can make as much of an impact with 400,000 fake Twitter followers as you can with zero Twitter followers, so why is it important?  Probably because we measure ourselves based on these arbitrary and worthless metrics (such as follower count), and someone cheating a (however irrelevant) measurement violates our propriety.  We need to get over that.

A post that I wrote recently describing that 40% of brand Twitter followers may be “bots” generated a lot of interest.  It’s provocative to see that 44% of Whole Foods’ followers may be illegitimate, or that Starbucks is the least “bot”-bequeathed at 6%, but do you know who is most upset about those statistics?  Whole Foods.  I guarantee they had no idea that almost half of their social “channel” is worthless – and I’m sure whoever masterminded that is polishing up their resume and sprucing their LinkedIn profile.

I have a “friend” whose mother-in-law likes to give his wife and children antiques that she accrued throughout her lifetime of collecting.  Everytime my “friend,” his beautiful wife and children visit his mother-in-law, they are presented with bags of stuff that they will never use.  Some of the stuff they receive is pretty, some of it interesting, some of it is shiny, but none of it is practical.  It just ends up taking up space in my “friend’s” basement (his wife feels compelled to keep these gifts).

Point being, paying for Twitter followers is like paying your mother-in-law to clean out her house by moving it into yours.  It is a worthless use of resources for useless stuff.  You shouldn’t feel envy or sore-bottomed about people who do this – you should simply feel sorry for them.  You’d never know by visiting, but my “friend’s” basement is a mess.

Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty

Writer and chief of miscellany at leaderswest.com

I aspire to give people something to think about rather than tell them what to do. My favorite Google Alert is “social media research,” I am increasingly compelled by Gen Z, and I appreciate good writers agnostic of where they write. At one time I was Kred’s 12th most influential social media blogger and Klout’s most influential person on the topic of David Hasselhoff. Transplant from Seattle living in Cincinnati. Haven’t entirely adopted the local sports teams yet.

Jim Dougherty

@jimdougherty

Writer about social media and tech at Leaders West, I also tweet as @leaderswest.

Study: Teens grow increasingly disillusioned with Facebook http://t.co/gF8BUp0idS – 35 mins ago

Jim Dougherty

Jim Dougherty

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  • http://www.wonderoftech.com Carolyn | Wonder of Tech

    Hi Jim, I’m a big believer in not paying for worthless stuff. That’s how I see Twitter followers who are bots, worthless. They are worthless to me, so why should I pay for them? I’d rather have quality over quantity and I am 100% certain that my Twitter followers are the most brilliant people on the Internet!

  • http://www.wyattmcintyre.com Wyatt

    The difference is the Antiques have substance and an inherent value to them. The basement may be a mess, but the gifts may appreciate in value depending on what they are, or even fetch a few bucks at a garage sale down the road. Buying followers, which seems baffling to me, never heard of that before now, seems like, from your description, essentially paying for nothing, giving something with a base value to it, namely money, for something that is worthless, an empty profile that is meaningless. How anyone could think that would be a good idea when there isn’t even the most basic of relationships there is beyond me.

  • http://marthagiffen.com Martha Giffen

    I never have fully understood the “buying” of followers until someone pointed out that the average consumer looks at the following number as some kind of endorsement of your brand. That could be true of the consumer mindset. Having said that, as a biz owner, I see no benefit to having fake followers because fake won’t let my bottom line grow. And, isn’t that what we’re in business to do??

  • https://twitter.com/#!/vtbarrera Victor Barrera

    It’s pretty clear why people buy Twitter followers. Even if bot followers are fundamentally worthless, some feel that artificially inflating your follower count will encourage other people who see that larger number to follow. If anything, that’s where some perceive the value. I personally don’t care and ultimately don’t see the utility in fake followers.

  • http://leaderswest.com Jim Dougherty

    Thanks for reading and commenting Victor. Believe you’re spot on, but think there’s a funny ego-maniacal element to it as well. Once someone measures in the hundreds of thousands (or even high five figures), it’s hard to understand why they think more would be more impressive. Whatever the case – they’re not doing anything with them so to each their own! Cheers!

  • http://www.geeklesstech.com Steve Hughes

    Danny Sheridan was growing at 27K followers per day. Nice. That is some script they had running. He claims someone took over his account. That whole article/interview with Danny was bizarre at best.

    Azeem Azhar said he was doing an “experiment” to show that adding a large number of followers would not have a bearing on his PeerIndex score. He said he used “Fiverr” to add the users. What a bargain :)

    Most users (non-celebrities) with 100K following have had some “assistance” along the way. I think the perception from most Twitter laymen is users with 100K+ followers hold some sort of credibility and trust. So an argument could be made that the number of followers does have value. I generally feel like you do Jim, “who cares?” and whatever floats one’s boat. I’m also entertained that “groups” are now watching and “outing” suspected bot buyers. Good Times.

  • http://businessinbluejeans.com Susan Baroncini-Moe

    There are far better ways to invest in growing a social media following than to buy followers. Instead, invest that money into Twitter ads (if that’s where your target market hangs out) and get your profile and tweets seen by people who might not have seen or noticed you otherwise. It’s a great way to pick up new followers and steadily grow an interested following that will be far more valuable to you in the long run.

  • http://jtdabbagian.com J.T Dabbagian

    I take pride in the fact that I actively screen out any new followers that happen to be bots on my account. The majority of my followers are all 100% real and 100% awesome. Some may slip by, but I’ll catch them eventually.

    Anyway, this is just further proof that you can’t judge a user by the amount of people that “Follow” them. Judge on the content of their posts and their ability to interact.

  • http://www.KickAssBusinessNews.com Michelle Mahoney

    At some point people will realize that it’s quality and relationships, not quantity of “followers.” I think it’s really hilarious that anyone pays for followers on Twitter, though. If you want to run your numbers up, just use #teamfollowback or some other asinine “service.”

  • http://leaderswest.com Jim Dougherty

    Thanks for reading and commenting J.T.! Sounds like you actually engage the people in your Twitter stream – how refreshingly novel! :) Cheers and keep up the great work!

  • http://leaderswest.com Jim Dougherty

    Thanks for reading and taking the time to comment Susan. An interesting insight on the effectiveness of Twitter advertising. Very cool!

  • http://leaderswest.com Jim Dougherty

    Sheridan still hasn’t copped to buying followers, it’s humorous at this point to look at that 27K number and to believe that without any provocation he was blessed with the perfect storm of social interest. But at the end of the day it doesn’t effect me one way or another, and if it makes anyone feel better then I suppose it’s money well spent! Thanks so much for taking the time to read and comment Steve – I appreciate it! Cheers!

  • http://leaderswest.com Jim Dougherty

    Thanks for reading and commenting Wyatt. I hope I didn’t put too fine a point on the fact that I (may have) been talking about my own MIL! Buying Twitter followers is quite prevalent – Newt Gingrich was caught doing it during his run for President, I think it is a status symbol to people who are unfamiliar with Twitter and not a lot else.

  • http://leaderswest.com Jim Dougherty

    You wouldn’t want your own legion of bots? It almost sounds cool when you say it like that. :) I totally agree with you on most of your points, except for the part about your followers being the most brilliant people on the planet. I think it could be said that your followers may have the most exquisite taste on the planet, but I hope the most brilliant minds are finding a cure for horrible maladies rather than spending a lot of their time on Twitter. Once bots can solve our greatest scientific quandries I propose we start replacing them with the most brilliant people, and then I imagine your claim will be true. (Clearly I need to stop drinking coffee this morning).

  • http://addtwitter-followers.com Jeffrey Heianz

    My friend Simon from viralstew said “It might be deceptive, but the bottom line is that numbers say a lot to people.
    It’s like if you are in a party and everyone is watching you talk and laugh with 3 sexy girls around you (you being a male). People (and girls specially) will automatically believe that you are a cool, socially savvi male and your value will grow in the room. It ends up that the 3 girls are your sisters but no one knows that at the moment and maybe will never know.

    The perception is created and you have conveyed yourself in a powerful way. The same will happen with number of followers. 50.000 followers will attract thousands of other followers who believe you are a guru… after all you have 50k. No one knows that your 200 followers will die for you. they will just think your not that popular as the 50k guy. Ilusion is part of the art of marketing. Its not about honesty. Its about perception. Perception is reality… so what perception are you giving?’

  • http://leaderswest.com Jim Dougherty

    Jeffrey – an interesting insight. I’m of the opinion that marketing is most effective when it’s not a form of illusion. I’m open to the possibility that I may be wrong, but I’m attracted to people and things that I perceive as genuine and work from the premise that other people are too. Thanks so much for reading and commenting!

  • http://nonon-centsnanna.com Malika Bourne

    Thanks for sharing. I had no idea. except, I was wondering why I used twit cleaner there were tons of people I would NEVER choose to follow. Could this be why? I dislike scrolling through garbage. I follow people who I feel I can learn something from. I have never learned anything from garbage that wastes my time.

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