# Does Anybody Else Think That Not Having A Lot Of Followers On Twitter Degrades Your Company???



## party animal (Aug 30, 2009)

I have started a twitter account for my t-shirt company but I don't want to put it on the website until I have a decent amount of followers because I feel like that kills some of the hype around my company. I know that when I see other companys on twitter and they don't have a lot of followers I immedielty think less of their company. What do you guys think.


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## DivineBling (Sep 14, 2010)

I don't have that many followers on Twitter but I'm crazy busy with orders so it's certainly not hurting my business at all.


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## andreeaa (Aug 20, 2011)

If you have an email list, you should email them and ask them to follow you on Twitter. You'll hopefully gain a lot of visitors that way. I went to your twitter page and wanted to follow you, but I didn't see your picture or any info about you, so i didn't follow you. If you complete your profile and upload your pic, I'm sure you'll get a ton more followers.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

I don't think less of a company if they don't have a lot of Twitter followers.

It's not really about the number of followers you have, it's about how you're using the tool and how engaged you are.

To me, I'd think less of a company that had 10,000 followers and didn't engage with them (only posted sales posts) than a company with 50 followers that was active and helpful.

The numbers part is superficial. What you do with the tool is more important.

Don't get caught up in the numbers


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

Everyone gets caught up in the number of followers, and that's really irrelevant. I'd rather have a smaller group of followers who are engaged with the company, as Rodney said, who are interested in what the company has to say and who will provide feedback and buy, rather than a large number of followers who barely know the company and couldn't care less about it. 

Twitter isn't about selling, it's about engaging. Smaller numbers, in general, allow you to do that more effectively. Don't think about it as a numbers thing, think about it as an influence thing. How many of the people who follow you are actually listening to you and interacting with you? Being in front of a large group means absolutely nothing if no one is paying attention to you.


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## SlightlyBlended (Jun 15, 2011)

I feel like most followers of almost any company on Twitter are just spam anyway. At least from my experience.


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## vil3nr0b (May 11, 2010)

SlightlyBlended said:


> I feel like most followers of almost any company on Twitter are just spam anyway. At least from my experience.


I agree what a perplexing beast. Currently close to 400 legitimate followers and that is after spending a lot of hours at the front gates to keep spam accounts away. Most people are other indie companies just like me. I haven't managed my following list properly yet.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

SlightlyBlended said:


> I feel like most followers of almost any company on Twitter are just spam anyway. At least from my experience.


I haven't found that to be true, but you can really tell (as a company) by just looking at if people reply to you, click links you share, talk back when you talk to them, etc.


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## SlightlyBlended (Jun 15, 2011)

Yeah i only have like 85+ followers. And I definitely need to clean out y list. Lol. 

I guess it just depends.


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## Rodney (Nov 3, 2004)

SlightlyBlended said:


> Yeah i only have like 85+ followers. And I definitely need to clean out y list. Lol.
> 
> I guess it just depends.


You should also try engaging with the people you're following. Read their posts, reply when appropriate. They took the time to follow what you have to say, it's nice to return the favor 

For some, *just* broadcasting what's going on with your company (sales announcements) is more of a turnoff than having 3 followers.


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## SlightlyBlended (Jun 15, 2011)

Rodney said:


> You should also try engaging with the people you're following. Read their posts, reply when appropriate. They took the time to follow what you have to say, it's nice to return the favor
> 
> For some, *just* broadcasting what's going on with your company (sales announcements) is more of a turnoff than having 3 followers.


That makes a lot of sense Rodney.


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## allhamps (Mar 15, 2007)

Rodney, you make some good points. I'm not all that interested in having a lot of followers, I just want the RIGHT TYPE of follower. I have consistently "unfollowed" several people who just flood my Twitter account with sales information. It's ok to post sales stuff, but when you get 10+ Twitter notifications from the same person and they are all about "look at what I'm selling today", it gets draining. A good mix of "what's new", "what's for sale", "what's happening", and "just for fun", keeps me a loyal FOLLOWER


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## footpride (Apr 28, 2011)

More followers is good but you have to start somewhere. You should try to follow a similar number of people to the ones who are following you, otherwise it make you look like a spammer (all outgoing messages and few incoming). (If you're a big celebrity, that's different.)

I think Twitter is all about engagement. Follow people who are interesting to your (potential) followers and read what they say and interact. If you are following too many people (hundreds or thousands), you probably aren't reading what they have to say, so that's a bit of a negative too.

A small number is not a bad thing. The really important thing is that the people who are following are specifically interested in what you have to say.


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## lben (Jun 3, 2008)

I haven't figured out twitter yet. I just get sick of the emails telling another prostitute or online porno site is following me. Ewww. So I don't bother much with it.


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## EnMartian (Feb 14, 2008)

Twitter and Facebook can be useful, if your target market is on those sites. Strategic following really helps a lot, and the block button helps you dispose of spammers. Social media is worth the time and with some planning can be useful, but only if they people who would want to buy your products on are whatever site you're using. If they're not, you're just wasting time.


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## TopseyCret (Jun 4, 2010)

The truth is, you probably should have started your twitter well ahead of your site launch. That way when you did launch you have already built up a relatively nice looking following. While getting some small early promo to get people excited about your brand.

AND 

The truth about Twitter... is the fact that it really is a numbers game. As much as you don't want to think that the amount of followers you have doesn't matter. They do. Were surrounded by new age media, where having thousands of Twitter followers make you LOOK relevant, popular, established, worthy, humorous, successful, etc. If your building a brand and using Twitter, consumer PERCEPTION is EVERYTHING. A consumer is not going to fumble through your list of how ever many followers just to sit there and say..oohhh half of these accounts are spam i'm not going to buy from these guys any more. It doesn't work like that.

Consumers see these numbers, if their twitters users them selves they will know that it takes TIME to get a following. Automatically they are thinking, okay, lots of followers, lots of tweets, lots of @Replys. They seem established enough to buy from.


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## Enricoke (Oct 19, 2011)

You can have a million followers but unless you keep people engaged it means jack all.


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