Twitter Tuesday: Hit-and-run followers

A person follows someone on Twitter. She most likely follows lots of people already. After following this someone she sits back and waits for them to follow back. If the person they followed won't do this, the person unfollows them as silently as she followed them in the first place.

I call these hit-and-run followers. The sole reason they are following me is to gain more followers. They have no interest in the content I post (they don't see most or any of it) and they don't have interest in making a real connection with me.

This sort of followers work in the assumption everyone will follow them back. For them the only reason for following someone is to gain more followers for themselves. Sometimes the hit-and-runners stop following those they've caught like this, either immediately or after a while.

Being a hit-and-run follower may seem alluring. You'll gain followers and never follow those who don't follow you back (at least not for long). This way you'll gain followers who are mostly interested in gaining more followers themselves (and less interested about the content you post).

However the better way would be to actually connect with people you follow. This way you will gain a true followers and contacts. They are more likely to have interest in what you Tweet, are more likely to reply and ReTweet your stuff. Don't be a hit-and-run follower!

Photo by Kenny Louie under Creative Commons license.

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