by Lisa Donner of Ms Fit Universe. You can follow her @MsFitUniverse.
Jesus didn’t have a boatload of followers when he first began promoting his message. The people who wanted to follow him were few and far between. Let’s say, oh, 12 or so.
The twelve who decided to follow him were genuine (except for one). Slowly and steadily, the message was passed from town to town and the following grew and grew. Look what became of it!
If you don’t have thousands of followers right away, don’t despair. Just keep on sending your message. The important thing to remember is that the right people will follow you. Who are the “right people”? They are the ones who you specifically want in your audience, hearing the message you want to get across, and promoting your idea, thus enabling the snowball effect that you want.
Do for others as you would like them do for you, by sending useful information that others will benefit from. If you are authentic and informative and helpful without wasting other people’s time, people will see that, and respond accordingly. Have something real to offer people, and they will embrace it, and begin to follow you and resend your tweets to their followers, which will in turn inspire them to follow you and so on and so on.
The important thing to realize is that this growth will not happen overnight. It took many years for Alexander Graham Bell to materialize the telephone. What did he do? He had an idea, he shared it, and he asked for help. Now, how many people are using it to get their message across? Share your ideas, and ask people for help every now and then, and on the other side of the coin, don’t hesitate to give help to someone who asks for it. When someone you are following asks a relevant question, reply to it with a thoughtful answer.
In this way, you will be fostering meaningful relationships with a core of relevant followers, and they will grow into a larger circle over time. So instead of attempting to garner a huge following right away, be patient, and let your quality following build a foundation. The growth will come from this quality foundation if you consistently offer quality tweets with genuine content. When you offer a sufficient quantity of quality tweets, your following will reflect this.
@petertdavis
Some major shark jumpage here.
@NateDesmond
If you look closely, it is clear that Jesus had more than twelve followers. In Luke 10, for example, Jesus sent out 70 disciples to preach the gospel. He had 12 apostles, but many disciples.
Thanks,
Nate
@dinsan
nice article
people boast of with their followers count .. like their feed count ..
@pmcclory
Love it! Fabulously written, thought provoking and amusing. I totally agree, quality will always surpass quantity on the day(s) of judgement.
@JenMcCollum
12 or 70 – Lisa Donner has written a fine post.
@wchingya
12 to start with, diciples came and left, while the remaining who perservered, would be rewarded with the gift they deserved when the DAY comes. Same thing for Twitter/blogging: the process is hard, but the hope keeps the heart & mind going. Quality & patience is the key. At least I believe it is so.
@Magganpice
For Twitter, 12 and also 70 are relatively small follower counts – so, it doesn’t help pointing out that there were 70. And actually, he did start off with less.
Reminds me of this post: http://twitwank.wordpress.com/2009/02/27/how-to-be-jesus-and-found-your-own-cult-on-twitter/
@BrickandClick
Great points, and right on target in terms of the right way to build a ‘quality’ network on Twitter. When you spend more than year steadily making connections, learning best social media methods, sharing and soaking up information, checking each person’s profile and stream that follows, looking for interesting and smart people to follow, blocking spammers and NOT using automated follow/unfollow software (Twitter cancer) … it raises my fur when self proclaimed ‘internet marketing experts’ elbow their way into the room and use any method possible to try to go from zero to 8,000 in two weeks (and of course send DM spam). Take a peek at their connections. Junk for the most part. High numbers, low quality … a ruse to get on ‘top lists’ in an effort to grow even faster.
@AdamPieniazek
Who you follow is much, much more important than how many people are following you. I love Twitter for putting me in contact with people at the forefront of their fields who love sharing their knowledge. If no one followed me back I’d still be on Twitter gathering tips from the experts and gurus.
@rhyswynne
Okay, I’m scared, I spend far too much time on Twitter. I looked at the world “twelve” and thought it was some kind of tweet speak for something, and I couldn’t work it out :S
@jacobshare
It’s just like with the RSS subscriber count on blogs. Regardless of the fact that they can be artificially propped up, the count still appears as a measure of social proof for people who are just discovering your blog.
Your goals for Twitter will determine where the numbers should matter for you. If you’re just communicating with existing friends or peers, you won’t care about the numbers. For almost anything else though, having more *real* followers means better replies & more of them. Which is why I compiled this article:
47 Twitter Power Users’ Secrets To Getting Many Followers
@successfool
i think followers are important to a certain extent if you’re a business, a church, a non profit in some aspects. the numbers are the metrics to gauge whether or not your idea or message is spreading and having an impact in your marketplace.
the thing that is MOST ANNOYING to me is when people start to FLUFF their numbers and use autofollower bots to “game” their number of followers on Twitter.
it’s cheezy, it’s ridiculous, and most importantly, it’s defeats the purpose of “social media.”
last – jesus’ message is still one of the biggest messages of all time that continues to get people passionate.
if you have a message or idea that gets people excited, your numbers will start to grow.
the question is, are you insanely passionate about your message yourself?
@nhangen
Great post and that’s why I made Twitter Rockstar. I got so tired of the “follow people by the thousands” methodology. Not only is it a poor way to build a brand or a fan base, but it is also difficult to get to know people when you add that many at a time.
I like to let followers come naturally, my brand benefits from that.
@junkopartner
I’ve resigned myself to the fact that my follower numbers will be smaller, but I’d still like a few more, faster. I like how you tied the numbers to “your message.” My message, as set out in my blog, is probably for a smaller audience. But my twitter identity is a little broader, I suppose, and I wonder if my followers will just grow organically, rather than playing the follower/followee game.
Just like me, I followed Adventure acting and Brad Pitt followed me and Now whole World follow up..:)
@sptzllama
timeless principles still hold true, even in the brave new twitter world
@Richcroc
Yeah that’s why I switched off the autofollow thingy. I just felt like a fraud welcoming people that I don’t know & don’t have an interest in.
@markdykeman
Being followed by a person who follows 100 people or less is far, far more valuable than being followed by someone follows 10,000 or more. Followers aren’t always there to listen to your every word and it becomes exponentially harder to be heard as everyone follows everyone else.
@ecomind
A very interesting and educating article.
I read often Dave Ramsey’s books dough it is about financial insights, some of the things he also talks about is creating a controlled snowball effect.
I have to admit as a newbie I did try to create a follower avalanche instead of a follower snowball effect. And like most avalanches it got out of control, and it did more damage then good. So then you end up spending a lot of time doing damage control.
With time I see that I start now to earn more respect and grow my twitter influence, and it is much easier to give a proper response to your followers when you have earned their trust over time.
I am starting to go in somewhat the direction to think about myself as a brand on Twitter. Still a work in progress, but it has made a lot of change to my Twitter approach.
Cheers..
@bradhart
getting big numbers isn’t hard, it is knowing what to do with them once you have them that is the hard part.
@jmctigue
You have to start somewhere, so why not do the searches and the TwitterGrader follows etc. at the beginning? After all, you can blog all you want, but if you have no followers you are like a fallen tree in the forest. Once you get some momentum going, then you can let your following snowball, as long as you contribute a lot and provide value.
@jonmreid
Nicely written! This is not shark-jumping, this is an important reminder. I’m especially keen on the technology-spirituality connection, “Do for others as you would like them do for you.” A friend of mine asked, “Which is better: to follow, or be followed?” In response, I wrote a short post Saint Francis on Twitter.
@twitte_r_tips
Yes they do matter. It shows other people they should be following you or not. Even if you are boring.
@pneumatictweets
Thanks for your modest and encouraging words.
@MadlabPost
This post offers the type of inspiration and encouragement that I could use right now. I would love to have a lot of followers, but I am just getting into this whole twitter thing and lately, I have been getting more followers that call themselves “Internet Marketers” or some type of other get rich quick title. Their tweets consist of nothing but links to their products or services and the tweets themselves do not offer and real value.
So, lately, I have been seeing an influx of marketing followers that I then have to go in and delete or block from my page. That is such a waste of my time so I hope that I receive more followers of substance than what I have seen in the last few days or so. Your historical comparisons make it easier to understand one’s purpose when it comes to using twitter.
@hectorhenry17
I understand the point you will receive followers and have new ones if you offer good and useful information that the right point of the story, and good to apply in all matter.
thank you for the post.
@BlackMediaProp
Darren I love the biblical reference you use about the 12 deciphals..good stuff.. I know my twitter following sucks at the moment..but i did jump on the bandwagon..very late.
@bradhart
@hector Twitter is more about the relationships and conversations you have with people rather than the links you simply throw out. Most links are ignored accept by the people who you talk to.
@cbedon
To me it is not on getting numbers but getting people that you feel you will have a connection or a “network” with. Like the previous comments, people that in a give time you would reply to. Getting followers isn’t that hard now adays, but getting followers for the right reason, sort of is.
@tandemantiques
I do have a narrow niche, and I don’t ever expect large follow #s. I have said from the beginning that quality is more desirable than quantity. And now, 6 or 7 weeks into this twitter thing, I still feel that way. Sometimes feel a little inadequate when I see others numbers, but I feel that I am finding and being found by folks with dovetailing interests with whom I can give and get value.
Hilary
@tweetmessiah
I like this idea so much I think it would be to give it a real life test on Twitter. Who would like to participate in this experiment? I’m only going to accept 12 followers and see what happens from there.
@tweetmessiah
@tomgable
I like your idea. Build a relevant coterie. And don’t screw it up, as depicted in the classic Biblical prophet-cum-baggage movie, Life of Brian, from the Monty Python tribe.
@CatholicTechTip
Great Post. I just wish that you would have posted this last week, because I recorded a one minute twitter tip to the Hands & Feet Show (podcast). I would have mentioned your post.
@hectorhenry17
Yes @Brad i uderstand you you are right in my case it really happend juts ho wyou say, its not only show the link an wait that every body fallow iit you relly have to interact whit your falloweres too.
And i understand you point.
@denharsh
It does matter …though I recommend following only those..who make some sense to u….
yeah the number mattera alot the more then number of follower then more the traffic.