The number of Twitter followers clearly indicates the popularity of a particular person and taking this into account, majority of the Twitter users try to get as many as followers as possible. It is always good to have a high number of follower count in Twitter, but what is the use if majority of them are bots or artificially attained followers.
If a Twitter user is really popular in his niche, then he is sure to get followers naturally, rather than going after various methods of getting followers. So the best Twitter profile is that which has got a good number of followers in the natural way and such types of Twitter profiles are the ones that are to be followed by us. Consider that we are following a profile which shows a huge number of followers and majority of them are bots or are not naturally obtained ones. Here you would not be getting any benefit of following such a user as even if he shares your posts, it would vanish somewhere without being re-shared by his followers.
On the other hand if you are following a profile which has genuine followers that are obtained naturally, then the chances are that if he shares any of your tweets, it has got a higher chance of getting re-tweeted by his followers as most of them are genuine and might be more active. So before following any Twitter profile based on the count of its followers, make sure that the user has created such a number of followers in the natural way and they are authentic.
There are various means by which Twitter users acquire followers and some of them include mass following (expecting some of them to follow back), use of automated tools, joining paid programs to get followers etc. There are various methods to check whether the Twitter follower count is worth the profile and here I would like to discuss few of them, which you could try out next time when you start following profiles.
1) Checking the Activity of the Followers
You can check the authenticity of the Twitter follower count by checking the timeline of the followers present in a particular Twitter profile. If they are not having updates for a long time, then that Twitter user is of no use. It simply gives us that the Twitter user is no more active and it might be even created as a fake profile some time back.
2) Checking the Timeline of the Followers
An engaging Twitter user would always have his timeline filled with interesting tweets from various topics. If you see that the profile is having only tweets from a particular topic and that too the same content over and over, then you can easily come to the conclusion that this account is fake. On the other hand if the timeline is filled with interesting Tweeps then that profile is worth following.
3) Checking the Engagement of the Follower
If you see that the timeline of a Twitter profile is filled with Tweets which include self started tweets, retweets, applause, encouragement and wishes to other followers, the you can come to the conclusion that the particular Twitter profile is quite engaging and is a good bet to follow. On the other hand, if there are only tweets and no other activities, then you need to suspect that the particular Twitter profile is meant for spamming and faking.
4) Checking the Follower Accumulation Rate of the Twitter Profile
Checking the rate at which a particular Twitter profile gets followers can also help you in determining whether that particular Twitter profile is having authentic followers. There are many online tools which helps you to see the follower accumulation rate of a particular Twitter profile. If you see that the accumulation rate is constant, then that particular Twitter profile has the highest chance of being legitimate. On the other hand, if the Twitter accumulation rate is not consistent and shows high rate in a particular day and a low rate in the other days, then that particular Twitter profile is sure to be gathering followers in the unethical ways.
5) Checking the Twitter Grading
There are a few online tools which helps you to get an idea about the rank of your Twitter profile. Such tools grades your profile based on a large number of criteria and the overall grading helps you in knowing whether an account is worth following. The profiles which are active and engaging, gets a good grading in these tools. The profiles which have a large number of fake and inactive followers get a bad ranking and hence this tool will come handy for checking the authenticity of Twitter followers.
As always, great post! Certainly relevant and educational and a topic that many are curious about but often don’t know where to begin! This is a great start!