Practice what you Preach on Twitter

I’m constantly amused by the SEO marketers, affiliate marketers, Internet marketers, and other related fields who preach programs to gain tens of thousands of followers.  I’m especially amused when they don’t have that number of followers themselves.

I also can’t figure out people who have confusing bios – maybe it’s an “in” joke with their friends.

Witness Stewart Harding.  If Stewart had a surefire way to get tens of thousands of new Twitter followers, you would think that he would have tens of thousands of followers.  Let’s say at least ten thousand followers.  Certainly you would not expect him to have 2,143 followers.  When I see this, it tells me that his plan to get me tens of thousands of followers must not work well, or he would have used it himself.  You know the whole, “I’m not just the president, I’m a client” thing; where’s his proof of results?  This is like a bald man being the president of the hair club for men.

Here’s someone who knows how to get thousands of followers, but they have only 204 followers.

Somehow it doesn’t feel like strong “truth in advertising.”  The most confusing ting is I can’t figure out what to expect from this person.  Is their location Virginia?  North Carolina?  Pennsylvania?  Maryland?  South Carolina?  Where is she local to?  And the Bio is confusing also.

Take an account like @concertreviewer.

No claims to bring you more followers, no promise to grow your global enterprise, no suggestions on how to get tens of thousands of followers.  Just a statement about writing for examiner.com about concerts, and an e-mail address to contact if you are in a band.

Next we look at @2tammytodd. 

Again, no claims to gain thousands of followers and earn money on Twitter, but a statement about what to expect if you follow her.

Also notice that she has more followers than either of the people who claim to know secrets about getting thousands of followers.

Now we see the profile of @joshuadenney.

Again, thousands of followers without telling you how to get them yourself.  His bio tells you all about him, although it’s hard to tell how much of it is honest.  There is that last sentence to consider.

I have recently gone on an UnFollow Frenzy (which I used to do only on #UnFollowFriday) and have removed many, many SEO marketers and affiliate marketers.  I’m much more happy now to not have their spam stream, and if they UnFollow Back, I’m OK with that too.  They weren’t going to be interested in my message.

The point here is:  Be honest with your profile.  If you tell me you know the secret to get 90,000 followers in 90 days (an actual claim I’ve seen), you had better have more than 90,000 followers.  If you follow three times as many people as you have following you, I probably don’t want your secret to getting new followers.