What Happens When You Add 1000 People on Twitter
March 3, 2008 by Kevin
Filed under Social Media
Last weekend in a fit of boredom and procrastination I decided to follow around 1000 Twitter members on my twitter account just to see what would happen. It took me about an hour and a half to add 1000 members but it gave me something to do besides school work and unpacking.
Statistically the results can be measured as:
1) I gained over 300 new followers on Twitter, basically gave me a 33% success rate. In all my time of playing around on social networking sites that is the highest rate of acceptance I have seen.
2) I received over 400 page views to my blog within a week of adding these Twitter members.
3) There was a small bump in RSS subscribers to my site, but I can’t say with any certainty that it was from twitter followers.
Socially what did I gain:
1) I found a lot of new people with interesting things to say and interesting blogs to read.
2) I exposed myself to a new and different community outside of my current sphere.
3) I learned that I can learn a lot by listening and reading throughout the day.
What is the long tail?
1) Continued growth and meeting people outside of my current circle.
2) A continued source of traffic, people have picked up on posts I have written and shared them with others. Not to mention the sharing of social bookmarking, from getting diggs to getting stumbled.
3) Having a source for post inspiration, a break from work, and a place where I can share ideas with people and read what they have to say.
I used to be really down on twitter as being a waste… I shouldn’t say twitter I should say microblogging in general. Personally I just needed to learn that just like any other social media your appreciation of it and the results you garner from it are based off of participation.
If you want to follow me on twitter I can be found at twitter.com/kp2575… I add everyone that follows me.
Wow.. I know that I love (and am somewhat addicted to) Twitter, but I don’t know if I could follow 1000 people!! lol… But you know, that is not a bad idea to try out. If it gets me a few more visits to my own blog, it’s worth the trouble!!
Yeah I am going to close the ratio a bit by checking if people are following me back, but I wanted to try this out.
Thank you for posting your “experiment”. I didn’t realize that many people would click through to see your site. Are you going to add another 1000 people?
Debby, I probably will… I want to close my ratio of following and followers a little more. I don’t want to come off as fake. Because I still have picked up a lot from these people and have made some good connections.
I don’t usually add back ’serial adders’ right away – but I do tend to check out their timestream, see if they have a blog, and see if they’re someone who contributes to the conversation.
You were a go in all 3 categories or I wouldn’t have added you.
Things that cause me not to add a ’serial adder’ back? Timelines that are 100% links elsewhere, no @— messages, pushing an agenda (i.e. adding people solely so they will check out product X)
It’s not just adding people that nets return – it’s providing value when they check to see who added them.
Hmm.. I am only following 144 tweeters. Can I copy all of your followings? :)
GeekyMommy… You are right if you are going to go and just add people without participating it is a waste. I think honestly I have gained more reading wise and conversation wise than I have with pure numbers.
Hart… lol go right ahead.
That is so sweet. I’ll have to set a chunk of time aside to add some contacts to my Twitter. Oh, I just added you as well. Here is
My Twitter Link if you’d like to add back.
I think that is a novel idea…however it also gives a wrong impression…of it all…I dunno…
I m just following sports related TWEETS currently…that makes more sense for us…
@allsportsfans