Twitter help - how do I get followers?

[strandedatseasonsgreetings]

Sorry I know people keep asking about Twitter but I could do with some help.

I joined a while ago and one of my FB friends (an old colleague) kindly became a follower. I forgot about it for a while and then went on it today and sent a twitter message to Krishna Guru Murthy (who was one of the slightly random people I decided to follow, just to see how it all worked).

Anyway - he is now following me and must think I am very sad to only have one other follower.

How do I get more?

And should I be writing lots of exciting tweets to keep him/others following me?

Anyone? Do I have to put this in AIBU? (I know, I know, saturday night not a good night to post)

Well, without any input, there's nothing to 'follow'.

Personally, have not been sucked into this - I thought that 'followers' and 'friends' being counted on Twitter and Facebook respectively were a bit 'sad' ...

... the need appeared to me to be for the ego of the individuals asking [radio presenters] - though they would also have an arbitrary measure of popularity, if they could point to (say) 5,000 followers, so were perhaps also doing it for a rise in pay, or a new job in the future...

Thanks for replying. I must admit I have yet to work out WHY Twitter but I am terrified of being an old fogey dinasaur (I don't have an I-phone either) so trying to at least work out what it is...

I have a grand total of three followers now. But still can't work out how you get more. Do you have to invite people?

You need to follow other people, preferably people who you share interests with (politics, Mumsnet etc) and engage with them. You post things, respond to things others have posted, post links that interest you. It requires a fair amount of input.

Also, use hashtags, if you're up watching the ashes you would tag all tweets about it with #ashes for example.

oh crumbs ok thanks I have a feeling Twitter must be for people with more time on their hands than me. Who has the time to be writing little messages all day long?

don't follow celebrities you admire - you will never lust be interested in them in the same way

You have to spend an awful lot of time on twitter to build up a large following - you have to follow 100's ( if not 1000's ) of people and reply to their tweets to get "known " - the people you follow will usually follow you back ( although that's 50/50 ) I've de-registered twice (bored ) - but I've just got back on as I missed chatting to a few people. (I only follow 30 people - experience has taught me twitter is about quality not quantity ).... I have 25 followers. ( he he ) but they're A1

I follow fellow Mumsnetters (both ex and present) and we have a LARF of an evening.

I dont bother with celebds really, they never follow back, why would they?

And I'm not on there all day, just on and off when have the time. I think if you have an iphone its a bit easier, so my spies tell me

I'm @CybilLiberty

thanks cyb I will follow you and see what happens.
you say celebs never follow you back but the reason I was spurred to post this was because krishnan guru murthy IS following me (and is only one of 3 followers) so thought ooh err better get some more friends.....

OTOH, maybe some of krishnan's followers might spot your name as someone he follows, and start following you...

Oh yes, apart from radio presenters, I have seen a few "special offers" mentioned from online firms where they say something like "Special offer on Monday, follow our Twitter feed".

As a non-Twit, I may miss out on the odd discount deal, and will make it known to such firms that they are alienating some of their potential customers by such methods.

They're not alone in taking decisions to appear trendy, but I think they are moving just a little too fast... and despite 30+ years in IT, I'm happy to leave them to it, or even give some of them a 2-finger salute...

HA HA I would have to actually post something worth wanting to follow me for for that to happen Network Guy. I fear I lead a pretty dull life these days.

Or should I just lie? After all no-one knows who I really am. Shall I just write about meeting Barak Obama later today?

I'll follow you what's your twitter name?
I'm grumpyww
You will be funny though won't you

Holly - I would love to say I am hilarious but in fact I am not even vaguely amusing. just bemused. user name is strandedatsea. what's yours? I am now following 9 people but so far no real gems. Krishnan made too many pancakes today. Cyb (see below) buying curtains....trying to follow the wikileaks stuff but as people can only use about three words per tweet it's not particularly insightful....

I'm on there as belledechoc. Follow me and look on my followers list, then follow some of them and take it from there. Write the odd tweet to show you care, it's like a facebook status update but in 140 characters (which is annoying)

oh sorry your name on twitter is grumpww - I thought you were just telling me you were grumpy!

holly - have just seen where you are from, where I will soon be moving back to! What's the chances of that!

belledechoc - couldn't find you - is it case sensitive?

My search isn't working either. It's not case sensitive, try belledechocolat, it should work.

woo hoo I found you!

I'm @alouiseg, I'm dull as ditchwater but if you follow some of the people I follow you'll be entertained.

thanks, I feel like I almost belong in twitter-world now. I have 4 followers. Unfortunately one is Lynx Car Hire (how did that happen)? Sitll I am following a fair few now....

Some will follow you back, give it time

Hurumph! I'll haave you know my curtain buying escapades won great plaudits from my followers

Now, who are you dafty on twitter? I MAY follow you

sorry thought it was daftpunk who started this thread for some reason! Apols stranded