Twitter, as I’m sure you are aware, is a vast social network. It is also becoming the best way to advertise yourself online. Whilst a number of users are only on Twitter to keep up with their friends and share what they are up to, a vast majority of Twitter users are there to share content. Because of this, your ‘follower count’ can be a very important thing.
Twiends is an online tool to help you increase your follower count, but it is unlike most other web based tools and websites with the same goal. A lot of websites have the simple aim of allowing anyone to follow you which may result in a large follower count, but you will probably have very few followers who are actually interested in what you have to offer. What is most important when it comes to Twitter followers, is the quality – not the quantity. 1,000 un-engaged followers is a lot less useful than 50 or so followers who actively get engaged with the content you share.
Twiends is able to offer you the ability to gain new, quality followers via very simple means!
I’m convinced already! Sign me up!
Some of you probably aren’t that easily convinced, so I’ll explain a little more how Twiends actually works.
When you join Twiends, your Twitter profile is linked to your account. You are now able to enter up to five interests – to make the most out of Twiends, I’d recommend you fill in all 5 interests! These interests are what will allow like-minded individuals to discover and follow your account. Whilst providing a directory of users who share interests would be a good in itself, Twiends goes one further and gives users an incentive to follow you, the incentive? Seeds.
Seeds
Seeds are, in essence, a virtual currency. You are given around 15 seeds when you join. When someone follows you, you lose seeds and when you follow someone, you gain seeds. Now this is the part where the ethics of ‘Twiends’ get a little murky. Of course people are going to follow you just to earn seeds and if you are only looking to increase your follower count, then that probably isn’t a problem for you. But what about if you are looking for those ‘quality followers’.
By default anyone can follow you, so to ensure that you are more likely to be followed by quality followers you are going to want to change your settings. In your settings, you can adjust who is allowed to follow you – the key setting here is the ‘Drop Rate’. Drop rate is how quickly someone will stop following you after they take your seeds. You can change the settings so anyone can follow you – regardless of drop rate or, more importantly, you can change those settings so only those with a low drop rate can follow you.
By ensuring only those with a low drop rate follow you, you are increasing the likelihood that you are going to gain more followers who are likely to engage in what you have to say.
You are also able to alter how many seeds people earn by following you, this ranges from 2 to 10 – obviously the more seeds you offer, the more likely people are to follow you. I’d recommend offering a low amount to ensure people who follow you aren’t motivated entirely by earning seeds (although, this will be a play a part in everyone’s decision to follow you or not).
If you are low on seeds, you can always buy some. But I’d recommend against this. Earn seeds by following people with the same interests as you and you will both benefit.
Sharing Interests
What your home screen looks like on Twiends
As you can see, when it comes to following other users to earn seeds, there are three types. ‘Tweeps with common interests’, ‘Other interesting tweeps’ and ‘Featured users’. Above the follow icon is the number of seeds you will earn by following a user. Users who share an interest or multiple interest with you are displayed on the left and these are the people you want to follow!
If you are a little more desperate for seeds, then you might want to follow some of the ‘Other interesting tweeps’ as they will often earn you more seeds but they aren’t going to increase your engaged audience. I would however recommend following the featured users on the right. These users are offering large amounts of seeds for a follow, whilst it is arguable that they are not quality followers (if they follow you back), the seeds they offer give you a much greater chance of increasing your own engaged audience.
Final Thoughts
Websites such as these are definitely a grey area when it comes to building an audience. ‘Following for a follow’ (which is in essence, what Twiends is) is often frowned upon. But I think users of this tool will fall in to two camps, those who simply want a larger follower count and those who want a larger captivated audience. Depending on what you want, make sure you choose the correct settings and you could see a great increase in your website’s, or personal outreach.
I’m sure people will have some strong opinions on this topic so feel free to leave them in the comments – I’d love to hear what you think.
