Is It Worth Buying Twitter Followers?

You don't have to be on twitter long before you see the ads and messages to buy followers. Maybe you have been stuck at 1,000 or 2,000 followers on Twitter.  It can be tempting to purchase followers and instantly boost your numbers. Should you buy followers?

In the publishing community, your social media numbers are public record. In a few minutes, any editor or literary agent can check your twitter numbers. Then they can make a decision whether the information in your proposal or pitch is real or exaggerated. Marketing departments in publishing houses are looking for authors with a large reach and social media connections.

I've recently seen a number of bloggers and social media experts tell their audience to never buy followers. To them it is a big no-no. I understand their reasoning and the encouragement for people to naturally grow their followers. In this article, I want to take a contrarian position and give you some ideas why you should buy followers.

First I want to tell you that I've purchased followers—not 10,000 or 20,000 at one time—but I have done it several times. Have you looked at my twitter followers (currently over 152,000). Why would I need to buy followers since I have more followers than social media guru Joel Comm? Several months ago, Joel released the third edition of his terrific book, Twitter Power 3.0 from Wiley.

I've been on twitter for many years (since 2009) and my number of followers has been growing. I didn't instantly get to these numbers. I love to experiment with different techniques to see if it will increase my followers. One of the aspects that I've tried is to purchase followers. 

Before I did it, several people warned me that I will be kicked off Twitter. It's possible but did not happen. Others contended these followers are fake and not “following” my tweets or information. That is maybe true but buying followers is a way to instantly boost your number of followers. This boost can impress new people who follow you and also others who are looking at your work to possibly purchase your books or even publish your work.

I did not spend a lot of money to buy followers. I've seen these ads and costs to purchase followers. They are outrageous and nothing that I would do or recommend. Here's the details of how I added followers. I went to Fiverr and searched for “twitter followers”  You will see pages of ads and possible vendors who will add a certain number of followers for $5.  I have no idea how they fulfill their promise to add new followers—but I know they do it and have experienced it several times with different vendors.

For a minute, let's think about this service. Your twitter following is stuck at 1,000 or 3,000 and you want to increase them.  Would it help your credibility or presence to go from 1,000 to 3,000 followers or 3,000 to 5,000 followers in 24 hours? I believe it would and for a minimum cost. I'm not advocating that you go overboard with this technique.  Yet buying twitter followers could help you in the platform building process or building your presence in today's marketplace.

If you use this technique in moderation, it is not the no-no, never do it that others advocate.  Have you ever purchased followers? Did it help you or hurt? Let me know in the comments below.