Just before I started writing this post I looked at my Twitter account. I had 1,621 followers, and was on 131 lists.

Before I began my adventure with social media I sought the advice of a social media coach. One of my first lessons was to" follow" 50-100 new people every day. I found there were lots of ways to accomplish this. The easiest and cheapest I found was to find someone on Twitter who had lots of followers. I scrolled down their list and clicked FOLLOW. It was a fast way to start following people, but later I discovered it wasn't effective.

Reasons this method is ineffective? Twitter accounts turn out to be inactive. The owners rarely use or OVERuse their accounts. Tweets are scams, spams or garbage.

Until I knew better, I would scan down a page and click FOLLOW, FOLLOW, FOLLOW wherever I saw a person’s face. It seemed to be a no brainer. I was sure that in a month I'd accumulate a follow list equivalent to the population of Rhode Island. I got giddy as I watched my follow list grow. However, when I took the time to think about what I was doing I asked myself how this was going to help me. I realized I could click "FOLLOW" buttons until my fingers were sore, but it wasn’t going to help me achieve my goal of making people aware of my book Living in the Heartland: Three Extraordinary Women’s Stories. What I needed, instead, was to have people follow me so they'd read the messages I tweeted.

Getting followers was a more complicated proposition. Not everyone automatically followed me. My mentor suggested I try Friend or Follow, a free program that shows who is not following me back. Ah, another no brainer. I thought: "Dump everyone who isn’t following me." But, this isn’t a fool proof method. I wasn't sure how long it had been since I had starting following some of these people. Unless they had an auto follow program I realized I needed to give people time to follow me. I didn’t want to unfollow someone I had just added. There were also people on the list I thought would be good people to follow. I decided these people might simply need a poke from me before they added me to their follow list. And, there ARE people who are SELECTIVE about whom they follow.

Another way I found to add to my follow/followers list was to purchase a program designed to increase followers. Some programs even target specific demographics. The programs are designed to search out Tweet peeps who are more likely to be interested in what I'm saying or selling. I REALLY believed in the power of the Internet, AND as I was in a hurry to be successful I decided that such a program would be a terrific way to build my Twitter empire. I thought I had nothing to loose by taking advantage of several free trial offers. What I discovered was that some of the programs weren’t user friendly. At least not for this newbee. I didn’t understand the social techie language, and I wasn’t interested in managing multiple Twitter accounts.

I dumped each program long before the trial period expired. I gave up on Tweet Spinner in less than 24 hours. I emailed the company right away to tell them I was canceling long before their five-day free trial expired. Tweet Spinner still charged my Pay Pal account for a one-year subscription. The company has refused to refund my money! I’m out $14.95. Pay Pal says I have to get a refund from Tweet Spinner, but after my first email exchange with Tweet Spinner they have stopped responding. My suggestion is don’t try any free trial offers if they ask for account information before the trial expires!.Some companies aren’t user friendly!

Adding 50-100 people a day and watching the numbers grow might seem the cheapest, least time consuming way to grow a list, after all some of those tweeps are going to follow you back. I admit it gets addictive watching the numbers grow. BEWARE there’s a Twitter posse. They patrol for speeders. You can commit a violation by adding people TOO FAST. I’ve heard it said that there is also a rule about the ratio between follows and followers a person can have. I don’t know what it is, because I quickly decided that I didn’t want to play the numbers game. Adding people for the sake of increasing numbers was in direct conflict with the NUMBER 1 rule on social media gurus lists of social media ‘dos’. NUMBER ONE is BE REAL.

A person can’t be real if they are only interested in numbers. My tweet count is 2,217! And, those aren’t auto generated tweets. Some guy a while back called me a conversationalist. Here’s how I operate. When I get a notice someone is following me, I check them out. I go to their Web sites. If they aren’t a bot or aren’t simply selling something I send them a personal tweet. If they tweet back we may continue our conversation.

During my introductory phase in Twitterland I spent more than an hour or more working on building and pruning my list – clicking follow buttons, weeding out non-followers or people with inactive accounts, or viewing mindless tweets. Now I may spend as much time, but I do it during the course of the day. I have conversations, and actually enjoy my time on Twitter. I’ve got special tweeps I look forward to “seeing” each day. I’ve got a tweep who talks to me in French. “Bon jour Martien. Comment ca va?” My French is tres mal, but I still look forward to talking to him. Yesterday, someone tweeted me a possible lead about being on the radio.

There are good people out there. But in order for me to find them, I had to stop playing the numbers game. I had to think about the people. Now, I don’t even look for followers, they find me.

So what’s with Twitter? Some say Twitter is IT. Others say Twitter is already OVER. What I say is: Don’t use or abuse Twitter, it’s the people who matter. My Twitter peeps may not be contributing in any significant way to book purchases, at least not yet, but I enjoy my peeps.

Just before I started writing this post I looked at my Twitter account. I had 1,621 followers, and was on 131 lists.

Before I began my adventure with social media I sought the advice of a social media coach. One of my first lessons was to follow 50-100 new people every day. There are lots of ways to accomplish this. The easiest and cheapest way to do this is to find someone on Twitter who has lots of followers. Scroll down their list and click FOLLOW. It’s a fast way to start following people, but it’s not effective. Reasons this method is ineffective? Accounts may be inactive. The people may rarely use or OVERuse their accounts. The tweets you get as a result are scam or spam or garbage.

My first approach was to scan down a page and click FOLLOW, FOLLOW, FOLLOW wherever I saw a person’s face. It seemed a no brainer. I thought this was an easy way to accumulate in a month a follow list equivalent to the population of Rhode Island. I got giddy as I watched my follow list grow. Then when I took time to think about how this was going to help me. I realized I could click FOLLOW buttons until my fingers were sore, but it wasn’t going to help me achieve my goal of making people aware of my book Living in the Heartland: Three Extraordinary Women’s Stories. What I needed was to have people follow me. I wanted people to read the messages I tweeted.

Getting followers was a more complicated proposition. Not everyone automatically follows you when you follow them. My mentor suggested I try Friend or Follow, a free program that shows who on your follow list is not following you back. Another no brainer. I thought: Dump everyone I find who isn’t following. This isn’t a fool proof method, however, because I couldn’t be sure how long ago I had starting following these people. Unless they have an auto follow program I needed to give people time to follow me. I didn’t want to unfollow someone I had just added. There were also people that I thought would be good people to follow. These people might simply need a poke from me before they added me to their follow list. There ARE people who are SELECTIVE about whom they follow.

Another way to add to your follow/followers list is to purchase a program designed to increase followers. Some programs will even target demographics. They have filters designed to search out Tweet peeps who are more likely to be interested in what you are saying. As I REALLY believed in the Internet AND I was in a hurry to be successful I decided a having a program would be a terrific way to build my Twitter empire. I took advantage of several free trial offers. Some of the programs weren’t user friendly. At least not for this newbee. I didn’t understand the social techie language and I wasn’t interested in managing multiple Twitter accounts.

It seemed that I dumped each program long before the trial period expired. I gave up on Tweet Spinner in less than 24 hours. I emailed the company right away to tell them I was canceling long before their five day free trial expired. They still charged my Pay Pal account for a one-year subscription. This company has refused to refund my money! I’m out $14.95 with little recourse. Pay Pal says I have to get a refund from Tweet Spinner. After my first email with Tweet Spinner they have refused to respond. My suggestion is don’t try any free trial FREE if they ask for account information before the trial expires! Some companies aren’t user friendly!

Adding 50-100 people a day and watching the numbers grow might seem the cheapest, least time consuming way to grow a list. Some of those tweeps are going to follow you back. Some of them are REAL and some are interested in conversation. I'll admit it gets addictive watching the numbers grow. BEWARE! I've been told there’s a Twitter posse. They patrol for speeders. You commit a violation by adding too many people TOO FAST. I’ve also heard there's a rule about the ratio between follows and followers. I haven't experienced either as I quickly decided that I didn’t want to play the numbers game. Adding people for the sake of increasing numbers is in direct conflict with the NUMBER 1 rule social media gurus list among their social media ‘dos’.

NUMBER ONE: BE REAL.

A person can’t be real if they are only interested in numbers. My tweet count is 2,217! Those aren’t auto generated tweets.

Some guy a while back called me a conversationalist. Here’s how I operate. When I get a notice someone is following me, I check them out. I go to their Web site. If they aren’t a bot or aren’t simply selling something I send a personal tweet. They may tweet back, and we may continue our conversation.

During my introductory time in Twitterland I spent more than an hour or more working on building and pruning my list – clicking follow buttons, weeding out non-followers or people with inactive accounts, and viewing mindless tweets. Now I may spend an equivalent amount of time, but I it over the course of the day. I'm having conversations, and actually enjoy most of my time on Twitter. I’ve got special tweeps I look forward to “seeing” each day. I’ve got one tweep who talks to me in French. “Bon jour Martien. Comment ca va?” My French is tres mal, but I still look forward to talking with Martien. Yesterday, someone tweeted me a possible lead to a television interview.

There are good people in Twitterland, but I had to be a good person to find them! I had to stop playing the numbers game. Now, I don’t look for followers, they find me.

So what’s with Twitter? Some say Twitter is the IT. Others say Twitter is already OVER. What I say is: Don’t use or abuse Twitter, it’s the people who matter. My Twpeeps may not be contributing significantly to book purchases but I enjoy my peeps. And, I'm learning they are looking out for me.

Find out about my new book Living in the Heartland: Three Extraordinary Women's Stories.

My women's is Living in the Heartland.