Did you know that Twitter has limits on how many accounts you can follow until you start hitting some speed bumps?
Mmhmmmm. It does, it’s slightly complicated, depends on how many people follow you, and it starts when you follow your 2,000th account.
After that, you may get this type of response when you go to follow your local new cupcake shop that opened up in the spot of the old cupcake shop —>
Um, what’s the deal?
Twitter’s technical follow limits:
Every account can follow 2,000 users total. Once you’ve followed 2,000 users, there are limits to the number of additional users you can follow. This number is different for each account and is based on your ratio of followers to following; this ratio is not published. Follow limits cannot be lifted by Twitter and everyone is subject to limits, even high profile and API accounts.
So what’s going on and what can you do to connect with more followers and followees?
- Don’t go “follow crazy” right off the bat. If you’ve just started a Twitter account for your business, don’t start off by following every single celebrity on Earth. Relax. Take a breath. Beyonce will live if she doesn’t have her 1,698,285th follower.
Follow local and/or relevant accounts. If you’re a butter company, you want to follow people who like butter. Search “butter” in the Twitter search field. Search other butter companies. Follow people who are talking about them. Follow the butter companies themselves. Hell, they need to know you are their competition!- Follow your friends. Twitter gives you the opportunity to import a variety of different types of libraries for you to follow (as you can see to the right). They can be from your Gmail, Yahoo! (who uses Yahoo!?) or other accounts. Click “follow all” if you dare or simply go through and follow those you’d like to connect with. If you follow those around you in your community, your account is more likely to get recognized and followed back.
- Interact. Interact. Did I say, “Interact”? Oh, yeah, I did. That’s because you need to interact with people on Twitter once you start an account for other people to notice you, talk to you, or even give a crap about your butter.
- Remind yourself. If you or your business is new to Twitter (or any other social media account for that matter) you need to treat it the same way you treat paying the bills or taking out the garbage or telling your one employee that his girlfriend isn’t allowed to sit there for 6 hours straight, remind yourself. Set an alarm. Make it a part of your work day. Social media isn’t an “extra” part of what you do anymore. It’s part of what you do.
Remember, it’s all going to be okay. Take some deep breaths. Bookmark this link. Come back when you need to or reach out to us on Twitter, Facebook, or E-mail.
Love your brand.