[benmaxime]

I've got 1,000. Is that a lot?

Follow me:
ben lang (entrepreneurpro) on Twitter

[kimbeckers]

Hi Ben,

I think 1000+ followers is a great start but I also think that depends on how targeted your followers are.

Hope this helps,
Kim :-)

[GuyBBY]

Hi Ben-

There are many theories as to what the actual numbers mean, both pro and con, regarding Twitter following.

In one regard, the typical "bigger the better" seems to stand out in that you know that in some way shape or form, your pitch, comment, info or question is being seen by that many guaranteed people when you send it. Some, who leave the PC only to jump on TwitterBerry or Twitter for iPhone, will see almost all of the tweets from their followers, where as others still play favorites and give the true attention to those they know are more often than not very content rich and beneficial...and may only jump on Twitter once or twice a day to check them out.

Just like in the case of email, as Twitter has grown so has the potential to create spamming accounts and auto messaging that really seems to take a bit away from the altruistic "real people, live time" approach. So, if 300 of 1,000 followers are GetRichQuick and 30secondAbs (each of which would probably be following 30,000 people, have 5,000 followers, and every Tweet would be a promo or offer that is in your face) well then you can just assume you have 700. And if out of those 700, 500 are just following you because they want to build up their potential to market their message further, and/or use your information but have never interacted with you or engaged you, well then again you may as well assume you have 200 true and interested people following you.

You will notice that there are Twitter Celebrities out there (Laura Fitton (Pistachio) on Twitter, Guy Kawasaki (guykawasaki) on Twitter, etc) and they have rather even following/followers ratios. However, there are other highly successful entrepreneurs, bloggers, business leaders, etc that have thousands of followers and are following just a "handful" of people themselves. This makes sense if you think about it because, just as they needed to do to become successful, they need to limit their information and time on Twitter and gear it to maximum ROI on their time spent there. Richard Branson (richardbranson (richardbranson) on Twitter) is a good example, where even though 6,000 is a large amount, compare it to those who are following him. It is interesting to look at who truly limits themselves to follow only those they see maximum value and those who return follows almost all the time.

All in all, it really depends on what your motive is with your use of Twitter. Personally, as long as it isn't spam or a worthless updating feed that sends out 10 at a time, I like to follow back and see what I can learn from their contributions and if there are any potential benefits in a business way in getting further in touch with them.

Feel free to chat more, also, I will see you on Twitter

Guy

Guy Mitrano (GuyBBY) on Twitter

[Veribatim]

Wow, Guy really said most of what need to be said, but I'll add one thing. I believe this is the best reason to have a big number of followers: Polling.

I think Twitter offers a great service and a great way to connect with people and it helps my business, but the one thing I love the most is being able to poll a huge number of people quickly. These people are competitors, customers, associates... black, white, asian, young, old, male, female... and some of them I will never meet in real life. But when I need feedback, I go to Twitter first. The variety of answers alone makes following a large number of people important to me.

I'm not saying that 30,000 followers makes for a "useful" twitter account, more a general point about diversity. Its like all networking. Its better to know-of 1500 people and really connect with 30, than know 150 and only connect with 3.

Just adding my two cents!
Kat

[discountedclothing]

Less than 100 i guess but there are my friends. and Happy to share my ideas with them.

Here's my Twitter account
GieMiller (giemiller) on Twitter

[paul2145r]

I keep my primary Twitter account 'clean' more or less. I follow people that contribute to my feed, not just to keep my random followers happy. If someone starts spamming or constantly filling my feed with garbage, they get a warning, then get unfollowed.

[Shahab814@yahoo.com]

right now I have zero followers

[dfveteran]

Ill have to agree. Numbers don't matter if none of them are targeted to your niche. Twitter is a great resource if you do it right. I only have about 1000 followers (always growing), but they are all targeted and I get pretty good results out of it. Good luck!

[ianternet]

twitter is def valuable! i use it alot to market stuff

[BizGuy]

Yes, GuyBBY did have some valuable info to share in the above comment!

We have about 1,000 targeted followers on YoungEntrepreneur.com's twitter account. Follow us here!

Here are a couple of articles I recently wrote about Twitter:

Why You Should Be Twittering

45 Pros You Should Be Following on Twitter

And here is an interview that I did with Carrie Wilkerson whom has over 40,000 followers:

Blogtrepreneur Interview With Carrie Wilkerson

Hope you find them helpful!

Adam T.

[RateMyFresh]

i still have not understood how to use my twitter and i always want to spell it tweeter lol

[jingwen]

I think twitter is a good site to recommend your site if you have enough followers,it jsut like myspace,facebook,a sns market.

[GhostFac3]

I love twitter, and I feel one good person is enough value for me, because it can have a domino effect with retweets.

Let's be friends!!
Justin Callaway - @GhostFac3

[deanver]

i haven't tried using twitter yet for marketing stuff and even on some personal stuff.. i think if i have may followers like ashton kutcher has that would be great

[benmaxime]

Thanks GuyBBY! Great post, really appreciate all the info you stuffed in.
Also thanks everyone else for their two cents.
Keep posting, love to hear more!