The challenge - the first to 2,000 people got a free lunch! If you don't want to read the whole story, just check out the important bit - What I have learned about quickly building a Twitter audience.
How to quickly build an audience on Twitter (800+ followers in 3 days)
1. There are numerous 'Viral Following' websites that claim to develop your audience using a concept similar to chain letters. As a standalone solution THEY DO NOT WORK
2. Follow 200+ more than follow you and give them 2 to 3 hours before unfollowing and finding more. Remember they may have got an email informing them that you are following them, so they may follow you even after you have unfollowed them. (Please note to all my followers, after the race to 2,000 had finished, I went through EVERYONE who was following me and followed them back!)
3. Twitter Karma is a great tool for easily finding those who are not following you back.
4. As you reach 2,000, it seems you can not follow more than 198 people more than you are being followed by.
5. Follow the sun when you try and build an audience (know who is asleep and who is awake!)
6. Since the experiment stopped, I've added another 200 followers. There is a latency after such a period of activity
7. There is no substitute for a great profile and great Tweets!
8. Be courteous with your new followers - during this experiment I've met some really nice people who I've had DM's with
9. If you intelligently target who you are going to follow, approx 50% follow you back within 4 hours.
10. There is no tool I have found that really helps in the development of an audience.
Here's the full story of the race to 2,000 - AtticManTrader vs EcoHomeBuilder
To be honest, I never felt like I was going to lose. On Thursday I was over 500 in front (AtticManTrader 1,500 vs EcoHomeBuilder 1,000). I was coasting to any easy victory, there was no way I was going to be caught.
On Friday morning the gap had closed to 100 - Eco revealed his tactic - he had simply decided to follow all my followers! I'd been building my account organically, following a couple of hundred of people every 2 or 3 days and pruning those that didn't follow me back. To be honest, I was not too bothered about getting to 2,000 first, but when I realised I was in danger of losing, I decided to use this as an experiment in 'rapid audience development'! My first action was simply to follow all Eco's followers, assuming they would follow me back. But that didn't happen and slowly throughout the course of the day, Eco nipped away at my lead. His strategy seemed to work in two phases. There was an initial swell in his numbers (as was evidenced by the overnight reduction of the gap to 100), but I also noticed over the course of Friday he was gaining almost double the number of followers as I was, despite us using identical tactics.
On Friday evening he overtook me and began to pull away. He now had over 1,700 followers whilst I had around 1,600. My tactic had not paid off and I needed something new to inspire people to follow me. I decided to go through my followers and locate all the Traders that were not following me. I quickly hit the 2,000 limit and all of a sudden I was unable to follow anyone. Eco was still pulling away and by Saturday evening it looked all over. I had amassed 1,820 and Eco had 1,940.
In a last ditch attempt to reach the finishing line, I decided to unfollow all those that had not followed me back. I did this about 3 times in the course of 2 hours, I was slowly gaining followers and with Eco no doubt tucked up in bed, I began to nip away at his lead. By the time I was done, the gap was about 100, with Eco on 1,950 and me on 1,850. I conceded defeat and headed to bed.
As per the norm, my son woke me up at about 6:30am, normally I spend at least an hour trying to wake up but this morning I was up as quick as a flash and logged into Twitter. Had Eco crawled over the line or was there still a sprint finish to be had? I was amazed to see I had collected over 110 followers during the night and I was now at 1,960! But surely Eco had done enough? I checked his count - 1,990!! There was still time!!
I frantically considered my options. I was on the 2,000 follower limit. My usual tactic of searching for Traders normally led me to a predominant US audience, but with the US fast asleep, this would have been pointless! Suddenly a brain wave! Attack the Aussie market! They were wide awake. But surely I couldn't russle up another 40 followers before Eco could find 10?
I quickly unfollowed about 150 people, giving me room for my new Aussie friends! Using Twitter search I followed Queensland and started following this account to find my new followers. After 10 minutes I'd added 4 accounts. Then another 7 and another 5 followed quickly. I was checking Eco all the time. He seemed stuck on 1,990. My account grew to 1,984. I unfollowed some more and found some new accounts to follow. After about an hour we were neck and neck at 1,990!! But I had all the momentum, his account was stuck in the mud.
Suddenly I got a text from Eco - He was awake - this spelled disaster! I was now at 1,994, so close!! I flicked over to his account - 1,992. He'd started following some more accounts (no doubt my new Aussie Friends!) Suddenly it was all over. Eco hit 2,000 with me at 1,994! I was gutted! He had won by 6 accounts! But what a race!
I crossed the finishing line about 5 minutes later, but there's no room in this game for second place :)
However I'm proud to report I'm now pulling away from him again. Maybe we can race to 3,000!!
Happy Tweeting all!
AtticManTrader
