The more I use Twitter, the quicker I’m able to see if someone is worth following after just checking their bio for a few seconds. But sometimes, a few seconds isn’t even needed!

Here is a prime example. Today I was checking the latest people who followed me and came across one person in particular. I wasn’t going to link to his profile but I don’t see why I shouldn’t (see * at end). His profile is at @jongillardi.

Here is a brief description of his bio so that you get a clear picture of what I’m talking about :

• Profile uses a custom background and avatar.
• Profile has a full name but there is no bio/description.
• There has only been one comment. It was made on April 25th and reads ‘Setting up a new Twitter Account…’.
• Following : 2,000
• Followers : 1,612

So to review, this person has made just one update to tell people that he was setting up a new account, has not added a bio and after setting it up, has not updated it since.

There’s 2 questions this brings up :

1. I very much doubt that all 1,612 people following him are bots. Therefore, it begs the question ‘Why are these people following him’?. Why would so many people follow someone who isn’t even updating their account?
2. Why is this guy spending more time trying to get followers than actually using Twitter itself?

But the plot thickens. Whilst writing this post the guy added himself to my account then removed himself and then added himself again. Which confirms to me that he is using software for this (or has just way too much time on his hands).

So I refreshed his page a few times and saw that this technique is actually working for him. His follower count rose to 1,635, then 1,694 and finally 1,699. He is basically just following people and then unfollowing those who don’t follow back within an hour or so. Originally he was stuck at 2,000 following limit but he has now broke through that. It wouldn’t surprise me if I checked back to this account in a few days and saw it break the 10,000 follower mark!!

Overview

I’ll leave you once more with a few questions. First of all, why are Twitter not working more to stop people who are doing this. He could get to 50,000 followers this method and then change usernames, put on a different background and then claim to be some social media guru.

In my opinion that doesn’t make you a guru : putting your name into some script and letting it run does not mean you know Twitter, it means that you are just fine with gaming the system. But unfortunately a lot of people don’t realise this and may be duped by people using this method which is why I think Twitter should work harder to stop people gaming them.

Lastly I will leave you with perhaps a more probing question : Why are people spending more time following than actually using Twitter? It seems that there is a large group of people who are more focused on increasing their Twitter count than participating in discussions through Twitter. Bottom line, the longer you are active on Twitter, the more followers you will get so isn’t building relationships on Twitter more important?

* Note, I had to rewrite this post twice because of this guys actions. Originally I was not going to link to his profile or name him but I don’t see any problem with listing a bots profile. At the very least it will help you guys watch out for people using this tactic.