As an internet entrepreneur in pursuit of passive and residual income, and you want to get your brand noticed, you absolutely need to be involved in social media; in some form or another.  Twitter and Facebook, right now, are the most popular social media tools on the Web.  I’ve begun branding my Smart Income Blog through social media and it’s really cool and fun.  But at the same time, I hate meeting someone and they introduce themselves as a “Social Media Consultant” or “Guru”.  My BS antenna immediately goes up.   Not for everyone, because there are some really great consultants out there.  But, the bad ones are making the good ones look bad.

Some of the “gurus” will tell you- “more followers, more influence.” One flawed assumption that people make on Twitter is that just because you have thousands and thousands of followers, you have influence.  Nothing could be farther from the truth.  A large number of those Twitter followers are automated “bots” that are following you based on certain keywords you use in your tweets.  They feel they can build your brand’s profile by providing you with a service that you can do for yourself.  If you take the time to do it.

There is also that person that will sell you the “Secret to Gaining Thousands of Followers in Hours.”  These people are no better.  If you really want to build followers, you need to play by the rules.  Here are a few ways to get and keep Twitter followers- “organically”. (Translation- the right way):

Your content

The real reasons that people are gonna follow you on Twitter is because they are trying to sell you something or you have something interesting to say.  Whether you’re funny or sarcastic or you just provide good content- people will follow you.  The flip-side to that is if every tweet you send is an affiliate link, people will unfollow you. Quick.  If you’re going to do affiliate links, space them out a bit.  Bombarding people with guerrilla tactics like that won’t endear you to loyal followers.

You follow them

This is the real reason people follow you, in addition to your content.  Here’s an extra tip on getting followers- Follow people who have fewer followers than you do.  Also, pay attention to the number of followers that person has in ratio to the number of people that person is following.  If that person is following more people than are following them, it could be a spam account or they’re just not interesting enough to be followed.  Also, make sure you view profiles of the people who’re following.  If they only have 10 tweets, but have 1,000 followers, they’re probably a bot.  Personally, I don’t follow people who don’t have a website listed in their profile.  While having a profile is no guarantee of anything, it lets me know you have a piece of internet real estate and it gives the person more credibility, in my eyes.

Blogchat

Have you been on Twitter on a Sunday evening and noticed the hashtag “#blogchat” flying through your stream? It’s blogchat and it was started by Mack Collier.  It talks about tips and best practices in the world of blogging.  There are usually from 8pm-9pm EST. I saw this for weeks from the people I was following but never really got what it was until I just watched and joined in. The information is fast and furious, but you learn really quickly. The key here is making good contributions to the conversation and ask questions, as well. I was really inspired afterward and now look forward to it every week for more information. After my first night in, I had, maybe a dozen followers.  Over the next few days I grew to about 160 followers. It was because I added value to the conversations that were happening and people seemed to like what I added.  I’m going to do a more in depth blog post later about Blogchat because it is one of the best networking events that you can participate.

Please don’t fall for the “get followers quick” schemes out there.  Just like you can’t build a Darren Rowse or Brian Clark type following overnight, neither can you build a million Twitter users overnight.  You may get a lot of followers, but they won’t be the targeted followers.  Remember, in the race of earning passive income, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.  I can almost assure you, if you build relationships first, the “smart income” will come.