The [Updated] Sure-Fire Way To Gain Real Followers On Twitter

Some time ago, last year, I provided a simple tutorial on how to easily gain followers on the popular social networking site Twitter. The tutorial then revolved around a lot of manual work which with the use of free tools of today, you can acquire these numbers with much easier.

If you have under 2000 followers, then you might not be aware of the following limits of Twitter.

The following limits are as followed, stated by Twitter:

"We do not limit the number of people who can follow you, but we have put limits on how many other accounts you can follow.

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 follow limits, even high profile and API accounts.

In addition to this account-based limit, every Twitter account is technically unable to follow more than 1,000 users per day. Please note that this is just a technical limit to prevent egregious abuse from spam accounts. Accounts are also prohibited from aggressively following other users."
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Now that you are aware of these limits, I'll provide you with the easy way out to pass this 2000 following limit and also the harder way (which will start you off with following actual quality users).
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The easy way consists of using the service Twiends which allows users to follow people with a simple click, in return receiving seeds which you can spend to increase followers.

Simply use the referral link I shamelessly posted above (The word Twiends) to head over to the Twiends site which will then allow you to Authorize that app (I refer to it as a tool) with your Twitter account so you can begin.

Head to the People tab -> New Tweeps -> All
The above will show lots of avatars of users that are offering seeds to be followed. Hit follow on any amount of seeds you see that is 2 or higher.

What is happening is that when you follow them, the seed they have will deplete for however many they have posted. Once you've racked up a decent seed count, head to the Followers tab at the top of the page to make sure your twitter account is linked properly and to change how many seeds you give out. The higher the value of seeds you give out, the quicker you'll gain followers...however the sooner your stash of seeds will deplete. I usually keep mine at the value of 2 when I use the service (the value will show up as 1 to those who follow you).

Continue to build up seeds by following more people through the site and you'll hit that 2000 follow limit in no time.
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The more time consuming way to hit that 2000 follow limit, while gaining truly unique followers, is to use this service called Tweepi which doubles as a unfollowing service.

Click the login (via oauth) button then give the service time to pull your follower/following data.

Next, hit either the Follow followers >> or Follow friends >> button.
With this step you'll need to find a twitter account that has a decent amount of followers and a close number of following to ensure that a high percent of the users you are about to follow will actually follow back.

*Note: Try using a user that engages with their followers a lot to receive the best results. 

Insert their @ twitter name into the box then press Start >>.
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***For the most effective results: use the preset titled "Active users" and also use the columns: #friends and #statuses and #follow ratio.
***Follow people that have a follow ratio of 110% or lower for best results. Avoid following people with low status counts since they're more likely spam accounts.
***If their last tweet states "unknown/never", they're tweets are locked/protected.
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Now you'll see a list of 20 Twitter users that are either following this person, or are being followed by this person you have chosen. To raise this to 40 (and speed up this whole following process) simply scroll down to the bottom of the page and hit the Tweet button to promote Tweepi to your followers with a simple Tweet. After doing so, the number of Twitter users on the page you see will increase to 40.

Now for the boring and time consuming part (but speedy because you have me):
Click the box on the top person on the list then hold Shift (on your keyboard) while scrolling down (don't release shift yet) and click the last person in the list. You can release the shift button now. This will highlight all 40 individuals (20 if you didn't do the simple Tweet).

Now you can either follow all 40 now by pressing the Follow button at the bottom of the list or deselect any users you do not wish to follow. (Do this by holding the Ctrl button while deselecting people).

Now hit -> Next button at the bottom of the list and do it all again. Do this until you've hit your following limit or leave some openings so you'll be able to follow back any followers that stumble across your Twitter profile.

*Note: you can unfollow people the same way by clicking My Dashboard and then the Flush button will pull up a list of those who are not following you back. Give those that you have followed at least a few days to follow back. The service I mention later in this tutorial is a much easier method of doing so.
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Once you've hit this dreaded follow limit, after giving others reasonable time to follow back, it's time to unfollow some of the people that haven't been following you back.

There are many ways and resources to do just this. The easiest I've found so far is a little tool called ManageFlitter.

Once you're at the site hit the Start button which will link to your Twitter account through Authorization. Then the site will begin to pull your followers/following data. The more followers/following you have, the longer this process takes but trust me, it's worth the wait.

Now time for the easy part: the site should already have you at the Not Following Back tab. Now you hit the Expand button then click and drag your cursor around the thumbnails below. Doing this will highlight 100 users that aren't following you back.

From here you can scroll down and uncheck anyone that you want to continue.

Now hit Unfollow X Selected and over the next minute the site will send the request to Twitter. After it's complete if you refresh your Twitter profile, you'll the number of following has decreased.

*Note, after you have gained a decent amount of followers, you can do this process as much as you want. Try to give users a decent amount of time to follow back to prevent your account from being suspended due to aggressive unfollow (which I find to be following a bunch of people then unfollowing them without giving time to follow back).
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After you've surpassed that dreaded 2000 following limit, you can use the Tweepi service (mentioned earlier if you chose the easy way out) to continue building your network with actual quality Twitter users.
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I'll leave the other methods of gaining more followers on top of what you have for you to find out. Just simply engage in conversation and keep your followers updated to keep most of them around in the long run.
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Much Respect,
              Leland Yarbrough

[Due to the graphic nature of the content of my Twitter profile, I have left it out of the equation. That account has above 19,000 followers. If you'd like to follow me, simply contact me and I'll provide you with my Twitter name.]