Until I read recently that 92% of US politician Newt Gingrich’s Twitter followers had been purchased, I didn’t realise there was a trade in such things. But a quick Google search reveals that buying tweeps is easy to do – and the prices are falling, with one site offering 1,000 followers for just £8 (and 10,000 for £44).
Now, I had often wondered why certain legal tweeters had so many followers….
Take one expert in “strategy & innovation in legal services”, who boasts over 30,000 Twitter followers (and follows less than 500 people). When this individual began following @legalcheek and giving us the odd retweet, I was chuffed and, in view of his apparent Twittersphere clout, immediately followed him back.
Then, the other week after I’d read about Gingrich, I checked this strategy and innovation guy’s follower count and noticed that it had jumped by almost 10,000 in just a couple of months. Here’s a screenshot of some of his recent followers.