Oh, Bit.ly—how I love it! Let me count the ways: One, the way it lets me glance at the click rates other users get.

Well, that’s the only way I love it. I have a hobby of glancing at the clicks supremely influential users get, and I long ago came to see how important having a strategic growth strategy really is. After all, Twitter success isn’t about the number of followers you have, it’s how many of them interact with you. I’m shocked to see how some users, with follower counts in the hundreds of thousands or millions, get clicks in the hundreds, or low thousands. Their followers aren’t invested! What a waste of everyone’s time.
The shining paragon

On the other hand, here’s an example of an account with overwhelming influence—@cwgabriel, one of the daring duo from Penny-Arcade. Gabe announced on his website that he had created a Twitter account in February and hit 40,000 followers instantly. His bit.ly clicks routinely see tens of thousands of clicks (here’s just one example) and he is awash in @ replies. His audience adores him, and you can bet he isn’t wasting his time when he fires up Tweetdeck.

What’s heavier, a ton of bricks or a ton of feathers?

I’ve managed quite a few Twitter accounts in the past couple of years and I’m really starting to appreciate the value of an organically grown and cultivated account. The followers are genuinely interested in what you are sharing, and that makes chatting with them a pleasure. But for every account I’ve helped to carefully grow, there are many I’ve inherited that were built with an emphasis on growing followers, and damn the torpedoes. If you’re working this way…

1. Follow hundreds of people.
2. Wait a few days for them to follow you back, then un-follow everyone and start over.
3. ???
4. Profit!

…you’re doing it wrong.

OH MY GOD I DID IT WRONG! What do I do now?

Writers have a saying: “Sometimes you have to kill your babies.” I know you’ve spent a lot of time building up your following, but I’m afraid the only thing left to do is prune it back and do things properly. It will hurt…but we can make it through this! Follow these steps and you’ll be set straight:

1. Make a list of your followers who you’re certain are valid targets.
2. Go to Twitter Karma and log in with your Twitter credentials.
3. Wait for Twitter Karma to do its job. Yes, it takes a long time, depending on your number of followers, the time of day, and the whims of the gods. If it fails, start from scratch.
4. Checkmark the boxes of all the people you are sure aren’t valid targets, then DOUBLE-CHECK YOUR WORK.
5. Purge the list.

Aargh, okay I’m done—what now?

There are a ton of ways to grow your following legitimately. My favorite? Go to WeFollow, search for a tag that coincides with what you are trying to promote, and start following everyone on the list. The beauty of WeFollow is that people list themselves voluntarily—so you can bet, for example, anyone you find under Chefs cares about chefs, cooking, and food.

What about you?

What’s your preferred method of growing a legit Twitter following? Sound off in the comments!