My Twitter Tricks to Get Followers and how it got me in trouble

Every day I wake up with more twitter followers.

I have 5 twitter accounts and each of them with over 500 followers (@jasonloveslife has close to 6500). Each account is used for a different part of my business. One for this site, one for my Niche Site experiments, one for my comic character, etc.

My Twitter Tricks to Get Followers

It is very simple and takes only two steps

Follow a bunch of people who are interested in the things I’m interested in. These include comic books, movies, web comics, animation, business, etc.
UnFollow any of the people who don’t follow back within a week of me following them.

It is a very easy system and I use a few services to make this process easier (specifically Tweetadder).

THE PROBLEM, it is against twitter’s user policy.

On August 19, I was unable to access my twitter account Madman_of_Magic. At the top of the screen it indicated that my account was suspended and it gave a link to were I could appeal the suspension.

I went ahead and appealed it.

Hello,We understand that you’re contesting an account suspension. Please be sure to read this entire email; you will need to take further action in order to reopen your ticket and trigger a review of your account.Twitter suspends accounts for a variety of reasons:• If your account was suspended for aggressive following behavior, you should have received an email notification to the address associated with your Twitter account. You’ll need to confirm that you’ve removed all prohibited following automation from your account, and will stop any manual aggressive following behavior. To expedite your appeal process, please review our Best Practices page if you haven’t already, and then reply to this ticket with a confirmation that you understand our policies and will not engage in any prohibited following behavior.• Please take a minute to review the Twitter Rules.• If you received an email from admin@twitter.com saying ‘you’re being suspended’ or that we’re going delete your account, you’re safe; the email is fake. More information herehttps://support.twitter.com/articles/204820-safety-fake-twitter-emails• While we strive to avoid mistakes, it’s also possible that your account was suspended in error. If after reviewing the Rules, you have no idea why your account was suspended, just reply to this email indicating as much, and we’ll take another look at your case. Our apologies if the error turns out to be ours.Thanks,Twitter Support

After this message, I emailed them asking them to please forgive me, I love you, and will never do this again. I miss our fun little chats and looking into each other’s eyes over coffee…. OKAY what I really said (emailed) was:

I want to apologize for aggressively following.

What do I have to do to get my account back up and running?

Thanks for the help,

Jason Love

The creator of the Madman of Magic Comic Book

And guess what people!

2 Days later I received this email:

Hello,

Yes, your account was indeed suspended because we found that it demonstrated a pattern of aggressive following behavior. Following large numbers of users in an attempt to attract attention to your own account can be annoying to other users and is a violation of the Twitter Rules (http://twitter.com/rules).

Because you have stated that you will stop aggressively following other users, your account will be unsuspended within 24 hours. Please note that repeat violations may result in permanent account suspension.

Specifically, please be sure to take the following actions:

• If you are using tools to help you automatically follow users, please stop.
• If you’ve signed up for a service aimed at gaining followers, you’ll need to change your password, so they’re no longer able to access your account.
• If you were following large numbers of users manually, please don’t continue to do so.

This help page has more information on Twitter’s Following Limits and Best Practices: http://support.twitter.com/entries/68916, including our recommended following practices to avoid suspension. Please also take a minute to review our Automation Rules and Best Practices: http://support.twitter.com/entries/76915. Note that the only automated following behavior that Twitter allows is auto-follow-back (following a user after they have followed you).

Be aware that it may take an hour or so for your follower and following numbers to return to normal.

Thanks!

Twitter Support
http://support.twitter.com
@Support

Me and twitter got back together!

I still plan to use my following and unfollowing technique to get more followers. The main reason being I have met a lot of amazing people this way. I have even connected with people who I’ve partnered with on several projects. Those relationships are very important to me and with out using this technique, I would have never made those friends.

Take Away

You should use this technique to build up relationships with other twitter users, but be careful and don’t over do it because Twitter is waiting to slap you with a suspension!

Only follow people who tweet on things you are interested in and maybe they will follow you back.