Had I thought to take a screenshot when I first started working with her, you would see that far more than 601 accounts showed up when I first performed this search. However, we’ve slowly been getting rid of these bogus followers over the past month (I’ll show you how to do this, in a minute).
You might wonder what the big deal is. So you b2c datasets bought a bunch of fake followers in the past and now you’re stuck with them. ‘What’s the harm? Who cares? Let them be.’
I believe it’s important to get rid of fake followers. As a marketer, I want to KNOW what’s actually going on. I want to know what’s working and what’s not. If I THINK I have 3,500 followers, but I’m getting virtually no ‘action’ from them, something is seriously wrong.
What do I mean by ‘action’? ReTweeting/sharing my Tweets is action. Clicking on my links and visiting my blog. Talking to me. If none of my followers are doing this, either there’s something wrong with my followers or there’s something wrong with ME. Maybe my blog content is rubbish. Maybe my Tweets are confusing. Maybe I’m inconsistent in my communication. Maybe I’m writing for the wrong audience. But if I do all I can to ensure I’m not the problem and I still don’t get any action from my followers, I have to look at how and from where my followers are finding me. My analysis will be useless unless I first cull so-called followers who do nothing to serve my business.
The other reason it’s valuable to exile your fake followers is so your REAL followers (especially those thinking about connecting with you) take you seriously. If they check out your followers and see thousands of inactive (and obviously fake) accounts, what does that say about you? If, however, they see thousands of genuine Twitter users actively choosing to follow you, they get a far more positive impression about you.