So, you’ve signed up for Twitter after hearing what it can do for you and/or your business. Now what?

One issue most Twitter newbies face is not having an audience – followers. You may have a great message, but what is the point of that message if it isn’t reaching the right audience? Here are some tips on how to get more followers, and, most importantly, how to keep those followers!

Get rid of your TrueTwit validation service

TrueTwit works by reducing possible spammers and bots from following you by sending out direct messages (DM) to all the people who request to follow you. Your potential follower then has to click on a link inside the automatically generated DM that takes them to a website where they type in a Captcha in order to follow you. It’s a headache and a complete turn-off for potential followers. If President Obama’s Twitter account doesn’t have TrueTwit validation service, there is no reason you should have one either.

Don’t set up automatic DMs

There is nothing more impersonal than receiving an automated message after following someone that goes something like this: “Thanks for the follow. Don’t forget to like our Facebook page, visit our website, listen to our music, buy our album, and worship the ground we walk on”. We know you didn’t personally send that message, and we’re slightly offended that you’re asking us to put in effort when you didn’t. Which brings us to the next tip:

Socialize 

It’s called social media for a reason. If you get a new follower, send them a personalized tweet thanking them for following you. This encourages interaction, which is a key component for successful tweeting. Retweet (RT) tweets you find interesting, and thoughtfully respond to questions other tweeters ask. An involved tweeter is a happy and successful tweeter. Also, be sure to check out Twitter parties to find like minded people in your areas of interest!

Be interesting 

Twitter is all about engaging people and exchanging news, links, articles and ideas. But in order to stand out, you need to be unique. Your followers don’t really care that you just went shopping. Be witty about it! Tell them about a great deal you got at a certain store or how you had to fight off a little old lady to nab that last adorable pair of $20 Steve Madden stilettos (hey, it could happen).

Follow people

Don’t expect to magically get thousands of followers overnight just by sending tweets. Getting followers takes time and patience. Follow those who you find interesting, whose topics you can relate to, and those who will ultimately help to boost your account’s popularity. If your followers enjoy your tweets, they will RT to their followers, and so on.

Reward your followers

This is especially important if you own a business. To really get your followers engaged, start a contest or provide them with unique value. Although giving away an iPad  might be exciting, it’s more exciting to be given exclusive information for an upcoming pop-up sale, exclusive (valuable) coupon or a loyalty benefit. This also gives you the perfect opportunity to ask your followers to RT your tweets, and it promotes your name/brand. People love being rewarded, particularly if they’re already invested in (or love) your products.

Share your @username

Include it in your e-mail signature, in your LinkedIn profile, on your website, and on any other social media network that you use.  

Update your bio

That ‘About Me’ section is more important than you think! It’s your potential follower’s first impression of you, so you want it to stand-out. Include a recent headshot of yourself, your company’s logo or something that pertains to what you will be tweeting about. Nobody likes that default egg picture.

Have fun!

Sometimes we forget that Twitter is also a means for entertainment and not just for work. If you explore the network, you will meet more people with similar interests. You will find the process to be very rewarding once you’ve settled in and become a regular Tweeter.

Sources:

http://www.twitip.com/7-ways-to-be-worth-following-on-twitter/

http://www.mediabistro.com/alltwitter/10-ways-to-build-a-large-quality-following-on-twitter_b12298

http://www.bitrebels.com/social/how-to-keep-your-twitter-followers/

CAPTCHA was developed by a team at Carnegie Mellon University back in 2000 in response to a request from Yahoo! to quell the use of their mail services sending out automated spam messages. The result was a computer program, CAPTCHA or Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart. The idea was to have a program where images are created that humans can decipher but not computers, therefore diminishing the ability for automated systems to go in and mess with Internet traffic.

CAPTCHA is now found on almost all interactive sites. Before you post a comment on a blog or news site, a CAPTCHA is there to make sure you’re not using spamming software to boost SEO. Rate limiting is a common use of CAPTCHA in order to protect the integrity of sites for their human users. The theory is that a CAPTCHA test will not be seen as an inconvenience to human users as they use the features on a site once or twice while a software program designed to spam a system will want access over and over. That theory is debatable, no?

Buying concert tickets? Better have your quick-type fingers ready to pass the CAPTCHA test before time runs out. Ticketmaster would rather have their tickets in the hands of actual fans instead of scooped up by scalpers whose only intention is to re-sell the tickets at ridiculous prices.

As with any system, there are always those rebels looking to circumvent CAPTCHA via software and human means. Some software programmers have developed programs that attempt to crack CAPTCHAs in one of three ways:

• Pre-processing: the removal of ‘background noise’ from an image
• Segmentation: splitting an image into single character segments
• Classification: identifying characters in the regions of images

Some attackers/spammers have set up whole businesses, hiring workers (mostly in developing countries) to solve CAPTCHAs that are then archived and sold off to other attackers intent on getting around CAPTCHAs.

Since its inception over 10 years ago CAPTCHA has continued to become more prevalent and advanced, as have those trying to hack the system. CAPTCHA has been (and will continue to be) the ‘water locks’ system of the Internet, keeping the spam at bay for all of our personal enjoyment.

Articles consulted for this piece:

http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1812084,00.html

http://tech4b.blogspot.ca/2012/04/beating-captchas.html

http://paper.ycsns.org/)7_book/200703/20070348.pdf

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~biglou/recaptcha_science.pdf

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/26/technology/26captcha.html?src=me&ref=technology&_r=1&

http://web.archive.org/web/20071106170737/http:/ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jnNrQKxFzt7mPu3DZcP7_UWr8UfwD8SKE6Q80

http://web.archive.org/web/20060613111749/http:/www.ceas.cc/papers-2005/160.pdf