Following on Twitter is becoming somewhat of a religion to many users of this versatile yet fun software a 7 letter word which up until a few years back was jargon for bird song. And the genius that came up with the idea to use it as the name of what is one of the fastest growing social networks most be one of the most popular people on the planet as everyone will be with him following on Twitter.

But enough poppycock, you're here to see how you can gain a massive following on Twitter. Hopefully my choice of "massive" is adequately accurate.

* First and foremost - Decide what you are using Twitter for. If it is purely to see how many followers you can get then there are various tools at your disposal for searching the "twitterverse" for anyone and everyone you could possibly want to add. Bear in mind that if you add randomly, the chances of them following you are remote.

Create meaningful Tweets- Have some influence or purpose for your followers. It is vital to create Tweets with real meaning and not just "My breakfast was awesome!" or "Isn't the telly awful tonight?". Again it's down to your usage of Twitter. These Tweets would be fine for friends and family but do you really think potential customers or colleagues want to know these irrelevant items of conversation? Of course not.
* Be polite at all times - I cannot stress this enough. If you go on there and don't thank others for a follow or start verbally abusing others then trust me, you will see that following begin to fall rather sharply back to big fat zero! There are various searches that others carry out (some of them very influential on Twitter) and if they black flag someone then you might as well logout, create a new account and start all over again.

* And finally - Don't spend all day on Twitter, once you get into the thousands where your following is concerned, there is no way you could possibly keep up with everyone and what they're doing (Twitter may have derived from bird song, but do you think every bird on the planet knows what the other is doing?) One extreme example of someone wasting their life on Twitter had spent over 2500 in a year conversing with their 86,000 followers (Wow!). Exceptional following but what did it actually achieve except serious wrist sprain and lack of sleep? I'm guessing not a lot.

So just to wrap up, start using and following on twitter, become part of what is a very fun application, full of useful information and interesting people. Just remember the above points and your manners and within weeks you will have a dedicated following with you following on Twitter, mark my words!

Until next time,

Paul.