Days 39 Daily Report

Today 44 tweeters followed me back (see updated list Followed back list 1,501 -2,000). Thanks to all of you!
I have 156 new followers (7 stopped followed me for some reason) with total number of 3,403 followers!

To check hypothesis: tweeters (from "follow back" lists) with 1,000 plus followers are more likely to follow back, comparing to newbies, I followed  and tracking two type of tweeters from follow back lists:

1. newbies

2. tweeters with 25k lists.

This will last for 72 hours (three days).

Meanwhile, after 12 hours: 45% tweeters with 25K followers followed back already vs. 15% of newbies

VIP follow back list of tweeters with 50K plus followers update - 105 tweeters.

New list: Follow back list of tweeters with 25K plus followers

Days 38 Daily Report

Today 31 tweeters followed me back (see updated list Followed back list 1,501 -2,000). Thanks to all of you!
I have 111 new followers (13 stopped followed me for some reason) with total number of 3,254 followers!

I have a feeling that there is a difference in quality of "follow back" lists: tweeters (from "follow back" lists) with 1,000 plus followers are more likely to follow back, comparing to newbies.

I will continue checking this hypothesis.

I created a new list: VIP follow back list of tweeters with 50K plus followers

Days 37 Daily Report

Today 95 tweeters followed me back (see updated list Followed back list 1,501 -2,000). Thanks to all of you!

I have 189 new followers (33(!!!) stopped followed me for some reason) with total number of 3,156 followers!

I still do not have any clue why 33 tweeter stopped following me! hm...

Below are 4 "follow back" lists with 1,580 active tweeters that will follow you back:

Followed back list 1 -500

Followed back list 501 -1,000

Followed back list 1,001 -1,500
Followed back list 1,501 -2,000

Days 31 - 36 Report

Last Wednesday (day 31) I changed my tactic: I started follow tweeters from "follow back" lists. On Wednesday (day 31) and Thursday (day 32) I followed 150 per day. As a result the total number of new followers started to increase. On Thursday I reached my next milestone of 2,000 followers. From that point Twitter limits the number of new followers. According to my simple calculations this limit is 10%. It means that if you have 2,001 followers - you could follow up to 2200 friends.

On my 33d day I decided to increase the number of tweeters to follow to the max. limit.

And from that point I followed new tweeters from the "follow back" lists till I was stopped by Twitter (technical) limit.

50% of my followers (1,545) followed me back. Thanks to all of you!

My updated follow back lists (fbl):

Followed back list 1 -500

Followed back list 501 -1,000

Followed back list 1,001 -1,500
Followed back list 1,501 -2,000

AND I DID IT IN 5 DAYS: FROM 2,000 FOLLOWERS TO 3,000!

What did I learn from this adventure:

1. The most effective way to choose tweeters to follow is:

a. chose the most recent "follow back" lists (from listorious.com)

b. chose active tweeters from the last hour

2. Do not forget to follow back. You must follow back within 72 hours, otherwise they will unfollow you. (See Feb,8 on the graph below: 89 unfollow me- I did not follow back exactly 72 hours)

3. Large number of tweeters use auto unfollow online tools. Before I started "massive" "follow back" action- I made a cleaned up: unfollow all tweeters that did not tweet at least three months (I unfollowed 90). And within 3 next days 71 unfollowed me. I checked those accounts - 60 of them were from that "dead" list. Amazing. There were accounts that tweeted last time in January 2009 and unfollowed me!

Day 31 Daily Report

Today I followed 150 tweeters and 83 followed me back (see updated list Followed back 1001 -1500 list). Thanks to all of you!

I have 142 new followers (9 stopped followed me for some reason) with total number of 1,990 followers!

 

Tomorrow I will continue following 150 new followers from various "follow back" lists. My second milestone of 2,000 followers is very close.

Day 30 Daily Report

Today I followed 0 tweeters and 7 followed me back (see updated list http://bit.ly/4nRfbw). Thanks to all of you!

And I have only 34 new followers (4 stopped followed me for some reason) with total number of 1,857 followers! 

Today I have less new followers than yesterday (53). My hope that everything will be back to "normal" (like during my first three weeks) were too early... I will try to analyze this new data input and bring some insights.

Tomorrow I will follow 150 new followers from various "follow back" lists. My second milestone of 2,000 followers is very close.

See distribution by country below:

Day 29 Daily Report

Today I followed 0 tweeters and 2 followed me back (see updated list http://bit.ly/4nRfbw). Thanks to both of you!

And I have 53 new followers (2 stopped followed me for some reason) with total number of 1,827 followers! 

Today I have more new followers than yesterday (36). May be everything will be back to "normal" (like during my first three weeks)... 

See distribution by country below:

Day 28 Daily Report

Today I followed 0 tweeters and 5 followed me back (see updated list http://bit.ly/4nRfbw). Thanks to all of you!

Today was the second "DAY OF SILENCE" (started from yesterday http://bit.ly/a7QewF) - no tweets and zero activity on the account. As a result: 36 (!!!) new followers (including 5 that followed me back) with total number of 1776 followers! 

Today I have more new followers than yesterday (28) and 70% more than day before (21 - when I sent 100 tweets with "irrelevant stuff" to my followers - sorry my dear FOLLOWERS:) ) 

And another interesting point: the number of people that stopped following me "magically" decreased! (from 16->3->2). Unbelievable... 

IT IS DEFINITELY  BETTER NOT TO TWEET THAN TWEET IRRELEVANT STUFF!!!

See distribution by country below:

Day 27 Daily Report

Today I followed 0 tweeters and 13 followed me back (see updated list http://bit.ly/4nRfbw). Thanks to all of you!

Today was the fourth time of "DAY OF SILENCE" - no tweets and zero activity on the account. As a result:  28 (!!!) new followers (including 13 that followed me back) with total number of 1742 followers! 

My first, second and third "DAYS OF SILENCE" from the previous weeks (see posts for ex:http://tr.im/KJoq, http://bit.ly/8M9xeB) provided almost the same results: 

It does not matter if you have 500, 1,000 or 1,500 followers: drop off was about 75% in a daily number of new followers.

What was common to previous weeks:

1. I tweeted daily

2. I followed everyone (or almost everyone)

3. I tweeted relevant stuff to my audience (or what I believed might be interested to my followers).

Something changed this week! And the only difference between previous weeks and this week is my hashtag initiative for helping newbies to acquire their first followers.

I stopped it yesterday (http://bit.ly/cfBzEE) and today I have more (28) new followers than yesterday (21)! And I did not tweet at all today!

And another interesting point: the number of people that stopped following me "magically" decreased! (from 16 to 3). Unbelievable... 

MAY BE IT'S BETTER NOT TO TWEET THAN TWEET IRRELEVANT STUFF?

I will extend "DAY OF SILENCE" (no tweets and zero activity on the account) for another day to check if the above statement is really true... 

See distribution by country below:

Day 26 Daily Report

Today 11 tweeters followed me back (see updated list http://tr.im/KXRW). Thanks to all of you!

And I have only 21 new followers (16 stopped followed me for some reason) with total number of 1,717 followers! 

I did not add any followers from "follow back" lists.

Today, I continued with hashtag initiative for helping newbies to acquire their first followers (this is my 6th day):

Here is my updated list "welcometotwitter" http://tr.im/LCek of newbies that I followed today (I followed 25 newbies today).

Bad news for my hashtag initiative(http://bit.ly/aMC9eL): 

1. Newbies' response was unexpectedly very low: after 6 days and following of 168 newbies - less than 2% added "newt" hashtag to their tweets

2. More experienced Twitter users did not response to my initiative too

3. My daily follow rate shrinked by 75% comparing to previous week!

I decided to stop hashtag initiative on this Twitter account for the following reasons:

1. High volume of similar tweets with "let's help newbies" message might look like a SPAM.

2. There was strong correlation between the increase in number of "let's help newbies" messages and dramatic decrease in number of new daily followers.

3. Unfollow daily rate jumped by 300%.

My 27th day on Twitter will be Day of Silence (like every Saturday)...

See distribution of my new followers (by country) below: