TweeterGetter the First 48 Hours and Beyond
It has been less than 24 hours since I first blogged about Gary McCaffrey and his TweeterGetter service. Last night when I made that entry he was closing in on 4,000 followers. Today, some 18 hours later, he’s closing in on 7,000. As of me beginning to write this he stands at 6,851 which will no doubt be even larger by the time I finish this entry.
6,851 Followers in Less than 2 Days
What has TweeterGetter done for me specifically? It’s hard to say. What I do know is that When I signed up with TweeterGetter yesterday I stood at 102 followers. As of this writing I am at 165. Now, that’s a pretty huge jump considering my lack of Twitter exposure when I only had 102 followers before we began, and I don’t want to credit all of that to TweeterGetter either. It’s hard to say how many of 63 followers I’ve picked up in the last day were a by product of TweeterGetter and how many were a result of the article I wrote concerning the service… or even how many were simply “natural” follows due to my having been very active [providing SOLID content and STELLAR (in my own and correct opinion) humor] on Twitter in the last 24 hours.
In the end I don’t really care that much. One thing is certain, even if I didn’t pick up a single follower via TweeterGetter, which I know I have — I still would have nothing negative to say about it or Gary. The reason is simple. In spite of all of this “pyramid scheme” and “ponzi” talk, this application is negatively affecting NOBODY. Even if I do not “benefit” from it, I wasn’t harmed by it either. The fact is no money has changed hands (so far); nobody is being forced to do anything; and everyone who has signed up has been presented the OPPORTUNITY to opt-out of following Gary before they ReTweet his message. I won’t even mention that in no way can TweeterGetter force you to remain one of his followers after you sign up. If you wanted to simply sign up and then unfollow him IMMEDIATELY, there’s nothing stopping you from doing so.
So, what then is the big deal?
Well, the big deal is Gary himself! This thing is ingenious! It’s powefully simple in concept and execution and that is what is making him both an overnight success and controversy. I would love to get an interview with this guy and pick his brain. I must admit, this little idea has planted a seed or two into my own mind. Of course, I may never launch them as I’d hate to be remembered [sarcasm] for bringing “pornography and prostitution” to the masses as Gary has done.[/sarcasm]
So, in less than 48 hours Gary has managed to acquire some 7,000 followers for himself and many others of us have leeched off of that success to grab a bonus 10, 20, 100, 200, or 500 for ourselves. No babies nor animals were harmed in the making of TweeterGetter, and I have made contacts with several people I probably never would have otherwise. Not only have I made contact with them, but I have shared laughs with them and am looking forward to long-term, mutually beneficial relationships with each and every one of them.
And you know what happens if a few bad apples turn out to be spammers who aren’t bringing anything positive to my tweeting experience? Simple, I’ll elect to unfollow them! Just as I know they will do if I don’t bring some value their way too. So, with all of that being said, the whole concept of this being nothing more than a numbers game is ludicrous. If it turns out to be nothing more than a numbers game you can rest assured that just as quickly as Gary reaches 10,000 followers (and I predict that takes place some time tomorrow or Saturday at the latest), he will find his follower count back down around 2,000 or less because people will quickly abandon ship.
So I say, we give things some time and we find out what Gary’s long-term plans are and about how he plans on enriching the lives of others by tweeting. Maybe it will turn out that he really is interested in nothing more than making his follower count hit astronomical heights, and if that’s so — rest assured I will unfollow him quickly. But maybe he will turn out to be one of best and most engaging tweeple under the twitosphere. And if that happens, I’ll be glad that I “erred” on this side of the line rather than the side that chose to hang him first and ask questions never.
Oh, I almost forgot this is MY blog and I can spam it if I want to! *giggles* So, please allow me the liberty of pasting my token “spammy” TweeterGetter link here so that you may follow me. Thanks!
http://tweetergetter.com/jacebarnett
26 Responses to “TweeterGetter the First 48 Hours and Beyond”
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I did get some followers from Tweetergetter, but they are mostly SEO people that spend all day hawking their product. I’ll like this thing better if I could just get an ‘SEO people’ filter other than the unfollow button.
http://susanimate.spaces.live.com
http://twitter.com/Susanimate
SEO isn’t about “hawking products.” SEO is about making your site be more properly indexed with search engines. You can use SEO to “hawk” anything… anything from say an MSN Live Spaces profile or even a Twitter account for example.
Oh, hi Pot; have you met kettle?
Please don’t be offended. I read somewhere that if you say something stupid or outrageous or funny and leave your url in the comment section of other peoples’s blogs, people will want to visit the idiot who posted the comment. It was a lame attempt to get visitors.
If you bothered to look at the people I follow on Twitter you will notice that I do follow some SEO people. LOL
Hi Susan,
An ‘SEO people’ filter may not be enough. Pretty soon, anyone who has signed up for TweeterGetter will need a spam filter.
Gary McCaffrey tells me that he is not collecting passwords, but he *is* collecting usernames. In other words, he is building a list of everyone who signs up for TweeterGetter regardless of who they follow or later unfollow.
Prepare for the spamstorm.
http://mike.brisgeek.com/2009/02/14/tweetergetter-twitter-password-harvester/
Will TweeterGetter result in huge numbers of followers who stay, for McCaffrey or anyone else? Who knows?
I suspect there will be a lot of follower attrition over a relatively short period of time … just like there would be on most marketing email lists if unsubscribing wasn’t so often made into a complex matter.
But hey, nobody was forced to sign up, and nobody’s forced to stay on. And the attrition may not be as bad as you think. One thing I know for certain is that I won’t be “unfollowing” McCaffrey — I want to be there with an open ear for the NEXT clever idea he has!
Regards,
Tom Knapp
Hi, have to say I’m agreeing with you so far. My main reason for trying this is for trying to promote my webcomic outside the webcomic community (which is still very small). Some people have said ‘yeah, but you won’t get quality followers.’ Well, I don’t care. Readers is readers. If I find a few more people who might like my comic it’s all to the good. Gotta kiss a few frogs before you find a prince.
Some people feel uncomfortable with it because it asks for your password. To be honest I felt the same way, so changed mine before and after. This makes no difference to using the service.
Hi, Thanks for the unbiased article. I think Gary has done us all a favor in providing the opportunity to meet new people that we would not have. Having gotten on TweeterGetter early, I’ve benefited a great deal from it having gone from 200+ followers to 2,016 at time of this writing, and the number is still climbing. As you said, some of those people will unfollow because my tweets won’t accord with their needs; but it is a great experience.
Contrary to apparent popular belief, I have nothing against Gary, nor do I care who uses his app. I did state my opinion on it at tweepleblog.com and I still think it’s a horrible idea. If the only reason for being on Twitter is to get a bunch of followers really fast then the followers attracted will probably be after the same thing, and all will be happy.
I’ve spent months building my Twitter list, and I’ve connected on pretty positive levels with almost everyone I’ve followed. I followed them, though, because I was interested in their profile, and what they had to say – not to get a huge bunch of followers. Guess what? In only a few months this method had done fairly well.
So is your actual beef that Gary’s tool allows him (or others) to do in days what it has taken you “months of hard work” to accomplish?
Notice that I say that I think it’s a great idea EVEN IF I didn’t get a single follower from it. I’m NOT the judgmental one here. If you’re truly ok with people using it if they want to, I don’t really understand the motivation of your article at all. What makes it a “horrible idea?” You can’t say you think something is a “horrible idea” and in the next sentence profess to believing “it’s alright if people want to use it.” Those statements run very contrary to one another.
And guess what, I AM using it, and yes I have gotten a few followers from it. And in response to “your other comment,” I want to let you know that “a few of them” are actually talking to me. In fact, so far most all of them are, and I’m actively communicating with all of them too. Moral of the story, this way seems to be working fairly well too.
In conclusion I won’t go bashing your FREE CHOICE to opt out of using TweeterGetter, so there’s no reason for you to go bashing my “spammy” use of his “scheme.”
Jace – David’s “beef” isn’t that tweetergetter has allowed others to do quickly what it took him months to do at all. His argument is that because his followers are following him because they are interested in his content (and vice versa), they are more “valuable” (either in the sense of friendship or getting valuable and interesting insights from tweets or future monetisation – I don’t know which) than followers who are only following you because they participated in a “get followers” scheme.
He’s right.
Not that followers who only started following because of their participation in the scheme have zero value. Who knows who they are – they could turn out to be great contacts. But they are much less likely to be great contacts than people who have chosen to follow you because of who you are and what you have tweeted.
I suspect followers acquired through tweetergetter would be great followers to have if you wanted to sell a “get followers” product – or some form of internet marketing through twitter product.
But the chances of them being useful contacts outside of that are low. Not zero – but low.
Having said that – I played. Got a few extra followers. We’ll see over time how it turns out. May even just work because by having more followers I look more “followable” to someone looking.
I don’t think it will result in too much extra tweetspam – as if you don’t want to receive any you just don’t use tweetergetter – and you unfollow anyone who spams you.
Ian
How is he right? You’re speculating; you’re not protruding facts.
He MAY be right, but he doesn’t have to be. Maybe TweeterGetter doesn’t provide the most “targeted” followers, but who’s to say I want “targeted” followers. Maybe I am open to diversity, debate, and growth that comes from hearing from people who DON’T think like me or AREN’T interested in the same things I’m interested in.
It would actually seem to me that IF you were only pulling in followers who were interested in “get followers” products, THEN TweetGetter would be a problem. It would be an even bigger problem for its users too, considering you would all be competing for the exact same market.
No, the real beauty of TweeterGetter is as you already pointed out, you’re free to unfollow people at any time. When I signed up, I was required to follow 6. I examined those 6 accounts and chose to continue following 5 of them. Not a bad rate of “like-minded” thinkers (i.e. 5 of the 6 did NOT strike me as spam accounts) if you ask me. Since that time, I have had about 100 people follow me. I have chosen to follow almost three-fourths of them. The other fourth, I passed on because they did seem spammy to me; thus I had no desire to follow them back and nobody was forcing me to do so.
So, maybe those 25% (your percentage might vary) will notice I’m not following them and choose to unfollow me. *shrugs* Big deal, we just agreed we weren’t interested in “doing business” with them anyway. Right?
TweeterGetter is a get rich quick scheme, but instead of money, the currency is followers. And like all get rich quick schemes, the shortcut results in the exchange of little or no value.
I agree that no one is being harmed (except for the thousands of spam tweets being generated), but that’s a short sighted view. If TweeterGetter is successful, and it exponentially grows and mutates, the Twitter experience will take the same trajectory as email, where we’ll have to wade through a lot of disruptive and valueless content in order to make the connections that bring value to our lives.
A very short-sighted view Dan. I don’t know how TweeterGetter would possible accomplish making you “wade through a lot of disruptive and valueless content in order to make the connections that bring value to your life” when upon signing up you only follow an astounding 6 people. It sure doesn’t take very long to unfollow 6.
Jace,
You took the words right out of my mouth. Had I not joined tweeter getter or been involved at all, I would not have had the opportunity to meet you or Gary.
I have also met many other people, all this is very beneficial and goes way beyond what everyone is thinking.
This is simply “Genius”, I can’t see any negatives to this at all. Too bad for the – I call them “A-listers”-, the fact is unless you cross someones path, you will never meet them.
Did I mention that I have received 1250 new followers, not that it means anything to some. If more of these individuals connect with me, this has made my marketing effort much easier.
We are on Twitter for a reason and if you deny that reason than why are you here. I am here to build relationships, develop opportunities for like minded individuals and put our resources into action.
No one can do everything by themselves.
Thanks for the opportunity!
Dirk
It sounds like TweeterGetter is working better (in terms of generating followers) for you than it is for me Dirk, but in a rare show of humanity rather than launch into a jealous rant… you know what I’m going to do instead? Be happy for you. That’s right, I’m happy for you! Novel concept; isn’t it?
[...] TweeterGetter the First 48 Hours and Beyond [...]
My main complaint is that this is creating an incredible burden on the Twitter servers. I think it very unlikely that Gary talked to anyone at in the twitter API group about the impact this will have.
Suddenly, thousands of users will have an additional 10 thousand connections. Each person’s tweet must then be made part of the result set for those 10 thousand connections.
Suddenly we have an uncontrolled logarithmic increase in the processing twitter has to do.
Expect twitter brownouts to start soon.
It isn’t that far fetched to think that polluting the twitter userbase this much will create an unsustainable load on the twitter servers and simply shut down the service. At that point they could either remove all accounts with those tweets or perhaps remove all follows after that tweet for that person.
Yeah that is worst case scenario, but twitter has a hard enough time keeping up as is. And I don’t want to be without a reliable twitter for days or weeks because of this scheme.
I am actually laughing. I don’t know if you’re joking or not Brian, but I hope that was your intention.
I would go on to explain why TweeterGetter is more than likely not going to accomplish anything remotely close to what you’re describing, but then I would feel like a goof for actually being sucked into such a ridiculous debate — so instead, I’ll play devil’s advocate.
I would say that if TweeterGetter does what you’re suggesting, Gary would then become Twitter’s best friend not their enemy. We all know that the Twitter folks plan to monetize their little invention, and whatever form that comes in it’s going to have something to do with Twitter being heavily “taxed” with traffic. So, if Gary can pull off causing such a tremendous load on Twitter’s servers, rest assured they will gladly allocate additional funds for servers and bandwidth to meet with the demand. And they will do so all while blowing kisses to Gary in the process.
As a webmaster I can only say that if my biggest worry is that my servers are “too heavily taxed,” — well, that’s a pretty good BRIGHT worst case scenario to be “suffering through.”
Cheers!
TweeterGetter?
I guess the purpose of being on twitter is just to show off your follower numbers then!
What other value can a network of thousands bring you aside from an unbearable amount of unwanted updates?! how will you go about actually finding the information you need inside all that noise ??
No thanks, we’ve seen it happening with usenet already.
Based upon your reply, I’ll assume that you didn’t bother to read the article, but came here only to comment. *shrugs*
Hey Jace,
Nice take well balanced and thoughtful as Gary pointed out yesterday the conversation doesn’t start till you have the followers..
I’d make one more point these days all my links when I comment now point to http://twitter.com/brendan_mcnally for one reason my updates tell you more about who I am than any website will shows my changing nature everyday, my real personality. Cheers
JaceMan,
I’m glad I found this article because it has actually put my mind at ease a bit.
When I first encountered TweeterGetter I was concerned that it asked for my pw. So I passed on it until a Twitter friend of mine whom I respect used it. Then I used it and no more than 5 seconds later I started seeing all these tweets condemning it. I started feeling terribly guilty.
But the points you raise are all very valid. This whole argument about quantity vs quality of followers is a bit of a non-starter. If quality was the issue, no one would ever have more than about 30 to 50 people that they followed. Why? Because who has time to read all those tweets? So whenever you see someone following 1000 people, let’s not fool ourselves. Those are not 1000 “relationships”.
One of the key points to Twitter is getting your message (monetized or purely social) out to as many interested parties as possible. If TweeterGetter helps toward that endeavor, what’s the harm?
Thanks again for the post!
http://twitter.com/mattbovell
Glad I could help. Did you also have the opportunity to read the entry Is TweeterGetter the Devil?
Thanks Jace. Just read it. Maybe after all the controversy dies down, Gary can go on to produce some other good Twitter apps. He’s off to a good start and he sure did get people’s attention!
Some very good points raised. I like Tweeter Getter. I like the concept, I like the fact that you do not have to follow Gary, I also know that I can unfollow anyone who I do not find interesting or is too spammy.
No one is hurt by the process, least of all Twitter themselves… why? If you like TweeterGetter you promote it (and thus Twitter)…
If you hate TweeterGetter and see it as a scam, you tell people to avoid it and talk about Twitter…
So… both sides of the coin benefit Twitter.
As a marketing tool, it can be hailed a success for all of the attention it has received and this in itself is enviable…
Well done to Gary…
Pro TweeterGetter + Vocal = Pro Twitter
Nay TweeterGetter + Vocal = Pro Twitter
So that means… Pro TweeterGetter = Nay TweeterGetter
Interesting!
To be serious for a minute though, you are EXACTLY right. It has worked out to being Pro JaceMan too. Before I blogged about this “controversial” app, I had 0 comments on my blog. Now, in a couple of days I have had over 30 between the two articles. All press is “good” press as they say.