November 19, 2012
Does the huge jump in the number of twitter followers a tweeter has indicate that person’s REAL popularity… or does it just indicate that they bought twitter followers?
Let’s take @Danielle Staub, who is rumored to be back on season five of the Real Housewives of New Jersey.
A week ago, Danielle had just over 100,000 twitter followers:
As of today, Danielle has added over 200,000! IMO, there is no way over 200,000 tweeters suddenly found Danielle’s twitter account in less than a week…
It does look like Danielle purchased some new followers!
NOTE: IF Danielle is still in negotiations with Bravo for her comeback during season five of the RHOBJ, Danielle may be using the increase in twitter followers to indicate to Bravo how popular she is… and to negotiate for more of those Bravo and sponsor Bucks!
Back in August, Micah Tanous got a call offering him and Peggy Tanous more twitter followers… SH August 3, 2012.
(Thanks to SH reader “ScSu”!!!)
I think she bought them, most are hispanic and a cursory review shows most have no interest in danielle or in real housewives
Wait. I have a stupid question. I think some people bought me. Because when I go to twitter I did not “follow” these people. I always wondered WHO THE HELL are these people? Is this because they bought me?
Can someone explain this phenomenon to me? How/why would the average person/housewife/Leann Rimes/etc…want to buy Twitter followers? I know I’m a putz but I seriously follow maybe 8-10 people and have no followers (so I’m really Twitter illiterate and disinterested)…. but I AM interested in why anyone wants to do this? I get that the housewives think it raises their esteem in Andy’s eyes…but other than that… why? And subsequent to that… How? Am I suddenly signed up to follow someone I’ve never expressed interest in? Is there a wizard behind the curtain in this land of Oz? Does that wizard sign us up?
The reason they buy followers is for money. The number of followers one has sets the value/worth of each tweet. For instance a product placement company may think that Jill Zarin has a high value for the amount of followers and pay her to endorse a certain product. They become valuable because of the exposure to their followers. But, since it is widely known that these third rate reality stars buy their followers, product companies are not running to their door asking for their endorsement. Just google buying followers and you will find all sorts of sites (outside of the U.S.) that will sell you followers. They have computer programs that create fake accounts to follow people that pay them (hence the eggs, and no tweets or followers).
Thanks for the explanation Anita! I doubt I’ll go so far as to ever consider buying followers but I was curious how/why. The endorsements make sense – which explains why celebrities do it as well.
Neutral, I see your comment below and wanted to tell you that I ended up with one follower (or maybe I was following them?) two times so far. Once I deleted the person/group and this last time they un-followed or deleted me. So I assume it has something to do with the wizard setting us up.
I really have very little interest in Twitter. I get on there to follow SH and support her (plus I decided to follow Jay Mohr when he stopped blogging for RHONJ – he’s not as interesting when he’s not blogging, btw) – so that’s really it. Maybe I’ll get interested eventually… right now I prefer FB
It does also “rate” your popularity. Having more followers can help make money indirectly. A company sees a certain celeb has 1,000,000 for instance and it may become attractive to use the celeb an ad or an appearance or whatever and if they do use them, gives them an indication how much the celeb is “worth.”
I’m wondering how this happens, too. I do remember when Peggys husband (RHOC) said he received a phone call asking if they were interested in adding more followers (for $). Then he told “his story” & added that Alexis & some others had followers that were bought. Idk how this can happen but I keep hearing it all the time. Im sure if theres a will, Danielle did it. Theres no way she doubled her followers in 1 week…Ms. SH is right about that! Ive never had any1 on my “following” list that Ive not actually followed myself so Im wondering whats up & who is behind it!
Neutral: Micah Tanous got that call for twitter followers back in August: http://stoopidhousewives.com/2012/08/03/sh-hit-and-run-friday-luann-de-lesseps-gettin-into-wine-biz-ramona-singer-merlot-micah-tanous-rhoc-buying-twitter-followers-aviva-drescher-rhony-still-filming/ TFC!!! SH
Jill Zarin bought her twitter followers so not far fetched
Sorry to sound like a broken record but y’all can by me as a follower anytime!
Did Mohammed of RHoBH fame buy followers too? I was shocked by how many people follow him.
Forgive my utter stupidity here re: twitter… I don’t twitter at all so its not something I know the intricate manuverings of….but who does one actually BUY twitter followers?
*how* does one…?
I don’t know how to twitter, how to open an account and have no intention to try. I’m still trying to figure out Facebook!!
Idagal…well then I’ve got good company in my twitter-ignorance! lol
LOL me too Idagal. I was finally comfortable with Facebook and they went and changed it on me. I hate the new format.
There are sites online that sell them. Here is a NYT article on it: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/23/fashion/twitter-followers-for-sale.html?_r=0
I think it’s absolutely stupid to buy followers. I follow enough people and I have enough followers who follow me. I need no one else…. JMO
Danielle is coming back for season 5? That I have to watch. Who will she date? Rosie?
I’ve always thought it was crazy at how many people follow Lauren, Albie, and Chris. They all have well over 200,000 followers. I just don’t buy it. Haha!! “Buy it.” Get it? Like “Buy tweets!” Whoa.
Oh, they’ve already been…bought-en!
Some sad psychology going on at that Twitter site. Talk about wannabes!
That twitter audit site is so cool. I ran an audit on mego. Real 343, 474. Fake 173, 806. Next I did caroline- 332, 499 real. Fake 220,744. I tried to do teresa but it kept bombing out. The site is still in beta. It said I had one fake follower and 16 real ones, which is correct. I think my fake follower is a bot.
How can you check?
I found it, it’s cool….
Twitteraudit.com
And then you enter their twitter name
Her twitter followers are now up to 372,683, an increase of 41K since this morning.
Grow: Obviously from this item on SH! LOL!! TFC!! SH
still not sure i understand, does a paid follower get paid in cash? is so, how do i get a twitter account and collect the money?
Dang! I just did the Twitter Audit on Ramonster & it says she has 43k real followers & 302k FAKE Now thats crazy!!!! Ik its still in beta but wow!
Not surprising. Ramona is bat chit craycray
So, if this audit thing is real and everyone can now see how many fake followers a celeb has, doesn’t that now defeat the purpose of buying followers? I would think now that it is out there, everyone needs to delete the fakes, because it just makes them look silly..