Followers are key here on Steemit to get your posts noticed. It has stood out that a few posters have many followers in a very short space of time, recently and it has prompted me to look at what strategy they are employing to get followers.
Listing of accounts with > 500 followers and less than $50 in account value gives 24 accounts.
| Account | Followers | Following |
|---|---|---|
| lukekelley | 613 | 5250 |
| aaronkoenig | 574 | 311 |
| carlobelgado | 2076 | 19499 |
| bitcoinandcoffee | 767 | 3818 |
| joanaltres | 3274 | 24878 |
| zeroshiki | 677 | 7000 |
| followseveryone | 1488 | 14701 |
| rafaela | 561 | 5596 |
| applecrisp | 556 | 1001 |
| luke490 | 563 | 2358 |
| angelamei | 728 | 4794 |
| omrusman | 590 | 2963 |
| manycoolthings | 564 | 8193 |
| steemitmarket | 801 | 1 |
| joelbow | 636 | 2352 |
| seljalex77 | 725 | 6807 |
| anarcharos | 578 | 2191 |
| ivanba12 | 1095 | 6236 |
| gowldie | 723 | 12632 |
| tinoe | 758 | 25989 |
| q327k091 | 796 | 0 |
| rook | 911 | 5427 |
| mnviking | 665 | 2744 |
| freedomnow | 908 | 0 |
Ghost Accounts
Several of these accounts are from August in 2016, and seem like ghost accounts.
@ivanba12 has 1,095 followers, this guy doesn't seem to be a celebrity or anything, none of his posts have many votes or earn much dollars so how did he get 1,095 followers? He hasn't been active in 7 months.
@mnviking has 665 followers.
@freedomnow only has 4 posts but 908 followers. Again this account joined in August 2016.
@steemitmarket has 801 followers, this account seems to be some sort of spamming account but again hasn't been active in months.
How did these accounts get so many followers?
Real Accounts
@joanaltres describes herself as "Joan Altres, a Christian Anarchist, internet marketer, and software creator", she has 3,274 followers. She doesn't seem to write much, most of her feed is resteems.
@carlobelgado has 2,076 followers and hails from the Philippines. Carlo posted a great introduction post but Carlo hasn't posted many other posts, and his posts haven't earned a lot of votes or money so how has he so many followers?
What I have noticed about some of these accounts is that they are following a lot of people.
- @carlobelgado follows 19,499 people.
- @joanaltres follows 24,878 people
- @mnviking follows 2,744 people
- @tinoe follows 25,989 people
Is following so many people a successful strategy to gain followers? It seems to be but these accounts are not making much so maybe its a lot of effort for little gain.
Does anyone know about the accounts @ivanba12 @q327k091 and @freedomnow? What is the story with these? Where did they come from and where have they gone?
Thank you for reading this. I write on Steemit about Blockchain, Cryptocurrency, Travel and lots of random topics.
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I would go crazy if I followed that many people :P
Same! I follow just over 100 people, and I feel that my feed is such a big list when I have been away from Steemit for more than a few hours. I can't even imagine how it would be if I followed 10x or even 100x as many!
Interesting post! I bet they are using a script or a bot to follow a lot of people. What I don't get is why they would go trough all that trouble if they won't even be posting, and making money from their followers?
It doesn't make a whole lot of sense, maybe its the twitter or facebook mentality being applied to Steemit. You can make a lot of money on those with a large follower base. Its not a surprise really that someone is testing the limits here on Steemit, but its reassuring to see that its not paying off! I must analyse other accounts with large user bases to see if it does pay off in some cases.
My guess would be that most of the accounts that are following these have very little SP, so the payoff would not be very big despite many followers. But I'm looking forward to seeing you analyze it! :)
Thats what it seems like, may be worth something in the future if the people that are following begin to use steemit more. Ill do some analysis and see what I can infer from it.
I don't know much about others, but I am more of a commentor than writer, so If I like a post and comments with my heart and true intentions to comment and not to seek notice from people, people usually follow me. And That too at a high speed. So this might be a cause for some accounts to garner a lot more followers and that too quickly than others.
Where do you find these 😂
It takes time to properly read the posts from the people I follow, therefore I don't see myself following huge numbers of people. If that means I stay small so be it.
I agree. I would rather have a nice feed of people whos content I actually enjoy, than a clustered feed just to gain a few more followers myself. I really believe in making good connections with people, as well as creating good content that people want to follow and read.
Very nicely put.
I am not a fan of so many following to get followers either. I dont like this strategy. I believe in making lasting strong meaningful connections.
That sounds like a good idea to me.
I agree. At first I thought hmm interesting. But this just isn't the way to go about it. Meaningful connections are worth much more. And I agree with @jeff001 too: then we'll just stay small. Who cares if there aren't hundreds or thousands of people that like what you're doing. You have to like what you're doing :)
Sometimes you just have to stick to what you believe in.
I see some accounts that follow me but dont contribute much. Unfollow?
They may be reading your posts. All followers are valuable.
true but are they really beneficial to steemit as a whole? This platform is dependant on interaction.
Sure but you they may bring other users in. I think every person even if they are not directly contributing are valuable. Or even if they are contributing rubbish. Hopefully we can filter that out :) and their network may still be valuable to us. The more people we get here the more mainstreem Steemit will become. The intereactions will grow exponentially.
I agree. I just hope the platform becomes or I should say stays more interactive then that.
I cant believe someone is following 25,989 people.
I follow pretty much anyone that follows me as long as they have a posting history.
I follow a few people and this is even too much at times. I don't think followers are so important if they are not engaging.
Fair enough. How would you like to see them engaging, comments?
I guess people are different, some people are after votes, some after comments, some just after number of followers.
Personally I like engagement.
engagement works for me. I am writing a post about it now.
Intresesting topic, that explains why most comments are ignored cos the account handlers are off the rader.
I am sure there are many ghost accounts.
That's an Affirmative Undisputed Statement mate.
I would be unable to follow that much people. I would also unfollow anyone who doesn't post afterawhile who isn't as active as I am.
Ya it sounds fairly industrial to follow that many people.
This is a good post. I have noticed the same thing with many accounts. I am relatively new to Steemit and have a handful of followers. I also am only at this time following a handful. But i see people join up and in a day or two have only 2 posts and about 100+ followers..
There are some interesting strategies people are trying out to get followers. I cant say I agree with all of them.
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Thanks @screenname