What do all Twitter users want? Followers – and lots of
them. But unless you're a celebrity, it can be difficult to build your Twitter
audience (and even some celebs have trouble). Looking at a half-million tweets
over 15 months, a first-of-its-kind study from Georgia Tech has revealed a set
of reliable predictors for building a Twitter following.
The research was performed by Eric Gilbert, assistant
professor in Georgia Tech’s School of Interactive Computing. Gilbert found that
Twitter users can grow their followers by such tactics as: