Whilst building up a strong following is important, it is as much about quality as quantity. Proactively manage spam-generating followers and resist the temptation to build numbers for the sake of it. The value of your followers lies in their influence and network. They can magnify anything that you say by forwarding (sharing or re-tweeting) and promoting (both positively and negatively). It is often seen as a good measure of social media effectiveness that you follow a range of important accounts and commentators, although strategically you may wish to do this through other means such as monitor- ing keywords (including hashtags).
