Twittering

So my task for January was to get 250 followers on Twitter. I've never been on or near Twitter before, but figured it sounded moderately challenging but achievable. After setting up my account and looking around the site for a while I decided that my tactic would be to begin 'following' as many people as possible, in the hope that somewhere out in cyberspace would be 250 people either:

• willing to support my challenge
• sad enough to want to befriend a stranger
• with something to sell

Turns out I was correct, and all of the above signed up to follow me - and my final score is 276 followers. Based on an initial hungover new years day mass-beginning-to-follow-people, I very scientifically calculated that I'd have to follow around 1200 people to hit my target.

To begin with, I added pretty much everyone with 'Grace' in their username. Turns out a lot of Graces seem to be from the far east or more specifically Asian-American which was a new piece of information for me, so never let it be said that one can't learn anything from dumb, social networking based challenges. I think it was amongst the Graces and the Walkers that I got the most reciprocal 'follows'.

After a while, the direct messages came flooding in (a total of 155). Here's where you can see the different types of folk out there in twitterland.

The obviously-a-bit-lonely types:
laurenamcmullen

Thanks 4 following me! I would love to get to know you. Do you have a Fan page? Send me the link so I can visit.

Surprisingly few from blokes looking for lurve:
hursty_231

Hey. Thanks for following me. how are you? tell me a little bit about yourself? talk to you soon :) Ben.

A few sales-disguised-as-good-wishes by slightly hokey americans
FloraSue

There are no coincidences, so I know we have connected for a reason. I made a video for you http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FaS34AJ8FDA

Quelle suprise:
Robert2you

Hello new friend thank you for following me. You should check out this video to learn how to make money from home. http://bit.ly/robert2you

And some were just plan nice:
kellierye

Good luck to you all on your challenges for 2010. It will be a great year!

In summary, if you are willing to spend a few hours over a cup of tea and pack of fags randomly clicking 'follow' on as many people as possible, gaining 250 followers on Twitter is a piece of.....