By Erika Icon

YNOT – A few weeks ago, something I wrote got a huge amount of Twitter action. Many people tweeted a link to a post in which I outlined how not to behave on Twitter, and others re-tweeted. Quite a few were shocked that people don’t know a few common-sense rules for social media behavior.

A colleague reminded me about another kind of Twitter violation: buying followers. This has become a giant problem in our industry for both top-name porn stars and brand-spanking-new starlets.

Here’s a piece of advice: Just don’t do it. Buying followers not only will ruin your reputation in social media circles, but it also could get you thrown off Twitter forever — no joke.

To buy or not to buy imaginary friends
A simply online search engine query will turn up all kinds of companies specializing in helping Twitter users increase their “popularity.” Anyone can buy 1,000 followers for as little as $12. Social media experts advise against the practice because there’s no value in it. In order to be effective, tweets must reach an actual audience.

Faking a Twitter following is bad business. When people find out, it damages the user’s image — and by association, the image of the adult industry as a whole.

“Twitter has been a great resource for the adult industry,” said Pete Housley, chief executive officer of the Naughty Tweet Network. “While other networks have censored and blocked adult, Twitter has rules that are simple and straightforward. It is our responsibility as an industry to not sabotage ourselves and adhere to the spirit and purpose of social media.”

How to tell someone is buying followers
It you know the clues, it’s really obvious when is buying followers. Here are a few tell tale signs:

• They follow you, and then un-follow when you don’t follow back.
• They pick up 1,000 new followers in a day.
• They have tens of thousands of followers and haven’t tweeted in six months.
• They’re brand new to the biz and already have tends of thousands of followers.
• All of their followers appear to be bots or bear the default egg icon.
• If the person is a performer, they’re not working more (or at all) because “real fans” aren’t requesting them for scenes or buying their movies.
• They have 38 million followers and not even close to 30 million people bought their last DVD. (Ask Lady Gaga about this one.)

The right way to get followers
There are many ways to pick up followers that won’t cost you anything but a little time. Here are just a few:

Engage with others. People will follow you if you if they like what you have to say. Tweet something particularly interesting, and re-tweets may catch the eyes of potential followers.

Inform and entertain. Don’t make the mistake of tweeting about the mundane just to have something to say. Who really cares when you go to the bathroom or buy socks? I primarily use my Twitter account to promote my clients, but every now and again I tweet something unrelated because I suspect it will get comments from others.

Follow other people. Twitter makes recommendations right on your page about whom you might like to follow. Some of the recommendations I’ve seen are silly, like Justin Beiber or Carrot Top (I’m not making that up), but other times I’ve been advised to follow a new porn performer or an online magazine I’ve never heard of. The latter category of suggestion is useful.

Use a great photo of yourself as your icon, and write an interesting bio that will pique people’s interest. Also, make sure you pick a Twitter username that reflects something about you. Performers often use their stage names. If yours has been taken or is difficult to spell, pick something else that says “you.”

Understand how Twitter works. Tutorials are available, but spending time playing around on the network works, too.

Don’t abuse the medium. Realize Twitter is great self-promotion/free advertising, but don’t abuse it by spamming people or tweeting the same thing over and over (or using an app or bot to accomplish the same thing).

Be consistent: I recommend tweeting multiple times daily.

Re-tweet (RT) other users’ tweets and participate in Follow Friday (#FF), but do so in moderation.

Reply when someone mentions you, especially if the tweet came from a big name in the industry. One day, Tera Patrick re-tweeted me, I responded, and she tweeted back. I picked up almost 50 followers that day.

Use hashtags (#hashtag) when applicable. People can find you through those, as well. If you look at trending topics on your page, you will find many are use hashtags.

Mention your Twitter account everywhere: business cards, Facebook page, website, etc.

Businesses can mention their physical location in their bio, and others in the same general area may follow.

If you’re overwhelmed by the whole social media phenomenon, consider hiring a publicist or social media expert to help you organically grow your followers and raise your popularity. But whatever else you do to raise your profile, remember: Don’t buy followers. Instead, earn them and be proud of the accomplishment. Your reputation and the rest of the Twitterverse will thank you.

Erika Icon, owner of The Rub PR, possesses more than seven years’ experience in the adult entertainment industry. She has worked as a retail buyer; writer; sex advice columnist; DVD, website and toy reviewer, and publicist. Over the years, Icon has forged relationships with performers, studio owners, sales personnel, distributors and media, and she uses those connections to help her promote her clients and their brands in both adult and mainstream markets.