The 2000 Following Limit On Twitter

By
DiTesco
– March 10, 2009Posted in: How to?, Twitter Tips

If you are new to Twitter, chances are that you still have not attained the 2000 barrier limit imposed by Twitter. Twitter has a following limit of 2000 people based on the number of followers you have. This means that you can not be following more than 2000 people unless you have the same amount of followers. This barrier exist to avoid a lot of things, among which, is spamming. It does not make sense to follow a lot of people and no one following you. This obviously is against the intent of the Twitterverse as there people who use Twitter to only send out messages to make money online and while it can work, you will only end up with people not following you.

How does it work?

This limit actually works on a percentage level (10%), but only when you are almost following 2000 people. As an example, say you have 1900 followers. 10% of 1900 is 190 and adding this to 1900 you will reach a total of 2090. This means that you can not be following more than 2090. When you reach this limit, Twitter will not let you follow more people, until such a time that your followers plus 10% increases.

Let us take the example above and continue with it.

  • You have now 2090 followers. Add 10% to that and you will get 2299. You can now follow up to 2299.
  • Now you have 2299. Add 10% to that and you will get 230. You can now follow up to 2529.
  • And it goes on like this.

How do you control the 10% limit?

You may find a lot of opinions on what is the best practice on following or not, people on Twitter. I believe that it is polite to follow those who follow you, and for that matter, the other way around. Unless you are specifically interested on somebody, I believe that it is not unpolite to unfollow those who do not follow you. Obviously, there are people that may interest us in following them, regardless whether they follow us or not. Example of these people can be Barrack Obama, Guy Kawasaki, Google, CNN, DiTesco (that’s me, lol), etc.

Also, you should make it a point to follow people that have the same interest as you. It is likely that you will get them to follow you, if you share the same interest. Do not follow people just for the sake of having your numbers high. For example, following someone who’s interest is in SEO Tips, and your is fishing, does not seem to be relevant. They will probably unfollow you and ultimately, this will hurt you, and your credibility. Just like anything else, Twitter or micro-blogging is about sharing knowledge, entertaining and being polite. Give your followers something of value. Telling them that you are having a cup of coffee does not seem to valuable enough, don’t you think?

So there you go, when you reach the limit on Twitter, simply unfollow those who do not follow you back and that will raise your limit again, until you reach the 10% gap.

About DiTesco

Francisco Perez a.k.a. DiTesco is a Business Consultant and an Internet Marketer. Throughout his network, you will mainly find information and tips on how to establish a successful Home Based Business. He also provides basic and easy to understand SEO and Making Money Online tips. You can follow @ditesco on Twitter.