Who Bought Romney's Twitter Followers?

It's obvious that someone bought followers for the @MittRomney Twitter. That anyone is even asking "did that really happen?" at this point is absurd. The real question - the only question - is who did this, and why? So Mitt Romney's Twitter account grew over the weekend - adding approximately 135,000 new followers. I say "adding" instead of "gaining" as there's really no way 135,000 people spontaneously decided to follow him on the same day. None. According to Buzzfeed, Zac Moffatt, the Romney campaign's digital director, rejected accusations that the campaign was "buying" followers for Romney, . . . and they have reached out to Twitter to find out additional information regarding the rapid growth. The site that originally broke the story, 140elect.com, shares the following observation: Personally, I think this is too obvious for the Romney campaign to have done. It’s more likely somebody is trying to plant a story to embarrass him. The question then is: who controls 100,000+ Twitter accounts like this? Time will tell. And that is likely the case here - that someone is trying to embarrass the candidate. As we mentioned in a recent post, more and more people are buying followers and anyone can buy followers for any account. But can you buy THAT many followers? Sure - and it's really cheap too. Here's one Fiverr service offering a list of 135k folks who will follow you as long as you follow them back - and there are many, many other options out there. It would be great if the person who sold the followers to populate the @MittRomney Twitter came forward with a receipt showing who bought them. Though it could just be a person who sells these services and thought it would be funny to do. Romney has had spikey growth on Facebook as well, which appears to be a result of paid advertisements and not organic growth (folks just "liking" the page without prompting) - so his team is actively seeking to grow his online following. But would they go this far? Until a receipt is produced though, people should really stop being so dramatic about it and move on to the next conspiracy. It's obvious the followers were bought. And it's obvious the candidate's camp didn't do it. Unless they're really, really bad at their jobs. How foolish would they have to be to do so, honestly? (Conspiracy image from Shutterstock)

Social Pro Daily

Who Bought Romney's Twitter Followers?

Mary C. Long

About

Subscriptions

Events

Publications

WORK SMARTER - LEARN, GROW AND BE INSPIRED.

Subscribe today!

Mary C. Long