Celebrity 'wannabe' spends £300 ($475 USD) to buy Twitter followers: Did he get a good deal?

The Sun today, covered a story of 19 year old, Kieran Miller of South Shields, Tyne and Wear.  The full details can be read on their website.

The shortened version goes a little something like this.

• Miller isn't working right now.
• Miller claims Job Seeker's Allowance ('Unemployment') from the Department of Work and Pensions (DWP).
• Miller will, in his own words, do anything to be[come] famous.
• To this end, he has 'purchased' [nearly] 300,000 followers on popular micro blogging site, Twitter.
• He is quoted as saying “I’m not really looking for work. I put all my efforts into becoming famous.”
• He is attracting quite a lot of negative attention for these actions and comments

Now, I have little interest in commenting, in detail, on Millers apparent flagrant disregard for the agreement he has with the DWP (to be actively seeking work); that is between him, his conscience and his local Jobcentre Plus.

What does interest me, is that he thinks buying followers on Twitter is a useful way to spend £300 (regardless of where/how he got that money).

There's a reason why you're able to get this many accounts to follow you on Twitter, and it's because they're useless, dead, fake, spam and otherwise pointless accounts that will not engage with your account.

Your reach is therefore not going to be increased, so I'm sorry Kieran, but you've just spanked £300 on not a whole lot.

A quick glance at Miller's Klout score will show him at a somewhat average 45.  Certainly not where you'd expect an account with hundred's of thousands of excited followers.

In fact, you know what would have been a more productive way to spend that money?  Book some time with a Social Media consultant who could have given you much better advice on how to build your on-line presence.  Chances are, it would not involved the purchasing of Twitter (or any other network) followers.

I feel for Miller; I mean, who doesn't want to be famous, right?

But, want to be famous for something good.  Do something positive, make a difference, actively seek work and do something creative.  Because honestly, what the world needs right now, is not another 'Big Brother style' celebrity.

MY BIG BROTHER AUDITION - my big brother audition - youtube.com/watch?v=wr8ffw…@daniellestaub @westbrookdanni @laurenotw @amanda_lepore xoxo
— Kieran Miller (@kieranmiller94) December 20, 2012

So, my advice to anyone else thinking about buying a short-cut into highly popular social media is, don't.  There's many ways you can build your presence, make your content reach further and engage more people and I guarantee you that none of these ways include dealing with these shady and 'illegal' (as far as Twitter's T&Cs are concerned) practises.

"Using or promoting third-party sites that claim to get you more followers (such as follower trains, sites promising "more followers fast," or any other site that offers to automatically add followers to your account)" 

The above passage is taken from https://support.twitter.com/articles/18311-the-twitter-rules under the category of "Spam" which heads -

"Spam: You may not use the Twitter service for the purpose of spamming anyone. What constitutes “spamming” will evolve as we respond to new tricks and tactics by spammers. Some of the factors that we take into account when determining what conduct is considered to be spamming are:"

Come have a chat with me, next time Kieran; I'll steer you in the right direction.