There are broadly speaking two types of tweople (=people that use Twitter). The first group uses Twitter purely to engage in meaningful conversations, to learn and to share their knowledge.  In this group you can find many avid users that take a very narrow view on what you can and cannot do on Twitter. These are the purists that do not try to gain a large following on Twitter, but just use it to communicate with the people they have selected carefully.  These are the people that use words like ‘serendipity’ to describe their Twitter experience. The second group is looking to Twitter to enhance their business or simply to make money. Their objective is to add as many followers as they can preferably in a well defined target group. For the Tweople in this last group it is already clear that they cannot just blast tweets with ads for their products, but that they have to provide a substantial number of tweets that add value to the reader.

It looks like Twitter, the company itself, is more in favor of getting users that belong to the first group rather than the second. They have put a number of restrictions in place to limit the number of followers a user can acquire during a given period. When Twitter started they only had users that belonged to the first group, so it is understandable that they would try to protect the core of their fans who see Twitter as a social network only that should not be used for marketing.

However there is a dilemma here for Twitter. The company is still searching for a valid business model that would bring in some revenue. To this day Twitter has only spent money, but it hasn’t made a single penny in revenue. Until Twitter comes up with a solid revenue model, it provides a shaky foundation for investors and businesses that want to invest in Twitter applications. It is imperative that this issue is resolved and Twitter is aware of this. That is why they haven’t made it totally impossible to use Twitter for marketing purposes.

It is still possible to gain a lot of followers even if you are not a celebrity, but it will take some time before you reach a substantial number.  By following a large number of Tweople and then unfollowing them when you find out they are not following you back; you can increase your number of followers gradually over time. The problem is that this will take a lot of your time, especially when you try to do this in multiple accounts. Given that you also need to provide interesting tweets, companies would have to spend a substantial amount of time to create a decent following.

At first glance, Twitter may only look like a site full of Facebook status updates. But to those of us Twaddicts (Twitter addicts), we know that it is so much more.

Among other things, Twitter allows you to: communicate with celebrities (if you’re interesting enough this can be a two-way conversation), stay posted on what your favorite celebrities are doing and/or thinking, keep tabs on where your favorite celebrities are, know what celebrity friends your favorite celebrities have, did I mention Celebrities?! Celebrity usage is the driving force of Twitter’s popularity. The fact that Twitter is so easy to use, it allows celebrities to do-it-themselves. Therefore, you don’t have to worry about talking to a publicist or personal assistant; you know you’re getting the real deal. If it weren’t for celebrities being addicted to Twitter, it would not be as addicting for the average Joe.

Following celebrities on Twitter is so popular, there is a website dedicated to it. On CelebrityTweet.com, there is a list a celebrities whose tweets are posting in real time on the site. Celebrities were always sitting so high up on a pedestal and now, thanks to Twitter, we can reach them and say hello everyday until they say hello back. Sounds a bit stalker-like, but it works.

Some celebrities are even hip to SayNow, a free site that allows you to receive voice messages from your favorite celebrities. I have to admit, when I get a text to my phone that one of my favorite celebrities just left a voice message, I listen to the message pretending it was sent to me personally.

I must thank Twitter for allowing me to be introduced to this site which I so love. While you are getting your heavy dosage of celebrities, you may want to chat with other people and look popular yourself with a lot of followers. You can go to wefollow.com and find people with the same interest who you can follow and they may follow you back.

However, the fastest way to get quality followers who are genuinely interested in what you have to say goes back to celebrities. If you can get a celebrity to retweet one of your tweets, you will see your followers dramatically increase before your eyes.

Again, you must say something interesting or extremely funny within the 140 character limit. You may want to check out this Twittionary full of Twitter lingo that will help you say everything you want to say using 140 characters.

Twitter allows you to get a good understanding of celebrity personalities. Some celebrities may annoy you with their tweets and cause you to stop following them. If you love everything about celebrities and want a way to be in the know, go register to Twitter and start following your favorite celebrities now. It will become your favorite pastime!