Do you wanna be a twock star?

Do you wanna have a bestseller?
Do you wanna climb a mountain?
Do you wanna make a 7-course meal?

A friend said to me that he had a goal to advance his social media marketing and get 5000 followers on Twitter.
"By when?" I asked.
"I don't know, it'll probably take awhile."
"What's your strategy?"
"My strategy? I just told you - to get 5000 followers."
"What about 2000, when will you have 2000."
"2000, who's talking about 2000, I just told you. I am aiming for 5000."

There are a lot of alluring pages promising followers in the thousands. Double, triple, quadruple in days and weeks the amount of followers on your Twitter. I haven't analyzed every method, nor do I discount their validity and claims. But I am suspicious of the value that they provide me. Some are pushing their online market products and videos, requesting sign-up fees, others just ask you to join the bandwagon and start endorsing lists upon lists of others on Twitter - whether you know them or not.

The other sites that talk about practical tips you should be doing to encourage followers. For instance Kevin Rose (DIGG founder) suggests such practices as Retweeting, and they become win-win. Or get your Twitter name out there - everywhere you can - in your email signature, on a forum posting, in a comment, in your LinkedIn...

Ultimately the suggestion sites come back to a fundamental element: content. Valuable content. Interesting content. Useful content. Entertaining content.

Kevin Rose notes "Tweet about your passions in life and #hash tag them. Quality content coupled with an easy way to find it never fails. If others enjoy your content, they’ll add you."

Sure there are really successful Twitterers (whales in Twitter tongue) like Oprah Winfrey who has over a million followers is only following 14. None of these social media marketing techniques are relevent to stars. They have already established themselves and made their mark. Their following exists, and just needs a direction.

Can I conclude that because Oprah is on Twitter, then I will also be wildly successful. Can I conclude that because Larry Page and Sergey Brin (of Google) started Google in garage, that my path to success should start with getting a garage?

Obviously not.

So how do you become a Twitter Rock Star (or in Twitter tongue a Twock Star).

Write Great Content
As noted in HubSpot's SEO tips: "The name of the game for search engine optimization is extremely simple. Once you're up and running with the right tools and systems, all you need to do is....

Publish new GREAT content on new pages on your website REGULARLY.

People get so confused about SEO. They are usually just wrapped up in all of the details.

But, if you want to do SEO correctly, there's one thing that you will spend the majority of your time doing: Writing Great Content."

Write It and They Will Come?
I doubt it. It's like the proverbial tree in the forest. If no one is present when it falls, does it make a sound?

The great content is the basis for great promotions. Still a lot of work lies ahead for getting followers, but the first, biggest and most important step is content.

Every Journey
As the classic proverb says "Every Journey of A Thousand Miles Begins With A Single Step", the road to stardom and massive followings starts small. In fact I would say that every journey of a hundred yards begins with a single step. It's the same first step no matter how far you plan to go. The difference is that 'a hundred yards' is within view of the first step. It's all about how you break down your goals.

10-10-10
Suzy Welch has literally written the book on goal setting in her 10-10-10 technique (10 minutes, 10 months, 10 years). She explains: "In today’s accelerated world, with its competing priorities, information overload, and confounding options, we can easily find ourselves steered by impulse, stress, or expedience. Are our decisions the right ones? Or are we being governed, time and time again, and against our best intentions, by the demands of the moment? With 10-10-10, Welch proposes a transformative solution to deal with this pressure."

It's all about breaking down the process into smaller manageable steps. Before you can get to 5000 followers, you need to pass 500.

John Moore (from Brand Autopsy) talks about amping up Suzy Welch's model. "We need to amp up Suzy’s 10-10-10 thinking to account for how quickly information spreads online. 10 minutes. 10 hours. 10 days. That’s a more workable 10-10-10 consequences model for marketers dealing with issues worthy of explosive online conversation."

He's right. For taking steps towards 5000 followers, I don't want to be looking on scales of years. I want to gauge my success after 10 days, after another 10 days and so one.

Becoming a Twock Star
In short, write from your soul. Push your content like you have a big show coming up. And most of all set your sites on reasonable successes, so you can give yourself a pat on the back, and move higher. Remember if you want to be a rock star, you need to market yourself like a rock star.