During the 2008 U.S. Presidential campaign, Barack Obama became a Twitter phenomenon. After signing up for a Twitter account on March 5, 2007, his campaign slowly grew his Twitter following until in August 2008, Obama became the #1 person using the service. Obama not only had thousands of more followers than his opponent John McCain, but more followers than anyone else using Twitter.

If you follow Obama on Twitter, you probably know the following 2 things: 1) he doesn't tweet that much, and 2) moments after you follow Obama on Twitter, he follows you. How did the the Obama campaign do this? Do they have a dedicated staff person managing his Twitter account 24-7, or is it automated?

Honestly, we don't know the answer, but there is a way to auto follow your followers on Twitter. This auto follow Twitter trick (try saying that 5 times in a row) can be pretty useful if you find yourself managing a Twitter account for a public figure, company or celebrity.

In order for this auto follow trick to work, you need to send your new follower Twitter emails through a Gmail filter that automatically forwards them to an awesome service called TweetLater.com. Don't worry, it sounds more complicated than it really is. Let's begin.

Requirements:

• Twitter account (free; http://twitter.com)
• ~10-20 minutes of free time

01) Douche Test

Do you consider yourself a social media marketing guru because you hang out on Facebook and Twitter all day? Is your sole goal on Twitter to gain followers? Are you a douche bag? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then please leave this page now. So called social media experts are the cancer of Twitter. The information in this Auto Follow tutorial should not be used to spread fake guru Twitter cancer.

02) Configure Your Twitter Account

Sign in to Twitter and click on the Settings link at the top of the page. If you don't know what Twitter is, then go read this article: How To Explain Twitter to Your Grandma.

03) Type In Your Email Address

Type in your email address and save your settings.

04) Enable "New Follower Emails" (optional)

Want to know when you get a surge in followers? Click on the Notices tab. Make sure the New Follower Emails option is turned on. You will now get an email when someone new follows you on Twitter. Click Save.

05) Sign up for TweetLater.com

Go to http://www.tweetlater.com and sign up for an account. Don't worry. It's free you cheap wad. Scroll down their homepage until you see a "Register" button and click on it. You will have to fill out some basic info such as username, email, password, etc.

06) Sign in to TweetLater.com

After you've successfully registered with TweetLater.com, you need to sign in.

07) Link Your Twitter Account to Your TwetLater.com Account

After you've successfully signed into TweetLater.com, click on the Accounts tab. Then click on the Add Twitter Account button.

TweetLater.com will now ask you some information about your Twitter account. You must know the following in order to fill out this screen properly.

• Twitter username
• Twitter password
• email address used when signing up for Twitter

08) Automated Welcomes?

You can also send an automated welcome greeting to new Twitter followers or even post a public welcome Tweet in your timeline. We'd advise against both. Automated generic messages smell like the inside of a Tauntaun and scream "Hi I'm abusing Twitter to promote my lame company/product. Want some Tweet Spam!!!"

Not the way you want to welcome a new Twitter follower.

09) Enable Auto Follow Option

Towards the bottom of the screen, you'll see 2 checkboxes: Auto Follow and @Replies Digest. Considering that fact that you are reading this tutorial in the first place, you probably want to turn on the Auto Follow option.

We also recommend turning on @Replies Digest and setting it for once a day. This will send you an email with any replies from your followers. If you are managing a corporate or public figure's Twitter account, then it's a good idea to see what people are saying about your client anyway.

Click Save.

10) That's It!

Let's test it out. Call a friend with a Twitter account. You should both unfollow each other. Ask your friend to re-follow you. After a few moments, your auto follow system should kick in and automatically follow you again. To see if you are both following each other, go to Twitter Karma and take a look. If you see a mutual follow icon, then it worked!!

If you have more questions, please check out the great FAQ posted on TweetLater.com. And while you are still in a good mood, feel free to follow us on twitter.com/methodshop.

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