In August 2009, I became part of the five figure Twitter club. For the first time since I sent my very first tweet in 2007, the number of people that I’m following and who are following me on Twitter climbed to just over 10,000.

As I posted about this feat on Twitter, I got many questions from people wondering how I went from 13 followers in 2007 to 10,000 2 ½ years later.

To some, taking just over two years to gain 10,000 followers may seem rather slow, especially considering all the various tools out there where you can buy a few hundred followers per day. For me, I value quality over quantity and I’ve been rewarded with thousands of dollars worth of sales from those who follow me on Twitter.

So, how can you authentically grow your Twitter lists from a few hundred to a few thousand? Here are just a

few of my tips.

First, I had a “me” attitude when I tweeted. In other words, I tweeted about the things that had my attention. I found that when I tweeted telling people what was interesting to me, Twitter became very easy to use.

I tweeted from conferences, I tweeted while traveling, I tweeted while sitting at the hairdressers. Whatever I found interesting, funny or odd, I would share it with my followers. That’s the beauty of Twitter – you can blather on about your interests and only those who find it captivating will interact with you.

Second, I completely ignored the numbers. Whether I had 13 people following me or 300, it really didn’t matter. What was important was the interactivity of my audience. I was more concerned about people NOT responding to me, than whether or not I lost a follower or gained 10 more. Once I let go of the numbers,

Twitter became a true social networking tool.

Next, I followed people who fit my criteria. I didn’t follow someone else’s formula. Instead, I put together my own requirements and followed those who met it. So, what was my criteria? The person had to have a picture posted, had to have tweets sent within the last 72 hour period, and had to tweet using their real name. Yup, that’s it.

I was very unforgiving with spammers. If someone’s first contact with me includes a link to a squeeze page, free gifts, and offer, or a video extolling the services of their new MLM, I quickly block them.

Some spammers unfollow you as soon as you follow them so they can add more people to their list. Typically, if there is a difference of a few hundred people between your follower and following lists, it means you have quite of number of spammers following you and you’ll need to clean them out. So, once every 30-days, I use a service called Twitter Karma to cull my follow list.

To grow your follow list on Twitter, be selfish, tweet about what has your attention and follow those that fit your criteria. It may take you a few months, but your business will be rewarded with ample prospects hanging on to your every word.