I just received my 267,786th direct message on Twitter asking if I wanted the secret to getting 6,000 followers in 30 days.

97.5% of these folks have been using Twitter for over three months and still have less than 1,000 followers.

Can someone do the math for me?

Does size really matter?

The number of followers you have on Twitter does matter – but it doesn’t matter that much. That’s because follower count is just one data point in the overall “social proof” picture.

Consider these two users:

Yes, Chris has a gazillion followers. But Brian is the CEO of Hubspot. The difference between their follower numbers (73,000-ish) would hardly be a consideration to a potential follower.

How engaged are your followers?

Someone who has 1,000 unengaged followers has the ability to reach 1,000 people – at best. But someone with 100 passionate followers, each with 100 of their own followers can reach 10,000 people – and probably more.

So, how can you tell if your followers are engaged?

Two ways to measure engagement on Twitter:

1. Clicks

If someone clicks on a link that you tweet, that’s an action that can be measured with tools like bit.ly. Bit.ly will measure clicks to any URL, regardless of whether you own the site or not. What visitors do after that point can be measured with Woopra or Google Analytics – but only for links leading to and within your site.

Below is a screen shot of Bit.ly stats as displayed in CoTweet, a web-based enterprise Twitter application.

Bit.ly stats in CoTweet

2. Retweets

One of the strongest forms of social proof on Twitter is the retweet. A retweet is essentially a stamp of approval on your tweet, by the user retweeting it.

Retweets can be measured with tools like Twitter-friends (for stat grrls, like Beth) and Retweetrank (for folks who like just one number, like me).

Twitter-Friends.com

Retweet Rank

Note: Want to learn more? Read “Measuring your Twitter network’s health“.

What other ways can you measured engagement?