Whether you’ve gained them by being mentioned in one of Kim Kardashian’s tweets, grew them naturally or bought them from us, if you’re on Twitter you will likely have some followers. No matter how many followers you might have, there’s probably one thing you may not have considered: how much those little digital connections are worth to you.

And no, I’m not talking about on a sentimental emotional level, I’m talking about how much they could be worth to you in cold hard simoleans. Why would you want to know this? Well, there are loads of people who will buy Twitter accounts which are proven to convert sales, or you may just want to know because you’re a pedantic, money-hungry accountant-type who needs to know how everything in your experience is worth.

Whatever the reason, in this post we’re going to take an in-depth look at how much your Twitter followers could be worth, and what that could mean to you.

But before we do, let’s look at the people on Twitter and how you probably fit in the grand scheme of things.

There are three main types of people on Twitter: Firstly, you have Celebrities looking to boost their egos in a war to become one of the most-followed people on the site. Secondly, you have an average human Internet-user who just uses the site to tell their close circle of friends when they’re taking a dump (I like to call these the ‘Normals’). And if you can’t fit into one of those categories, you’re simply using Twitter as a marketing medium to make money from.

And in case you haven’t yet figured out from the vast amount of spam and promotional messages floating around the site like a digital version of Rosie O’Donnell in a bath of chunky soup, marketers form probably the dominant category of people on the site. And if you’re reading this post on a marketing blog, you are either a ‘net-tard who accidentally found this site while looking for pornography, or you belong to this group as well.

As a marketer, you’ll know that a Twitter account is effectively like having a mailing list to connect with your clients and friends and there are various factors which will sway how profitable your list will be to you. For example, if your entire list was gained as a result of giving away a freebie, the people on it won’t be as likely to buy something from you as a list of people who are previous clients who have already bought your services.

It’s these variables which should be taken into account when estimating the value of your Twitter account and I’ve listed some of the most common below:

1. Acquisition

How did you gain your Twitter followers? If they were gained through natural traffic to your Twitter page by people interested in you and what you have to say, sent from your blog or website, or purchased from uSocial in targeted packages, then chances are they’ll be worth not only a little, but probably a good deal as these are all methods which are recommended when gaining followers. However, if you’ve used an automated script to gain followers, relied on follow-backs from randomly following others or simply gained them en masse by spamming Twitter, they’re likely worth about as much as a handful of used toilet paper.

2. Targeting

Are your followers simply any soul you could get so you enjoy the outcome of an inflated ego when you looked at your follower numbers? If that’s the case, then they’re probably not worth much to you. On the other hand, if your fans on Twitter are people who are genuinely interested in what you’re saying, the industry or interest group you’re in, or your geographic location, then they’ll be worth their weight in myrrh-coated saffron. And of course, to easily increase your targeted followers, you can always buy them in packages from 1,000 and up from us.

3. Relationship

If you gained the vast majority of your followers simply because you give out a free report if they follow you, then there’s a good chance most of them will avoid your tweets like a bacteria-laden carcass in the future. To really strike Twitter gold, the best followers come from those people who have done business with you before, regularly read your material or who you know personally. If you can even accrue a few hundred followers like this, you’ll perform many times better than people who have lists of five and six figures of people they have no business knowing.

4. Numbers

While a lot of people say the number of followers you have is the be-all and end-all, it’s not always the case. The three points I’ve mentioned until now are by far more important when considering the worth of your followers, but after you’ve tackled them to the best of your abilities, the number of followers you have does come into it. Just make sure you’re not riding the value of your followers on this alone because if you consider only numbers and not the overall quality of your followers, you may find yourself rather disappointed when it comes to promoting a product or service to them.

Take these points into consideration when attempting to decide how much your followers are each worth to you, though you can never truly know the value of your Twitter account and the people following you until you spend a good month marketing to them and letting the figures speak for themselves.

The best way of doing this is to send maybe 1-2 promotional messages to your followers every day for a month and tracking how many sales this results in. Divide the amount earned by your number of followers and you’ll have a figure which will be the average value of each follower on your list.

And if you’re any kind of marketer you’ll know that the figures always speak for themselves!