The first bump occured when I replied to Felicia Day’s post about being a woman in geek culture. I only got a few new follows, but I had dozens of replies that day. I had no idea that she would reply, or that others would include me with their conversations with her.

The next group of followers hopped on board, because we were all discussing the Mars rover landing. I happened to tune in as NASA was waiting for the first data from Curiosity, and I had a fantastic time joining in the conversation and experiencing that connection with other people.

Finally, I accidentally expanded my network by vicariously living through friends who had attended this year’s BlogHer convention. Suddenly I was reading the posts of and conversing with other blogging ladies. Is that geeky enough for ya?

I write quite a few articles about social media strategy and SEO, and I know how important engagement is but, to be perfectly honest, I usually only chat on Twitter with people whom I already know. I add existing friends, and while many of them are geeky bloggers, I don’t spend a lot of time concerning myself with the trending topics. My new followers make me think that this might be a mistake, especially if the goal is to strengthen my blogger network. Plus, I’ve really enjoyed those conversations and new topics.

So, there you have it. If you accidentally want a bunch of new followers:

• Tweet a celeb
• Geek out about NASA
• Talk a lot about a convention you’ve never visited

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