An Experiment in Social Media Marketing: Buying Twitter Followers An Entrepreneur contributor gets his social media followers the old-fashioned way: He buys them.

Despite making my living selling stuff people hopefully want to read or talk about, my business is just like yours. Though my digital content company has a good number of followers and friends, I struggle to turn Twitter, Facebook and the rest of the social media mafia into real money.

So about a month ago I started an experiment: I treated Twitter just like any other direct marketing medium. I began to study the dozens of online social marketing companies that promised to sell me Twitter followers, Facebook likes and YouTube views.

Most had little contact info, names like Twiends and Likes and Followers and the feel of your average web hustle. But one firm stood out: Miami-based Buy Fans Today. The site had clear pricing, specific enough contact information and a big, bold phone number. When I called it I promptly got in touch with one R.W. Goldberg, the company's founder, who promised that $430 would buy me 5,000 real followers in roughly a month.