When I started Twitter over a year ago I thought it was necessary to have followers on twitter - to advertise your recently created blog or to spread an idea.   Twitter is now becoming more like search than a conversation.  Don't get me wrong - Twitter is an important place to have small conversations and to maintain your mind share with other people. 

The first thing that clued me in is that I dont look at my home feed that often.   I am using HootSuite to manage my Twitter accounts - personal and business.    And I currently monitor a set of keywords on Twitter for things of interest.   I find the things I want not from following a particular person but by following a keyword or hashtag.   

I have found it useful to follow some Twitter Luminaries which I group into a list.   But frankly - I dont really need thousands of followers myself.    While this strategy doesnt push me through the 2000 follow limit - I find that following 1500 or so people is usually enough.  So until I personally need to follow more people - I dont need more followers.

I want my relationships to evolve naturally and I will follow and follow back when I find it useful.  But Im not in the business of having a huge following just to be able to send crap at them.   I like to contribute to Twitter with significant comments and links and cultivate small relationships.

I originally thought that the number of followers limited my reach - but I was wrong.  You can have an enormous reach without followers.  You just have to keyword and hashtag your Tweets intelligently.  If your tweets are tagged correctly - the right audience will be reading them.