So I was casually browsing blogs and twitter posts this morning and came across a bunch of links to a new twitter application called Tweeter Getter. Essentially this is a twitter pyramid scheme to get you *thousands* of followers.
Pyramids
Here is an apt description of the pyramid business model from Wikipedia:
The essential idea is that the mark, Mr. X, makes only one payment. To start earning, Mr. X has to recruit others like him who will also make one payment each. Mr. X gets paid out of receipts from those new recruits. They then go on to recruit others. As each new recruit makes a payment, Mr. X gets a cut. He is thus promised exponential benefits as the "business" expands.
Twitter + Pyramid
In our case the business is twitter followers, and the payments are follows.
By following the first 6 users on the list, and retweeting your own link, you start your own little pyramid coming in under the 6 people above you. They get a new follower, and on the assumption that people ACTUALLY follow your link you could get the same.
Each subsequent person that joins the pyramid from either your link, or a derivative of your link will add you as another follower.
Lots of People
Of course this model is not sustainable in the long term, and the more people join the lower the 'returns' are likely to be. By the time the pyramid is 13 layers deep, it will need more than the entire population of the globe to participate in order to continue.