Someone looks pleased with his Twitter inches.

"The number of Twitter followers you have is the new penis envy. If that sounds familiar, it should – I’ve said it before," social media entrepreneur, CEO, and master networker Peter Shankman writes today on his blog P.S. So why is he repeating himself? Because with the crop of "consultants" (scare quotes courtesy of Mr. Shankman) promising tens of thousands of follows in exchange for your credit card digits, it bears repeating.

Under the headline, "How Many Inches of Twitter Followers Do You Have?," Mr. Shankman makes the argument, as many men have before him that, "Quality will always trump quantity" only in this instance, it refers to Twitter followers. So how do you get that lasting organic growth? Not by self-promotion, but by respecting the people looking back at you across your follower feed.

"Your new job is simply thus: Create such amazing experiences for your current customers and audience, with stellar customer service, amazing response to them, and spectacular content tailor-made for the audience you already have, and your current audience will take over your job AND DO YOUR PR FOR YOU!"

See, word of mouth works in both personal and professional arenas.