Strategically building a Twitter audience

The two main roads to (initial) distribution seem to be either a) paid ads or b) leveraging our social media following.

I am wondering about b): I am not sure if many people do it intentionally (hoping to find out) in order to create an audience for their future products, but if yes, what are your experiences on how long it takes? And also, are there any good write ups on the subject? Is there perhaps a great book I should read?

I am asking this in part because I thought about blogs. One can get a mention (= link/traffic) in a blog by providing content for another blogger, so it is a win-win situation. Not sure if anything like this exists on Social Media, as well, because the mechanics seem to be different.

Maybe my question is: How can I build a large following on Twitter quickly?