1000 subscribers is nothing. With 10K followers, the benefits is that you now got an audience you can pitch a product to, or mention about once in awhile. The drawbacks is that you sometimes feel pressure to post regularly so that they don't forget about you

I've met a few people in real life who follow me on Twitter... some of those people have become friends I hang out with regularly. It's also nice to connect with people I've not seen in years through Twitter.