A fascinating series of conversations (and a couple of arguments) sprung up on Twitter last nite about managing your followers. Some people, like my good friend Beth Harte are considering ‘resetting’ their Twitter account. Beth’s rationale is that she wants to get back to following fewer people, and having strong connections with the people she does follow. She lamented the fact that she doesn’t know most of the people that follow her, and have no idea why they are.
I have to admit, I have the same issue.
But while we were having this discussion on Twitter, Linda left this tweet:
That was the first time I can ever remember Linda sending me a message, and I followed her as soon as she did. And Linda’s tweet explains perfectly why I could never reset my account. If it meant unfollowing 99 spammers and 1 person such as Linda, who is following me because she gets value from my tweets, then it’s not worth it.
This is why I believe in following people back liberally, and then pruning followers later if they end up being spammers. And I guess I have always seen the power in the ‘little guy’, and I know that far too often, today’s little guy is tomorrow’s Chris Brogan. Also as an introvert, I understand that just because someone isn’t connecting with me, doesn’t mean that they don’t WANT to. They may just be looking for the opening that makes them feel comfortable doing so.
So moving forward, I am going to grow my Twitter network by liberally following back people that follow me, and following anyone that either RTs me, or replies to me. The only exception would be someone would someone that’s an obvious spammer. I think that method means I am following the people that are engaged in the type of activity I want to encourage.
What about you? How do you manage your network on Twitter? Would you be willing to reset your account and start over? I will say this: I would be completely in favor of Twitter removing all mention of how many followers someone has from the site. It’s mainly there to stroke egos, and doing so would make the site less attractive to those that are simply there to pad their numbers.
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I’m sorry I missed last night’s chat – sounds like it was a good one!
I’m tempted to “reset” my account, too, but I think that’s because Twitter makes it difficult to “unfollow” people who don’t interact with you.
When I was just starting with Twitter I followed many people who don’t currently provide value to my stream. Does that mean that they won’t ever? No. Does that mean that they can’t follow me? No. Would I like an easier way than what Twitter provides to see who has interacted with me (and what they said) so that I can easily prune back who I’m following? Yes!
I guess “resetting” would mean anyone truly interested would have to find me again, which is unfair to them so I probably wouldn’t do it. However, it would be nice to have an easier way to remove the “noise” from my incoming Tweet stream so that I can be a better, more engaged follower of those whose Tweets being real value to my day.
.-= Sharon Mostyn´s last blog ..Testing, Testing, One, Two, Three… #SMchat Topic for 05/12/10 =-.
Sharon I am like you, I want people to interact with me. BUT….just because they aren’t, how do I know that they still aren’t following my tweets because they get value without interacting?
And the problem with resetting is that, as you said, we’d force everyone to refollow us, and a lot of people wouldn’t do that. Losing even a few genuine connections isn’t worth purging hundreds of spammers, IMO.
So moving forward, I am going to grow my Twitter network by liberally following back people that follow me, and following anyone that either RTs me, or replies to me. The only exception would be someone would someone that’s an obvious spammer.
This is exactly the strategy that I developed several months ago – and my Twitter experience has been so much better because of it.
I actually developed a List entitled “Testing” and made it private. I put new people on this List and what their tweets. I engage and see what response comes. If after a while (I have no set time frame) I can see that they are not a spammer and they add to the Twitter experience, they are moved to my public Yes List.
This strategy has served me well and definitely added to my Twitter experience.
.-= Frank Dickinson´s last blog ..7 Ways To Make Change Easy =-.
Frank I could see doing the testing if I were only following a few hundred people, how many are you following? Still, an interesting idea.
Frank, an excellent tactic, real easy to implement going forwards.
The cool thing is you don’t need to follow them to list them, a very handy feature which keeps your stream less cluttered.
to catch up to past, may I recommend using http://refollow.com ?
It’s a great tool I use every few weeks which allows for some pretty simple filtering of followers pretty quickly with various checkmark options and search criteria of your followers/followed.
— Mack, I think using these two tools combined makes it easier to manage even large following lists.
Combining those two makes your stream quite efficient, I think.
(disclaimer, I am in no way related to refollow.com, just like the tool
I believe there are other tools like refollow, but it just fits my methods better.)
cheers.
Vince.
.-= vince jelenic´s last blog ..Seller, you are a broken link- Venue say thanks. =-.
Vince, @bethharte actually mentioned ReFollow to me today, I’ll definitely have to check it out!
Excellent points, Mack. I’ve been taking the same approach as you by following as many people I can keep up with, and then pruning later if there are any problems.
I’ll also admit to being an introvert. You’re absolutely right that some people need the right opening to make contact. People such as yourself, with loads more followers than me, can seem a little intimidating. But I’ve learned that if I engage in a conversation and stay genuine (like I hope most people would in real life) I’ll meet more and more people, and my circle of influence will continue to grow.
Michael that ‘intimidation’ factor is another reason why I would be in favor of follower #s being deleted. Then again there are some people on Twitter like Chris Brogan that I dont even try to interact with on twitter because I know he is now following so many people that having a conversation will be tough.
Mack,
Your recent experiment actually made me follow you a bit closer. It seems lots of folks are rather impressed with your recent adventure. The difference in following you as opposed to others, for me, is that you are connecting to people and you are helping others, who did not know each other prior, connect, communicate and share great ideas and practices.
People may reset their twitter account, but I think that would be counter-productive.
Matt
Thanks Matt! I wanted to do this AND share what I am finding because I hope it will help others. And at the same time it gives me something to show clients as far as what works and what doesn’t on Twitter.
Breaking stuff is how you find out what works 😉
What a great article!
I am an introvert as well. While I have made some wonderful connections – for every conversation I’ve joined that resulted in a back and forth, there are five where seemingly my outreach melted in the ether. But when the connection is made – sometimes months and months after the follow – it’s well worth it.
There are many people who I follow and learn from, and RT, that I’ve never had a chance to converse with.
Every few months I will review my followers. If they haven’t Tweeted in months, I consider unfollowing – because it appears that they have abandoned Twitter.
One of the things I have done to help diminish the noise is create lists which I follow on TweetDeck. I am pretty liberal with my follows. Periodically I will go back scroll through the Twitter web feed to see if there is someone who should be added to my lists because I want to follow them more closely.
.-= Dawn Westerberg´s last blog ..Fun with Google Analytics Or Why Marketing was a better Career Choice than Diplomacy =-.
Hi Dawn 😉 I love groups and lists as well, and am spending more time, even a few minutes a day, scanning MY public timeline. If it seems I have somehow followed someone that only tweets about forex and teeth whitening products, they get pruned 😉
Is it a lot of work? Yes, but definitely worth it.
I agree. I don’t think I could ever “reset” my Twitter account. Just like occurred between you & Linda, that occasional spark of interaction or nugget of wisdom that finds it way through my stream is not worth it. I take a lot of time on the front end vetting new followers and it pays off, Taking the time to sort through them and make a decision up front whether or not to follow, helps filter out the spammers and lets me build a community that I truly want to interact with. Using lists/columns in Tweetdeck helps me filter and locate the friends and thought leaders who are “can’t be missed” for me. Like you I also make an attempt to follow back and interact with everyone who replies to me, retweets me or tries to interact with me. It is not a perfect system, but it works for me. We all have to find the method of using the tools that work for us and give us the best and most satisfying results.
Hey Gloria, sounds like we do the same thing, you just vet at the front, where I vet at the back end. I’ve tried both ways and think both work.
Interesting post. I wish I had been a part of the chat!
I can empathize with Beth’s comment about not knowing her followers. I don’t personally know most of the folks who follow me. But I also don’t personally know most of the folks that I follow, including you and Beth. But I get value out of what you share. And I get value from those I interact with during webinars or through retweets and replies. I haven’t met them, but I’m interested in what they share. Even better, knowing what value I get from others motivates me to be thoughtful in what I’m sharing, because I want to provide value to others.
I like your suggestion of Twitter removing all mention of followers – at least outwardly. I think that information does carry some value for brands, but to your point, it’s mainly there to stroke egos – or crush them.
.-= Mollie Nothnagel´s last blog ..Decide now =-.
Mollie I also follow a lot of people I don’t know. I think a lot of it is for the POTENTIAL connection we might have down the road, even if we aren’t connected now.
Now how many connections can we realistically keep up with and still have them be meaningful? Good question.
Been there, done that. Been where Frank commented, done that too.
Over the past 24 months, I created multiple Twitter accounts, deleted multiple Twitter accounts, renamed accounts, followed everyone who followed me, unfollowed everyone, created lists, deleted lists, and so on and so on and so on.
The beauty of Twitter — which Facebook and LinkedIn don’t allow due to their mutuality — is you can follow and unfollow people whenever you want. You can also backup the people you follow to an external database for recordkeeping if you lose them down the road.
Want to know why I did this or that? I explain everything on my blog — click my name to link to it — and run a search for Twitter there.
.-= Ari Herzog´s last blog ..Former Facebook User Explains Why He Quit =-.
Watching the tweets fly by last night was really interesting. Who would have thought such a micro (not in importance but function) topic as follow strategy would drive so much passion. I love it. I always coach my clients to be liberal in their follow-backs and sift through the spammers later. This is especially important for personality driven brands who are actively building communities around them. I see it as a gesture of interest and an invitation to interact.
.-= Kevin D. Lyons´s last blog ..Foursquare Check-ins: The Low-Hanging Fruit =-.
Kevin good point, I advise clients to do the same thing. Don’t follow back everyone, but be very willing to follow back anyone that even somewhat looks like a potential customer.
Mack,
In February I wrote in part of a post: “News Flash: I follow Chris Brogan on Twitter. A few months ago I attended Blog World Expo in Las Vegas. I wrote about it. I promised that I would try to apply what I learned. One of the first things I did was to begin following Chris Brogan. Don’t get excited. I am one of 124,385 followers. (To put this in perspective I have 41 followers.) You are probably shaking your head and asking “is Judy nuts?” But to that, I say: “Does me being one of 3,400,000 TIME Magazine weekly subscribers or one of 6,685,684 National Geographic monthly subscribers shock you or make you question why I would even think of “following” these honored publications?” I hope not. I subscribe to these publications, local newspapers, SEO/SMO on-line newsletters for the same reason that I follow Chris Brogan – each opens avenues to useful and timely information that can impact my business, Webconsuls’ clients, and my personal life.”
When you discuss your reaction to Lisa’s reply to you, I totally understand. I started following Chris Brogan in Oct 09, but it wasn’t until Feb 2010 that I replied to him a few times. Suddenly, one evening whatever I said hit a nerve and he saw it and immediately began to follow me! Imagine I am one of 119,000 that he follows, but amazingly every few days, sometimes we connect and it is like we are old neighbors that bump into each other in the middle of NYC’s Museum of Natural History.
I enjoy learning from the people I follow. I will start following you.
Thank you Judy, and I will make sure I follow you back. I would follow you now if I knew your Twitter name 😉
And what I love about Chris is that he does a great job of introducing me to other interesting people that I’m not following or may not know about. He brings me value even though we rarely interact on Twitter.
BTW so sorry about all the problems you had commenting, glad it finally worked out 😉
I followed most of that conversation last night and was puzzled by people wanting to start completely over on Twitter. The best reason I heard for it was the blog post that @ChicagoLeah (formerly @LeahJones) wrote. While making some of the same arguments about the meaningless numbers, she said (and I’m paraphrasing; unfortunately I didn’t bookmark the post) that in order to appreciate what her clients experience as they started a Twitter account and built a following from scratch, she needed to go back and start over as well. She needed to remember how frustrating it was, and how “lonely” Twitter can be until you get a sizeable number of people to interact with.
That’s a valid point, but it misses a couple of things. First, as others have pointed out, you will lose connections with people you didn’t even know were following you–and they may be the very ones who were about to get brave enough or curious enough to ask you a question and then out to be an interesting person to connect with. Second, my clients do look at the number of my followers–even though I explain the futility of that–as some measure of success. And they want to be able to leverage my clout (or Klout, in the case of Twitter) on their behalf.
The risks of starting over outweigh the benefits in my book. Instead of spending all that time to start over, I’d rather invest the time (probably less time) in cleaning up my Twitter Lists, and pruning back the number of people I follow. A couple of months ago I did just that — unfollowed close to 300 people. I first cut the ones that are inactive; they haven’t posted in the last 30 days. If I look at Twitter names and can’t remember who they are or why I followed them in the first place, I’ll look at their Twitter bio and home page. If they were nothing but links or only RTs and @’s, I cut them. (There needs to be a blend of all those, in my opinion.) If they were extremely adamant in expressing their political views (left or right), they likely got dropped. If they were offensive or used gratuitous profanity, I dropped them. (In addition to not using that language myself, I often demo Twitter for clients and don’t want those kinds of tweets showing up.)
Beyond that, it’s just subjective. Do I enjoy interacting with them? I prune my following periodically so I can make room to add new people–because I’m honored they have chosen to follow me and must find my content valuable. As for those 6,600+ followers? I’m sure a bunch of them are inactives, spammers or pure marketing accounts. There were months when Twitter grew so rapidly, and I was too overwhelmed to even check and see who was following. I dare say at least half of those followers are “fluff.” So numbers do not equal influence.
.-= Connie Reece´s last blog .."An actual indictment on securities fraud would make it impossible for Zuckerberg to remain…" =-.
Connie last week I went through in one day and unfollowed about 2,500 people that weren’t following me. Most were spammers or seemed to be people that had left Twitter. Next I want to go through (I was using Twellow) and look at the people that are following me that I dont follow, and see if I missed somoene I should be following
I do think Leah’s point about wanting to reset to experience life on twitter as client new to Twitter would, has some merit. But as you say, I dont think the lost connections make it worth it.
Mack,
I am still in a manageable phase with Twitter. I get an email when someone follows me, I look at their account and I decide whether to follow back or not. To make the decision, I look at the most recent tweets and if there is anything there that I want to connect about, I follow them back. If they never RT, are constantly promoting a product, have 1 tweet and 2000 followers…I don’t follow them back.
I also will unfollow if someone sends me an auto DM and they are not following me. I don’t mind auto DMs, but when I feel forced to reply in public to a message that has been sent privately, I become a bit annoyed. For example, “Thanks for the follow, I am always curious, please let me know why you followed me.” I hit reply, type my message, hit send and then get the message that it can’t be sent because the person is not following me. At that point, I unfollow.
I’m a newbie, so I am always open to learning more and taking suggestions. Also, thanks for the great chats, I really enjoy them. I missed last nights due to an work function, but looking forward to next week.
Amber you hit on something I hate, if someone sends a DM and I try to reply and TD says they aren’t following me that’s always an automatic unfollow. Big pet peeve of mine!
You’re welcome Amber, I do love how we are all experimenting with Twitter to see the best way to use it!
Keep in mind that not everyone understands how DMs work on Twitter. I sometimes DM people forgetting the rules.
.-= Wade Kwon´s last blog ..Don’t let your Facebook page die – interact with it =-.
Mack,
I did see what I’ll call “the healthy debate about the value of Twitter” last night and was struck by so many things, one of which was your unrelenting commitment to, and respect for, your followers.
I am not one to judge and believe that everyone should use Twitter in the way they feel best represents themselves as an individual, but I was taken aback by some comments that Twitter is not reality or the real world in some way.
I can say those comments actually felt hurtful to me. Twitter has given me the opportunity to create real relationships with people around the globe whom I otherwise would never have had the opportunity to meet. I am quite sure the commenters had no intention of hurting my feelings in any way, and I have respect for all of the comments last night because they came from people’s core convictions, but I was terribly uncomfortable with the generalizations about the value of creating connections in that way.
I think things happen for a reason and I know Linda’s tweet came through at just the right time to remind you that those of us “little guys” you were in some way “sticking up for” value your tweets; we value those of the people we follow, and love that you feel so strongly about connecting with us.
Thanks for writing the post, Mack.
.-= Lisa Petrilli´s last blog ..You’re Just Not That Into Me (the introvert’s guide to attending a conference) =-.
Amen Lisa! Spike is a hella smart guy and bashing Twitter is his schtick and everyone knows it. Most nites I play along but the tone last nite stuck in a way that made me defensive because it was as if we were debating if the PEOPLE we have connected with here matter.
They not only matter, they have changed my life. The tool itself is meaningless, the connections are all that ultimately counts.
I hadn’t read your blog when I wrote my own post about an hour ago. The experience I talk about taught me that it DOES matter when people we follow don’t respond as we expect. We have been taught to expect so much from social media — that it’s personal and friendly, and not at all “business-y.” But when we get thousands of followers, people slip through the cracks — which is probably what sincere bloggers fear most: That we will miss responding. As Ari notes, this whole social media thing is more complicated than it seemed at first blush. http://bit.ly/99pwWn
Another good tool is Shannon Whitley’s (@swhitley) mytweeple.com
With any of the 3rd party apps you have to remember that they will never be as up-to-the moment as Twitter because it’s based on their API calls to the server. So I sometimes find discrepancies.
.-= Connie Reece´s last blog .."An actual indictment on securities fraud would make it impossible for Zuckerberg to remain…" =-.
Mack, Like some others I still have a manageable Twitter account. One thing I think has helped me from day one: I did my homework and joined Twitter with a plan.
I’ve created 2 profiles, one public @3hatscomm for primarily for business but with a human face of course. My second profile is the private, anonymous voice in the wilderness, from which I am safe to tweet any old damn thing I want. But I’ve shifted away from this second account, save for a few guilty pleasure chats. Why? I’m a person, not a bot and quickly realized it was okay to let even more of personality show in my tweeting.
As to managing followers, always pruned as I’ve gone along. I don’t block newbies until they spam, but I don’t rush to follow back.. until they have something to say. I have passed on follow some of the “experts, mavens, gurus” whose backgrounds and feeds are all shrines to their own egos. But if I see some real interaction, engagement in their feeds with more give and less take, I will return the follow.
Actually that’s my model for most people I follow (media, brands for example are different IMO): someone who shares, gives back, RTs and has conversations with the rest of the kids, and only occasionally pimps themselves. FWIW.
.-= Davina K. Brewer´s last blog ..FlashForward Marketing: The Future of Your Campaign =-.
How do I manage my Twitter network? I vet every single new follower. If they’re worth following (based on recent tweets), I follow them on the spot. If not, no biggie. They can follow me as long as they see fit.
Would I start over? Nope. Worked too hard to find the right people to follow, and to let these folks find me. Plus, it’s easy enough once a year using any number of online tools to unfollow accounts that have been abandoned.
Are the follower numbers useful? To me, yes. It’s not just an ego thing. If I see a new follower is following 1000 people and has 3 followers, I’m immediately suspicious. If I see you’re following less than half of your followers, I think you’re discriminating. If I see you’re following about the same number as following you, I see you as democratic.
Either way, the only way I’ll follow you on Twitter is if I think you’re interesting. YMMV.
@WadeOnTweets
.-= Wade Kwon´s last blog ..Don’t let your Facebook page die – interact with it =-.
Would have liked to participate in that chat. I check out everyone who follows me although it takes time to follow back. It’s become almost impossible to manage, but I see it as an education.
True today’s new buddy could be the next Chris Brogan, but I see it differently. Everyone has a unique voice. Even if it’s not a Chris Brogan, that person could share just one pearl of wisdom, or impact your life. Sounds a bit polyannish, I know – but I feel everyone has a gift – albeit spammers get the ax.
As for @ChrisBorgan I started following him and his work a long time ago because his material was authentic and I learned from him from day one – even when he was less popular than his star status. He’s smart and he’s a nice guy. You don’t need to be a star to offer that. And you can’t put a price tag on it.
.-= Judy Martin´s last blog ..Leadership value of the “Golden Rule,” a memento from #SOBCon =-.
Hi Judy! I think when you reach the point where you don’t have time to manually check everyone before you follow/follow-back, then you either become really liberal with following people, or really conservative. I’ve tried both ways and as others have mentioned here, both ways have advantages and disadvantages.
I don’t have a lot of followers – fewer then 100, but I do occasionally weed out followers that don’t look legit. I, too, am an introvert, and tweeting is hard for me. I don’t feel like I have anything to say that people might be interested in. But, I love following people like you, armano, and lisabarone who will reply back when we tweet to you directly. Makes me feel warm & fuzzy. And, like Linda, I am learning tons.
Hey Melinda! I think the quickest way to ‘sound interesting’ is to simply join conversations. Doesn’t have to be anything earth-shattering, just casual conversations like you would have offline. Also helps you get more comfortable sharing on Twitter. We introverts sometimes need a kick in the pants 😉
Hi Mack,
interesting post. I’m often thinking about the number of followers someone has and if they really care. Personally, I signed up to Twitter because I’m writing my thesis about it. In the beginning I had no clue what the platform was all about and whether or not it’s even going to make any sense being present because “who the heck would follow me – small town girl from Austria ;)”.
Now, 6 months later, I have 370 followers. But what does that number really mean? I’m happy to say that I have communicated with almost all of my followers on some occasion. With some more, with others less but I’m trying to make an effort. As we talked about in #SMMackchat this week I fully support the statement of the importance of engagement. To get to this point I put a lot of hours in, researching, interacting and posting stuff I feel are valuable for the people out there.
However, do I seem arrogant if I don’t follow everybody back that follows me? I don’t think so. I rather have a small quality network than a huge audience that doesn’t know the least bit about me and just ignore everything I say. I can see why you made the comparison with Chris Brogan. Besides him being one of THE social media stars out there, he still kept a good balance between delivering posts of value and engagement. I don’t think though that I will start following people back. Reasons I follow people are because their twitter stream shows they are engaging with others and post links to, for me, valuable information.
What I like about you is what u said in ur post. U believe in the “small guy”. You listen. 🙂
Keep up the good work, I love reading ur blog.
See u soon in #SMMackChat
Antonia 🙂
Antonia I was once a ‘small guy’ and in the grand scheme of things, I still am. But I learned early on that if you connect with the smarties before everyone else does, that they’ll appreciate you 100X more when everyone knows how smart they are 😉
Good luck on your thesis, maybe I will see you at #SMMackChat tomorrow? 😉
This has been a great opportunity to sit back and watch many people give an honest opinions about this position. I do not have much room to compare, I have a small following and wonder who really values my online relationship. I had a long debate with Olivier (@thebrandbuilder) and I will end up buying him a beer over it. I guess my thought is that I want to find the people who really want to chat and grow a “relationship” with me. My follower number seems so much larger than I feel that I bring value to their lives. Who doesn’t want a large following, but that has it’s own positives and negatives. Honestly, I sometimes look through my follower list and ask myself, who is this person. Should I care or should I not worry that they are one of may I might have a conversation with online once or twice a year. I guess it comes down to what is your goal with your account and how does it mirror your approach to building relationships. I am happy to follow people like you because I learn so much.
Does this little debate really matter or is Spike just a smart guy getting us to really consider for ourselves the value we place in our online/social relationships. Thanks for making me think!
.-= Bobby Rettew´s last blog ..HTML5, VP8, H264 – What is all this video stuff? =-.
As an absolute newby to the twitterverse, I can say that I follow you because of your obvious experience, and that of your followers (already some great tips above ^^^). It’s an odd place to inhabit [twitter] and like forums or other social media sites there are certain unspoken rules that newbies must get acquainted with.
Is twitter a tool, or, is it another “place” where people are going to apply specific rules that define the behaviour of its inhabitants? It lies somewhere in between and just like other social media, the definition of what YOU get out of it, relies on your ability to manage it.
I guess when you have 8 bazillion people following you, it must get difficult, but in some cases you just need to bite the bullet and clean house.
Perhaps a #cleaninghouse announcement with directions to your new account will cull those whom have followed you just in the hope that you will return the favour and eat their spam. Those who don’t follow (let’s be honest, it isn’t THAT hard to click “follow”) probably aren’t that worth following anyway.
But what do I know? I’ve only got 12 followers…..
.-= Misterquality´s last blog ..Organise! =-.
Thanks for following 😉 Unfortunately for newbies, a lot of time all you encounter are a lot of people telling you the ‘right’ way to do everything. One thing I learned a long time ago is that there are very few hard and fast rules that apply to how EVERYONE should use a social media tool or site.
Don’t be afraid to experiment and make the tool fit what YOU want it to do.
Even if it means ignoring some of the ‘experts’ 😉
Mack your post is spot on. I am sorry I missed out on the convo. I was participating in my friends @writerchanelle chat on #genychat . I love the fact that this tweeter came forward and jumped into the conversation. There are numerous “listeners” out there. My last few trade shows and Association meetings proved that to me. There were people coming up to me saying “I love what you blog about” “I appreciate your tweets” “Thanks for the interesting content you post on FB” I never knew any of these people since they had never contributed to the discussion but it meant so much to them that they had the opportunity to “listen” and now the opportunity for us to get to know each other. This impressed on me once again that everyone matters and I make it a special point to people new to the space to give them some personal attention and keep an eye out for what they do post. This has served its purpose in giving them the confidence to keep working with these tools and realize that there voice is amazingly appreciated. Thank Mack for bringing this topic to light.
Hey,
I follow you, and beth…..I’ve been using Twitter as a tutorial for social media. My friend, president of the campus PRSSA comment I didn’t know anything about social media in January, and by April I had the fellowship he wanted with Ketchum. Part is I’m a fast learner and know marketing, but mostly its people like you on Twitter that I selectively followed to learn everything I could —fast. I’m so grateful for people who tweet openly to the public. I might not ever try to meet you–I’m not too comfortable with networking quite yet, but LinkedIn helped me a lot–but I’m so grateful to you still. And as an SVP of digital at unnamed major PR firm (who I was interviewing with, no Twitter connection) put it when I told him I was going with Ketchum put it “This is a small industry, you never know when our paths may cross again.”
oh also….my friend @alexpriest taught me to have my twitter emails sent to a separate folder. so i check to folder when I want to weed out spammers. 😉
That is exactly why I changed my mind after unfollowing 3k followers on Twitter recently. What about that 1? Great post Mack!
.-= Keith´s last blog ..Organize Your Twitter =-.
Mack, I read your post earlier this week and it’s been on my mind to add a comment, so here it is. My strategy is similar to yours. I will follow most folks but then go back and edit out spammers. It really comes down to what your goal is with Twitter. For me, it was initially a networking tool for finding employment (It worked! http://bit.ly/rPyDl) and then I was amazed by the wonderful people I met and learned from. I’ve come to respect many people here (including you). The reason is simple: you and folks like you provide value, whether it’s content or engagement.
Social networks are simply social. So basically who you are in life should carry over into your work (or else you should quit) and how you interact with others.
I have been a “victim” of lab experiements like Ari’s (love him!) where I was unfollowed, refollowed, etc. For me it’s not about quantity (#of followers) it’s quality and if it’s there, it stands out. You are unforgettable. It resonates.
I have folks who interact with me very seldom but they are memorable, whether personal or professional. I also like to connect further whether it’s face to face, Skype, or email. For those reasons, i would never start from scratch. My list is organic – a lot of effort and time. But that’s just me.
Thanks for keeping my brain active 🙂
.-= Anna Barcelos´s last blog ..Five Confessions of an Integrated Marketing Communications Marketer =-.