To start off with I will presume that you already know what Twitter is. If not click here. I know that people use Twitter in different ways but I really don’t understand the race for followers. I can kind of understand it from a “superstar” perspective where they just want to broadcast out information. Twitter is mostly about two-way conversation. If you have a million followers how can you have a conversation? That is as preposterous as walking into a football stadium and trying to have a conversation with everyone in that stadium, at the same time.

As I have already said, people use Twitter differently but overall I think the main purpose of Twitter is conversation. Therefore, my goal on Twitter is quality rather than quantity. Cliche, I know. I have probably unfollowed five to ten times, maybe more, as many people on Twitter than I currently follow. The reason is simple. I had come across someone that I think might be interesting based on one or two “tweets” but over a period of time I find that what they have to say on a regular basis just does not interest me. The number of people that I actual follow, and reply back to, on Twitter is probably closer to a hundred. When I start getting into the bigger numbers I find I start to loose interest in Twitter due to the increased number of uninteresting “tweets”. I use Tweetie which allows me to save searches so that I can follow topics that I am interested in. This gives me the ability to follow ideas or interests and not just people.

In the end, I find it easier to build conversations with a room full of people rather than a stadium full of people. After all it is about quality vs quantity, right? What do you think?

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About the author

Matt
I'm Matt and I share how to build an internet presence through internet business, social marketing, lifestyle design and productivity tools. While here, read about me to learn my story or find out how you can hire me.

2 Comments for Race For Followers

Tim Ho

Great post. It's very true about the twitter and conversation. Twitter in many reports are categorized as “Instant messaging” instead of “social network”. Now, why don't these people go throw some budgets to create a strategy on increasing number of contacts on MSN messenger?

Reply

Tim Ho

Great post. It's very true about the twitter and conversation. Twitter in many reports are categorized as “Instant messaging” instead of “social network”. Now, why don't these people go throw some budgets to create a strategy on increasing number of contacts on MSN messenger?

Reply