Posts Tagged ‘Followers’

Alright, you know that I hate marketing spam on Twitter.You know I think the people that think Twitter is the greatest thing since sliced bread are a bit loopy. You know I think the people that think Twitter is a community are well off their rockers.

So, what could I be griping about today?

People. That is what I am griping about today, people. And this gripe plays in to the myth of the community, conversation, or whatever else crazy kumbaya stuff people say about Twitter.

**redundant alert**
Before I get to what bothers me, let me say this, Twitter is a numbers game for most that are on and active. Let me also say that a lot of folks that have accounts are not active. Let me also say one more time that with the growth of third party apps, a lot of people ghost follow a large portion of folks on their list. Okay, one more time, and yes it is redundant. For most people, Twitter is a numbers game more than a conversation or a community.
**redundancy off**

Now to what is bothering me.

I get a lot of emails telling me of new followers. So much in fact, that if I were to respond to them all when they come in, I would be working Twitter all day.  I usually let these notices build up and then handle a bunch at once. Still, if you look at my Twitter account, you will notice that my numbers don’t change much. This is for two reasons.

1. I check out your account and find marketing spam or other reasons not to follow you back, and thus get unfollwed eventually.

2. You have pissed me off by making it known that I am not interesting enough to follow, you just wanted another reciprocating follower.

One is self explanatory. Two may need some explaining.

As I said above, I usually wait to go through my new follow notifications after they build up for a few days. I look through them every five or six days on average. Guess what I usually find. These nutcases have unfollowed me by the time I go through the notices. I am talking days, most definitely less than a week. I did not immediately follow them back, so they dumped me. How do I know this? After I do follow them, I get a notification saying they are now following me back. They did not follow for content, or interest, or just because they liked my mug in the avatar. (who does?) No they were fishing for follower numbers, and when I did not immediately give them another follow, they dumped me like a bad habit.

Read the rest of this entry »

Gordon, Scott, and Pat acting the fool by Totallyangel

Everyone is new at something at first. I know, that is a redundant statement, but it makes sense to say considering what this post is about.

What is that, you ask?

Newbies and social media, or networking, or whatever.

The curse of the noob is not fun. Noobs come in and barnstorm where decorum is the name of the game. Where things are riotous, they come in and try to be authority.

They are, well, noobs.

Hell, we have all been there. My noob experience was filled with the dreams that come from “make money online” gurus. I had every free e-book, and I shelled out some serious cash for the programs. I was going to take over the world.

Well, that didn’t happen. Luckily I am quick with the learning curves. I learned the lay of the land and followed my passions. Design, media, research, and meeting new and interesting people that enhance my web networking experience.

But, noobs, they are always there. For every web user that elevates above noob status, three or more jump in to take their place.

The type of noob that is aggravating me right now is a bit personal, as I was close to that type of noob myself.

Luckily back in the old days when I was an aggravating noob, things like Twitter did not exist. Hell, AOL, Yahoo, LiveJournal, and forums were still the lay of the land. I had to work at aggravating others, and my reach was pretty dismal.

Unfortunately, Twitter, FriendFeed, Facebook, and the like do exist now, and the noobs are amplified.

I get friend and follow requests everyday from people that have nothing in their streams but adverts for the same stupid make money online programs from back in the day. No following community decorum, no real posting, just puked up, canned ads. It is crazy.

There is even a guy in England (I will keep the name out of it as who knows which name is real?) with several different accounts all offering the same crap “get rich quick” or “get new followers fast” products.

The thing that elevates this guy from aggravation that does not conform to community standards, to total asshole, is when you un-follow his accounts, he un-follows and re-follows, several times, trying to get you back.

Getting hit by a double-decker bus is too good for him. He is pure evil.

Listen folks, I get that you have this great program or script that got you 17,000 followers even though you only have 25 posts. Good for you. I would put my measly 1400-1500 followers up against yours any day. I have carefully cultivated this list and I get value from most of the people on it. Yes, some are filler, like those with forgotten and unused accounts, but I can guarantee your accounts are almost all filler.

And then comes the money schemes. Only morons are clicking on your links. I know there are morons out there, but come on, do you really want that online rep?

You did not make a fortune. You are not rich. You did not find the freakin secret program. You just did not! You are another noob, sitting at home with dreams of overnight internet wealth and the fame and adoration that goes with it.

Now, let’s go to that next level, the auto-responder. If I follow you, I am giving you the benefit of doubt. I am giving you a certain level of trust, but it is only a test. How do you fail that test, by hitting me up with an auto-respond direct message trying to “help me” or show me the way.

Hey, idiot! I was here before you. I know the way. You showing me your bad manners and lack of etiquette right from the go only shows you to be someone that needs to follow for a while, not lead, or “show the way.” You are an asshole. Seriously.

Okay, so you got the griping, now is there an answer? Nope.

I can hope that a noob reads this and self identifies and starts on the path to being a proper online citizen.

I mean, we could mass shun the gits, but then the gits would just flock together and organize. Could domination be far behind? Yeah, probably not.

Unfortunately, as the web gets easier to use, and the online services and apps get better, we will get more noobs and more aggravation. Hopefully the learning curves will get faster as well.

We can hope.

Cheers,
Eban

Photo by NiallKennedy

We all see the Twitter “following and follower” numbers racked up by Brogan, Calacanis, Kawasaki, and Scoble, and they are impressive.Some, however want to take the next step and be that popular as well. Others just want to follow those that share interests and don’t care as much about numbers. To others, having huge follow and follower numbers leads to missing a lot of the stream.

Still, for those that want those kinds of numbers, the first step is figuring out how to collect the followers.

Here is where the Twitter experts come out of the wood work. Some share their knowledge, or theories, in their blogs and such. Others want you to pay for their golden information. Yep, pseudo-informational marketing has come to Twitter. I say pseudo as there is a legitimate market for informational products on the web and not every marketer is just out for the quick cash.

Some of these pay for information folks actually do have huge follower lists, even though they don’t have all that many Tweets. Of course, they usually disproportionately large following counts. They are the direct descendants of those folks that claim to be able to teach you how to make millions online, even though they themselves have not yet done so.

But, you say, they DO have huge follower and following lists.

Yes, but a follower is not always a good follower. A lot of people that are finding Twitter right now are not like those of us that have been around since near the beginning. They don’t value the conversations and the free sharing of information, they are more like those that collect huge friend lists on other sites such as Myspace, Facebook, and such. The relationships are secondary to the list.

You see, hidden in that knowledge,  to some people it is only about the collection, is the true secret to getting huge follower lists overnight. Totally free information and from a non-guru like me to boot.

We are all getting followed by these marketer types springing up on Twitter. When one follows you, go to their profile. If they have few tweets, are following a huge number, and actually have a few hundred to maybe a thousand followers, you have struck gold. Those that are following these Twitter users are usually those “collector” types that will generally follow without much thought.

Find yourself a couple of these guru types, grab their follower lists, and start to follow away. You should have reciprocating followers in short order, and in turn, develop a very impressive list.

Now, this will not be a valuable list. Not at all, but it is the secret  those guys that will tell you how to gain followers have used themselves.

As for me, I have almost 800 followers. That is seeming like a bit much too me at times. It is nowhere near the kind of numbers that impress, but it is what I can handle. If you are on my follower list it means one of two things:
1. I enjoy your tweets and feel that I get something out of following you.
2. I am giving you the benefit of the doubt, and you show the promise of being interesting

It took me well over a year to build that list of followers and those I follow. It is a valuable list, to me, and I enjoy interacting with those on my list.

Those like Scoble, Brogan, and the others did build the lists fast, but there are a lot of people that value their insight and information. If you really want their kind of lists, you need to work on the value you bring to the table.

If you choose to go the route of building the list the cheap and fast way, you may not have the same fulfilling relationships, but you will have impressive numbers.

One other thing–and this is just my opinion and could very well be off a bit–people don’t seem to mind when you promote your your creations and ideas on Twitter, as long as you add value beyond just promoting what you create. However, people tend to have a lot less tolerance for the those that are trying to turn Twitter into a quick cash and info marketing type of place. Keep that in mind.

There you go, what a value, eh?

Cheers,
Eban