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.

Yeah, that is community. That is definitely a conversation. That is most definitely good networking.

NOT!

I tend to unfollow these folks fast. In turn, as I am no longer stroking their ego, they unfollow back, for the second time. This is one of the reasons I often say I will put my 1700-1800 followers up against a lot of those with many thousands or more. My list may not be perfect, but it is cultivated to a certain degree. Cultivation is usually a good thing.

If you use Twitter this way, I have to ask why? Is it ego? If it is then it is false ego. Get some self esteem or get some help. Maybe get some real flesh and blood friends, seriously.

Is it to sell things? Do you honestly think that the list you build this way is a list built on authority or trust? If you are going to market, authority and trust are the two things that must be established first, no exceptions. There is a reason Kevin Kelly says you need 1000 People, or as he says, true fans. You need the right 1000, as they are way more powerful than many thousands who are just chaff.

Every day Twitter loses me a bit more. The tipping point is the day it is no longer fun. Right now, Twitter still amuses me. Let’s see how long that lasts.

Anyone know of a good sports talk station that streams at this time that does not have Colin Cowherd as the host?

I got only one response–which says something I have always believed about Twitter, but that is another post. The response I got is below.

adamdavs @RfL_Productions, I recommend http://su.pr/1aAKj1, where you can compare the top 10 web hosting services.

Alright, that is obviously an automated response. Someone is using the Twitter API to scour the postings for certain keywords, which upon finding such words, in this case ‘host,’ they spam with an advert of some type. Who knows if adamdavs is even a real person. If he is, he now looks very stupid.

I doubt he cares one bit. People like this are a big reason I have shifted how I use Twitter. The ‘conversation’ aspect that was so touted at the beginning is just ridiculous now, unless you are one of the anointed. Even then, it is mostly one way. Services like Tweetdeck and the other third party apps make it possible to follow thousands but ignore all but a few, which means your wonderful groundbreaking tweets are heard by practically no one.

That works to the advantage of the types above. Using auto-anything on Twitter usually makes you look stupid. So stop, please.

I am now going top block adamdevs. His bad.

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

Let’s shift for a second. Remember that band you were totally into before everyone and their cat got into them? Remember the TV show? The whatever?

It is the same thing. Only, this Twitter explosion, we asked for it.

We wanted to actually believe it mattered. We had the Pistachios and other nuts telling us just how powerful it was as a tool. Thing is, it really was all choir, as in preaching to, all along. (As more than a few people pointed out)

Now we have people lamenting the loss of cool. We have people decrying the loss of indie in the Twitterverse. Screw you winers.

Twitter was, before A&O, (Ashton and Oprah), just an exercise in quick, go nowhere, social media masturbation. It was a trivial stream and silly conversation for the chamber, the echo chamber, with an occasional cool story or news piece.

Now that it is finally open, and the people everyone wanted so badly to reach out and touch with their message have arrived, we get the whining.

Twitter before A&O=closed system where everyone was as important as their trumped up profile titles. Of course it seemed powerful, everyone was on the same masturbatory page.

Twitter after A&O=an actual system of new people to reach, but no one actually having a clue how as it does not really work. It is 140 characters at the speed of light. Even in our age of short attention spans, that ain’t much.

Enjoy Twitter for what it was. Enjoy Twitter for what it is now. But in the name of all that is good, stop freakin whining.

Cheers,

Eban

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