Following, according to Twictionary, is defined as the act of choosing to sign up to receive someone’s tweets.
The twitter.com interface highlights a running tally of how many people, robots, and plants you follow and who follows you. You can click each number at any time to view the list.
For instance, if you click the above box (or this link), you’ll be whisked to my Twitter profile where you can click the numbers and scroll through the names.
Nobody seems to agree how and why to follow people. It’s an epidemic.
Julia Roy wants to engage with the world by reciprocating followers with mutuality.
I think it is important to follow followers back, because Twitter is for two-way conversations. If someone cares enough to get my updates, why shouldn’t I reciprocate that action?
She follows over 22,000 users today.
Connie Reece counters it is impractical to follow everyone back–highlighting a poll she conducted that shows 86% of Twitter users don’t care about reciprocal following, so long as value is imparted and people are social.
As a result of the poll, I will be trimming back the number of people I follow on Twitter. If I can’t remember having any exchanges with someone, I’ll drop that person. Why? Because I’m following over 1,200 people but only paying attention to a few hundred at most.
This is echoed in a comment by Mark Dykeman, responding to Lisa Donner’s guest blog post comparing the parallels of Jesus Christ and Alexander Graham Bell to Twitter.
As Jesus’ message began with 12 disciples who paved the way for a foundation of believers, Lisa suggests Twitter users should strive to strengthen relationships with their existing followers, not focus on increasing those numbers.
Mark opines:
Being followed by a person who follows 100 people or less is far, far more valuable than being followed by someone follows 10,000 or more. Followers aren’t always there to listen to your every word and it becomes exponentially harder to be heard as everyone follows everyone else.
Echoing my sentiments last fall how I use Twitter, I adhere to a simple formula for time management:
Share Resources (70 %) – Successful learning in the 21st Century is not what you know, but what you can share, so 70 percent of my Twitter time is spent sharing others voices, opinions, and tools.
Collaborations (20 %) – 20 percent of my tweets are directly responding, connecting, collaboration, and co-creating with like-minded Twitter colleagues. From these important tweets, lifelong professional and personal relationships have been forged.
Chit-Chat (10 %) 10 percent of my Twittertalk is “chit-chat-how’s-your-hat” stuff. It is in these “trivial” details shared about working out, favorite movies, politics, and life in general that I connect with others as a human being. These simple chit chats are what have allowed me to know that I am never alone, and there is support whenever, wherever, and however I need it!
Unlike Julia Roy, I don’t need to follow the world to network and collaborate. Rather, agreeing with Connie Reece, Lisa Donner, and Mark Dykeman, I tweet with selected users who provide value to me in social media with respect to business and government. I continually aim to whittle down the number of people I follow but also add more people, so I’m following the right people for the right reasons.
I can count on many fingers the people who I’ve interacted with not just on Twitter, but on other social networking sites, and beyond into emails and telephone calls that we’re not merely networking, collaborating, and chit-chatting in 140 characters but with more verbosity and by voice. You know who you are; as I have it on fairly good authority many of you are devoted readers of my blog.
I’ve stated many times that I don’t focus on metrics but on the importance of value. If I choose to follow you on Twitter, it’s no different in concept (though for different reasons) than subscribing to your blog.
Don’t focus on who follows you or who doesn’t follow you but on contributing to the at-large Twitter community. Focus on building your foundation of believers.
One more thing: Many people follow me every day. I thank them and I thank you. Please don’t take it personally if I don’t follow back, or if I follow and then unfollow some time later. I don’t need to follow your Twitter messages to believe in you. If you have a question, feel free to add a comment below or tweet me!
Related posts:
- Is Twitter Stupid?
- Curious Why Twitter Rank is Meaningless?
- How to Get 21,347 Twitter Followers in 2 Weeks
Comments:
Ari Herzog is an online media strategist and Newburyport City Councilor-Elect.
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According to Lisa Donner I could start a new religion? Who’s gonna be my Tom Cruise?
Mwah hah.
Jessica Gottlieb´s last blog post..A Funny Thing Happened at Costco
That depends. Do you compare yourself to Mimi Rogers, Nicole Kidman, Penelope Cruz, or Katie Holmes?
I don’t get the mass following thing. Today alone I got 3 DM’s from people telling me that they have suggested others to follow me. I wasn’t too sure what I was supposed to do…so I did nothing. I don’t want/need more followers. I just want to interact with those that I feel a connection with.
Monika´s last blog post..NH Real Estate Price Reduced and ready for you..
Why should it matter if people follow you? I’m focusing on who YOU follow.
It really does not matter to me. But it does seem to matter to a lot of people. It’s like a goal to reach 5,000 followers or something. Personally I don’t get the importance of that. Like you I am looking to whittle down the number that I follow. I have a column on Tweetdeck just for those people that I don’t want to miss. I think I have 35 people there and I follow many more. Time to whittle down a bit.
Monika´s last blog post..NH Real Estate Price Reduced and ready for you..
Hear, hear! It makes no sense to follow everyone who follows you. I have noticed dozens of tweeps who follow me who very rarely update their own feed, have only a handful of followers and I am one of only a clutch of news type outlets they are following, so they’re in it for the buzz not the chat I’d say.
David Bradley´s last blog post..The Dawkins Delusion
Quantity over quality. Signal versus noise. For each of us this is our dilemma on Twitter et al. It’s definitely possible to have a large amount of people that you are following that are valuable if you cultivate them carefully. Hyperinflating your numbers by adding mass amounts of people in a short period of time is meaningless. There is always a good indicator at abnormal numbers when the amount of tweets is very low compared to follower/following ratio. That being said, there are many other indicators to take into account when deciding to add a new person to the rotation.
I’ve tried many different methods of adding/maintaining relationships and have realized that what you say rings true, to a point. Yes there are relationships that I have cultivated on Twitter, but I have even seen those wax and wane over time. The only constant is myself and my output of who I am.
Basically, follow anyone and everyone that has the right mix for you. When they stop having that mix stop following them. Relationships can be for a moment, a season or a lifetime. Just go with the flow. It is after-all the Twitter stream.
Damien Basile´s last blog post..Google Stumbleupon For Blog Reading
Relationships can be for a moment, a season or a lifetime.
Indeed. Also, just because a Twitter relationship is stopped doesn’t mean the relationship is stopped, as it can be carried forward in Facebook, LinkedIn, a Ning group, etc. For instance, I used to follow every person I’d met in real life, but I’ve slowly removed some of those tweeps as well, for I have other ways to connect with them and to learn from them.
I think this all depends on what you are using twitter for. If you have a blog you are starting, certainly you aren’t going to turn down followers who could become loyal visitors to your blog. My feeling is that you never have enough visitors, so you shouldn’t close any doors. If you are completely comfortable with your success and use twitter for other reasons, I can see why it may make sense to cut down on your followers.
Amy´s last blog post..Personal Branding with Dan Schawbel
Using tweetdeck allows me to do both. Follow new people who I may want to try connecting with and mutually having 2 way convos. I also set up a group for friends where the followers I have connected with and who have value to me are in so it’s easy for me to find them and connect more often than look at the noise that usually is broadcasted.
My followee numbers are almost as high as my follower numbers, but I still pick and choose. Currently I think I follow back about 70% of the requests I get. The rest I wonder about. Why did they pick me? What do I know about combining faith with organic chicken farming? (Or whatever thing they’re into that I know nothing about.) These odd queries seem to be more common as people use more of the auto-following systems. That worries me as I think it’s really going to throw the Twitter dynamic out of wack. If everyone were to follow 50,000 people how do they converse? One might as well just follow the public feed.
In the end I think it’s more important to follow the people who may have something that interests me and not worry about how many are following me in return.
I’m following just over 1,000 now and certainly can’t keep track of every Tweet, but I do try to respond to things in the stream that look interesting. And I respond to their replies even if I don’t catch many of their regular Tweets.
That said, the people I interact with regularly, such as you, are part of a much smaller group. I use Tweetdeck to arrange people by groups such as marketing or Cleveland so I can catch more of the Tweets by the people in my core areas. In this way I can focus on my key comrades while still keeping track of the broader picture.
Heidi Cool´s last blog post..If you move, will they follow? Marketing the move of the Web Development Blog Update #1.
Twitter Comment
Love @ariherzog’s thoughts on recipro-following: [link to post] [it's certainly becoming a challenge]
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I follow those I find interesting. I read their tweets hoping for a good belly laugh and in part I read them like a psychologist on speed, listening for clues. (I don’t have direct experience of psychologists on speed, and it is just poetic licence.)
Sometimes I detect a lovely person (not that the others aren’t lovely of course, it’s just that my tweetenae are set for certain frequencies) and they are the keepers through thick and thin.
For the rest, I listen for entertainment and information and I love being led to places I wouldn’t otherwise have found.
I’m glad I have endless real estate managers in Florida to bulk up my followers because I think in the way of human nature, it encourages the real gold to follow me when they are thinking about doing so.
I am following you on Twitter, Ari, but I came here today from Heidi’s RSS feed at If you move, will they follow” and the great thing is that I noticed your adorable ‘CommentLuv’ check box that I am now investigating.
David´s last blog post..Musee d’Orsay’s Clock Overlooking the River Seine
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This makes a lot of sense: RT @ariherzog: RT @rockstarjen: @ariherzog’s thoughts on recipro-following: [link to post]
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Why I am (or not) following you on Twitter (from Ari Herzog) [link to post] (LH) via @lizhover
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Why I Am (or Not) Following You on Twitter ([link to post]) http://friendfeed.com/e/46ce2e1b-5b6d-490f-a006-5ffde49496ef
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I think everyone should use Twitter the way that is most beneficial to them. Personally, I kind of like following a lot of people. Every time I sign on, I see a variety of different things. If I only followed a select few with the same interests, I probably wouldn’t come across a lot of the interesting info that I do. And I still don’t miss the key people that I enjoy most – I just subscribe to their Twitter feeds in RSS, so I can have their latest updates in a stream.
~ Kristi
Kikolani´s last blog post..A Comprehensive Guide to Using RSS
Good points here. My 2 cents here – Who and how many you follow back depends on:
1. Your profile identity on twitter [as an individual or as a business]
2. How do you plan to manage the tweets and make sense of them?
The strategy with which you follow will be different for a business, where they will gain much by listening to as many virtual friends as possible and to do so, they would definitely need some technology solution. This also includes individuals who are on twitter to evangelize or promote their work. However, it would be different for individuals who are their strictly to talk and share “what they are doing” with real friends.
The problem today is that many on twitter are still there to talk their talk. but necessarily do not listen… this is an interesting space and definitely demands more brainstorming. I will follow your posts to get engaged in the process!
Twitter Comment
RT @lizhover – Why I am (or not) following you on Twitter (from Ari Herzog) [link to post]
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Twitter Comment
RT Quality over quantity, & and the right to choose. @good_egg @lizhover Why I am (or not) following you on Twitter [link to post]
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I don’t actively seek out people to follow… when one of the people I follow consistently mentions someone I’m not following, I’ll usually check that person out. I usually read their most recent 5-10 posts, and if I’m intrigued, I’ll follow them.
It is quality over quantity. And there are only so many people I can dedicate my time to reply to… sometimes I’ll realize I haven’t chatted with/re-tweeted one of the people I follow in a long time, but it’s usually because I don’t have time to respond to them, not because I’m not interested in what they have to say. So I’ll make the effort to check them out and reply/retweet them to maintain the connection…
Thus far, I can count on one hand the number of people I’ve unfollowed since starting my Twitter account. Once I follow someone, it’s very unlikely I’ll remove them because there was a reason I decided to follow. But I do think there’s a sort of plateau or threshold for each of us.
Hypocritical. For instance, you expect people to follow you as if you have something they want/need, yet you feel they have nothing to contribute. The fact that you cited a comparison with Jesus makes me think you’re a self absorbed twit with messianic pretenses.
My 2 cents.
I didn’t cite Jesus. Lisa Donner cited Jesus, and Mark Dykeman, a fellow blogger who I respect, commented on her citation. I then mentioned both.
Thanks for the two pennies.
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