Twitter – To Follow Or Not To Follow?
Hi everyone,
Interesting email I received from Mike Dillard of Magnetic Sponsoring today.
Mike opens up the discussion of whether you should follow every person that follows you on Twitter?
I must admit, this is something that I have always done. Like Mike, I just think it’s common courtesy to do so.
But after reading Mike’s email, I started to think about it.
I ended making a comparison to an Optin List and my Twitter Followers...
You can have a list of 500,000 subscribers….but if they DON’T respond to your emails or your offers….what good are they? You are better off with 200 responsive subscribers that read your emails and buy your products or services.
So looking at it that way…I suppose Mike is right….what’s the point of 20,000 Twitter Friends, that LISTEN to you.
Read Mike’s email below and let me know your thoughts, by leaving a comment below:)
———
I have a dilemma Bill…
It’s been the source of an internal debate for a few weeks now, and I’d like to get your thoughts..
I’m talking about Twitter, and the single question that we must all eventually answer…
Do you follow someone just because they followed you? Or do you only follow people you genuinely know and want to follow?
Over the past few months, I’ve done both.
After talking to my good friend and social media maven, Perry Belcher, I decided to “reciprocal follow” everyone who was following me about two months ago.
There are two reasons you’d want to do this…
1: It’s polite.
2: It helps you gain exposure, which will help increase your number of followers.
As of today, I follow around 10,000 people, and have 11,900-ish followers at http://www.Twitter.com/Mike_Dillard
Looking back, I’m not convinced that was the best move to make, and here’s why..
It’s not the number of people who follow you on Twitter that matters, it’s the number of people who actually listen to you.
And if everyone is just “reciprocal following” everyone, not because they WANT to listen to that person, but because they’re trying to increase their exposure and number of followers, then we have a problem…
Everyone’s following everyone, but no one’s really listening.
When I had 8,000 followers and followed 50, I knew that all 8,000 people subscribed to my “Tweets” because they genuinely wanted to plug into my life, and hear what I had to say.
That’s no longer the case.
And it gets worse…
Once you follow 500+ people, you have to start using specialized software like www.TweetDeck.com, just to filter and manage so many messages.
And if you already use TweetDeck like me, you’ve probably set up a custom sub-list of real friends so you can separate all of their messages from the masses of people you don’t know.
How genuine is that?
In the end, reciprocal following simply dilutes the power of an application like Twitter because it’s a behavior that’s motivated by greed instead of authenticity, just so we can all enjoy the illusion of having “more followers”.
That doesn’t sit right with me, so after many days of thought, I’m going to do some surgery on my Twitter account and * gasp * “unfollow” the 10,000+ people I don’t truly know.
If you’re one of them, please do not take it personally. It’s not.
I’m sure I’ll lose quite a few people during this process, but that’s fine. If that’s what it costs to be authentic, then so be it.
And if you continue following me because you truly have an interest in what I have to say and offer, then THANK YOU. That’s what this tool is all about.
My Twitter address is http://www.Twitter.com/Mike_Dillard
In the end, I feel that any true “following” you build in your life should be based on providing real value, not the perpetuation of an illusion daisy-chained from one person to the next.
(If you feel strongly about this as well and would like to share this letter, you’re welcome to do so as you wish).
Sincerely,
Mike Dillard
March 18th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Hi Bernhard
Thanks for sharing
Interesting site…I wonder how it comes up with the figures though?
I think a lot of people would be very surprised with their results:)
Bill:)