The Twitter Numbers Game
Please pardon me while I sound like a grumpy old man for a moment.
I’ve become increasingly frustrated with Twitter. I’m not going to stop using it. It’s not THAT bad. However, my frustration level is definitely rising. There are two reasons for this. The first is auto-direct messages from people who are thanking me for following them and at the same time trying to promote their website. That’s a gripe for a different day.
The reason for the frustration I’m talking about in this post is the number of people who seem to think there are shortcuts to using Twitter. These are the people who blindly follow thousands of people, or pay one of these “get thousands of followers in just a few days” services to do it for them.
These people just don’t get it, and it seems like there are more of them than ever.
They don’t get that I can choose not to follow someone who obviously isn’t following me for my content or conversation. It’s obvious that someone who is pushing alternative medicine from India (for example) and has five Twitter updates and 5,000 followers doesn’t really care who I am or what I’m posting. I generally post on Twitter about PR, social media, and occasionally sports or some random stuff about my life. This alternative medicine salesman in India is just using me in a numbers game, and I’m not participating in the game.
They don’t get that having 100 Twitter followers who actually read your Tweets is MUCH more valuable than 1,000 who are completely ignoring you.
I’m taking a pledge:
I do not auto-follow. I will not sign up for opt-in Twitter advertising. If you follow me, I will follow you back if your Tweets are relevant to me, you are posting interesting links, you seem like an interesting person, or you are local to me.
Who’s with me???
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Steve,
I always thought that one of the beautiful things about Twitter is that nothing – and I mean NOTHING – compels me to follow anyone.
I agree with you that people are going about it the wrong way, but it’s just so dang easy to ignore them. It doesn’t bother me as much as it seems to bug you.
By the way, have I told you about the latest herbal energy supplements…
It bugs me primarily because it’s a waste of my time. I get one to two dozen follow notifications via email per day, and lately it seems 90-95% of those are people who are playing the numbers game.
Thank you for this, I have been practicing this already, and have never worried about the numbers game. Quality before Quantity, Everyday, I say!
I attended the lass on using social networking and media marketing and appreciated your tips. I have just set up my twitter page – took me a bit to get my logo on there but finally success. Also enjoyed your twitter numbers game article.