Twitter - Do Not Be So Quick to Follow
By Jennifer Maggiore
In one of my previous posts, I talked about how networking is changing since social media came along. One of my favorite new social media sites is Twitter, I love it love it love it! And it’s great for networking- if you understand the culture, that is. If you’re new to social media, you will soon find that each community has its own etiquette, customs, and rules, and Twitter is no different.
The past month or so has been really interesting, learning about hashtags, functionality, fail whales (left) and what people talk about (pretty much everything). Twitter is this community in which personal and professional selves meld- people discussing their industries, what’s for dinner, tech news and links to lol cats (I <3 them, especially Borcat, is nice).
It’s been very interesting to see how people communicate, and to learn about the unwritten rules of communicating with new people. I’ve noticed that there are a ton of what I call “Twittermongers”, doing their best to collect followers like they’re a commodity (for those of you who use MySpace- twittermongers are the equivalent of serial friend collectors who spam random strangers with friends requests so that their exceptional number of friends will totally impress you).
I am an open networker, meaning that I am open to meeting just about anyone. However, now that I’ve been on Twitter for a little while, when I get notification of a new “follower”, I personally prefer to see if that person has something interesting to say before I follow them back. I may even wait to see if he or she replies to something I say and engages me in a conversation. I expect that of others when I begin following them, too. It is too difficult to follow lots and lots of people, especially if what they have to say isn’t interesting or relevant, or they are constantly tweeting and jamming up my home page.
What’s the point of amassing followers? Maybe to blatantly market to them? Maybe because it looks cool to have lots and lots of followers and follow so few? Beats the hell out of me. I found it interesting that Tim Ferriss, author of The 4-Hour Work Week has some 9,000 followers and follows no one. I’m sure he is a charming man, and by all accounts has a valuable perspective. But really, there isn’t one single person on Twitter that he finds interesting enough to follow and interact with? It defeats the purpose of using social media.
I was recently introduced to Qwitter, a tool that allows you to see those who stop following you. This was an eye opening experience, and I highly recommend it to new Twitter users (sign up for the free service at http://useqwitter.com, it also tells you what you posted just before the person stopped following). It turns out that there are a lot of Twittermongers out there who will follow you so that you follow them. Then, they “unfollow” you, hoping you won’t notice, thereby inflating the number of followers they have. This is completely lame and defeats the purpose of the site- being social and interacting. If they aren’t following you, they probably won’t know that you’re even replying to their posts unless they use a service like Tweetbeep… which means they probably won’t reply back to you either. By the way, Tweetbeep is like Google Alerts for Twitter. Check it out at http://www.tweetbeep.com).
So, my first lesson on Twitter is: don’t be so excited to follow someone who doesn’t want to follow you back. If it is someone you’re a fan of, or a news site that’s one thing. But I’m always weary of those who have little or no interest in interacting with others on any social media site. Peace. @jenn_ex
Jennifer Maggiore holds degrees in Business-Marketing and Journalism and has worked for major companies including M & I Bank, the YMCA and Nordstrom. Jennifer is a marketing and business development consultant, as well as owner of Maggiore Consulting & Marketing (http://www.mcmaz.com). Please visit http://www.mcmaz.com for more information. (Jenn Maggiore, Jenn Loyd, Jennifer Loyd)
