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Gurus Angry about How Many People YOU Follow on Twitter

Posted in Social Networks, Twitter | 47 views

twitter-guruThere are “gurus” ranting about how you should manage your account. Some of these folks stand on a soap box and tell you to only follow a small number of people. They go on to say anybody following 100, 200, 500 or more people are liars, fakes or any number of insulting adjectives.

These gurus say if you are following this many, then the noise level in your tweet stream is deafening. There is no way you could possibly pay attention to anyone.

What’s the Real Motivation Here?

Stop and think about this before you dismiss it outright. Why do high-profile want you to only follow a few people? Of course, they should be on your small list of . After all, they are providing useful, valuable content. The kind of content deserving your attention.

Once again: Why do they say you should only follow a small number of people? Oh yeah, don’t forget… it’s critical for them to be on your tiny list of followers, so you don’t miss a single one of their tweets.

Are They Looking to Cut Out the Competition?

You see if they convince you to follow a small number of people, and they are on this small list, then they’re effectively creating a captive audience. They know their tweets stand a better chance of getting your attention if you follow a small number of people.

Consider This

For years email has been the darling of the online world. Open rates, click through rates & conversions were high. It was awesome. Write an email, push the send button & watch the PayPal account balance soar. They didn’t even have to provide content in their emails. All they had to do was blast a pitch, and it worked like gangbusters.

Community Building on the Web : Secret Strategies for Successful Online CommunitiesBut, over the last couple years the luster has started to fade. Email marketing numbers have been steadily falling. And many marketers are scrambling trying to find something to bring back the “good old days.”

Twitter: Kind of Like Email, But Different

Twitter has some similar characteristics to email. You get to build a list of followers; you have the ability to send them messages and you can also include affiliate links. It still gives you the opportunity to earn income from your marketing efforts.

However, there are some things that make Twitter better than email. You have control over who you follow. You can unfollow, and even block people from following you. You also get to see who other people are following, and who is following them.

No More Captive Audience

Anybody can take a look at their follower list & follow them. This gives you the opportunity to easily find people interested in the same things you are. Much to their dismay Twitter has leveled the playing field.

Also, because of the ease of following/unfollowing, blasting out non-stop sales messages doesn’t work on Twitter. It’s a quick way to lose followers in a hurry. The control has shifted into the hands of the people.

No wonder they are angry & attacking.

About the author: KeithGoodrum.com is a blog authored by Keith Goodrum… Who Else? He has been known to post at his blog, and can be reached there: www.KeithGoodrum.com

Courtesy: EzineArticles
photo: seanmcgrath


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Posted on April 27, 2009

 

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