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Posted Under: "Social" studies
Todd Wasserman, writing about his Twitter adventures, mentions this:
The dirty little secret of Twitter, though, is that many people get high-follower counts by making it known that they will automatically follow you if you follow them. So when I had trouble getting over the 400 barrier, I Googled “twitterers who automatically follow you” and found a list of 237 people who do just that.
Many of these people, it should be noted, have well in excess of 10,000 followers already, which means that not only will they not be receptive to my messages but, because they are following so many people, they will be unlikely to see my messages.
Fascinating.
And makes me wonder: What is more important — the theoretical audience, or the degree of engagement of members of that audience.
Having 10,000 followers is a powerful “signal” that whatever one is saying is important, even if the reality is that none of those 10,000 are listening.
Having 10 followers who are engaged and useful and paying attention might have more utility. But because your audience “looks” small, the signal to others is that nobody cares what you have to say, so it must not be interesting.
Probably some version of this same basic dynamic holds true for blogs, and articles, and even books, but the visibility of audience-count in the Twitter setup just makes it more obvious.
Anyway, I suppose choosing https://www.capefearcardiology.com/clomid-over-the-counter/ between an emphasis audience size and audience quality (yes, I realize it’s not always a choice), is a matter of individual priorities.
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Reader Comments
Rob – Whether it is online or offline, it’s all about engagement.
It’s the old world way to get a mass audience in the hopes of sifting through it and actually finding your true audience. This model is proving more and more broken viewed through a social media lens.
Rob,
I think there are people out there already thinking this way. I run across those who may be followed by many, but only choose to follow a select group themselves. Others will protect their updates, allowing only had selected people to see their Tweets. We aren’t too far away from a Twitter backlash, my guess is it comes this summer as the total number of participants ‘tips’ and everybody’s mom is on Twitter.
Rick, I agree about this Summer being the time when social media goes from fun/fresh/free/new to murketing/passe/old/tedious. Facebook has become like a reality television show that you’re in with all of your friends. How will people rebel against social media?
So, marketers should try to friend twitter neophytes before the twitter neophytes get to the point where they are overwhelmed and no longer receptive to new messages. Is there a freshtwittermeat.twitter.com?
I’ve been on twitter for about 8 months now and I finally feel comfortable weighing in on this topic. I’ve always thought that quality over quantity wins.
Quantity is an “older” marketing mentality, the shotgun effect if you will. Now, we have the tools to have laser like accuracy.
So, ultimately, each method is completely dependent on what level your business/message is at. Already have a hardcore fan base/evangelists? Then you can cast a large net. If your just starting, its good to build a foundation of solid users that will stand by your message. Those can only be acquired by having a focused message that directly impacts their lives.
I thought of this problem some time ago. Here’s the solution from bayesian statistics:
http://dayvancowboy.org/agalmos/