Twitter Trends

Posted by Gabe on May 1, 2009 under Social Media, Twitter, Twitter for Beginners | 14 Comments to Read

Twitter trendsLately I have noticed a somewhat disturbing trend on Twitter, and that is the proliferation of people who are telling me about a great way to increase my followers in a short period of time.  They are referring to a system that you pay for that becomes a short cut for increased followers.  I will not comment on the value (or lack thereof) of said system since I did not purchase it (nor do I plan to).  I am seeing these tweets in auto direct messages as I follow people (which immediately triggers an unfollow from me). I am also seeing them as tweets – also causing an immediate unfollow.

Now I am not against people having lots of followers on Twitter - I have made it clear that my goal at this time is to get as many followers as I can to spread the word about Kids Are Heroes.  To get these followers I really have to work at it each day.  So why should I “waste” my time working at getting followers when they can be purchased through one of many schemes going around these days? The answer is one simple reason – I want to control who I follow and who potentially follows me back. I look specifically for parents, philanthropists, educators and people that “get” social media and I also check out who my friends follow and their followers.  I want to help make sure that my audience will be listening to me.  I have said many times that followers mean nothing without connections. Twitter is what it is because of the people that built it – those who are interested primarily in social networking and not making money from being here.  If it becomes all about making money then what do we have?   Millions of spammers all spamming each other.

How many of you have been to a live social networking event? If you meet someone who tries to sell you something in the first five minutes and also doesn’t ask about your business, will you want to talk to him at the next meeting?  I avoid those people like the plague. Remember that Twitter is not much different. Can you make money on Twitter by gaining lots of followers then telling people to click on a spammy link? I suppose so, but don’t expect me to follow you. And once people are “on to” this type of activity I doubt they will continue clicking anyway.

I started using Twitter in late December of 2008. I have steadily increased my followers to just over 4000.  I say that not to be boastful but to put out a warning to others. It becomes harder to connect with people as you get more followers.  When tweets come in at over 50 at a time on Tweetdeck, there is no way you can keep up with that.  I try to put my connections in a separate group, but the more people you follow the more difficult that is to manage as well.  For those of you that crave a lot of followers just so you can say you have them, be careful what you wish for. A month or two ago I read about a guy who had 23,000 followers.  How many of you would love to have that many?  Well one day he simply deleted that account and started fresh at zero.  I now understand why he did that.  There are many people on twitter that keep their followers relatively low on purpose – because they are smart enough to realize that it isn’t the numbers that are important, it’s the connections.  True connections are gained one at a time and they cannot be purchased at any price.

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  • dave said,

    I agree, but people can and will do what they want..

    buying followers or trying to get followers by following as many people as possible is not the way to get REAL followers or friends..
    only way is follow people you like, are interested in, like their tweets etc. and people who like you follow back..

    Thats how I think of it..

  • Karen said,

    Well said and worthy of a retweet. I also immediately unfollow tweets or auto message about same. Some even have the cheek to use a name and short bio on twitter that compels you to follow…then comes the bombshell.

    I also do not follow back ( or try not to) people who do not have a bio as I am never sure who exactly they are and what they are about.

    Another thing to think about: NEVER retweet unless you have checked the link and like what you see.

  • Gabe said,

    Karen,
    I am also all about encouraging people to fill out their bios – it’s part of what makes them interesting. Also good tip about the retweet – do it only if you mean it.

  • Cat said,

    Hi, you just became one of my followers on twitter, and I thought i would check out your site. I had to comment, since I seem to be full of words these days. I agree with you! I believe getting followers the old way — hard work. Not short cuts for me. Bought followers aren’t lasting followers. Started my blog 4 weeks ago. I worked hard. I wanted people to read me because they liked me. I would be hurt if people only came by because they were obligated or paid too. I feel bad for people who have to get followings that way.

  • Gabe said,

    Hi Cat,
    Thanks for stopping by and welcome! I hope we can share our thoughts on Twitter. BTW, the link on your bio is broken. Where are you from?

  • Kyra said,

    I can’t agree more with you on this one. I, of course, don’t have a problem with too many followers – ha, ha! You offer some great information and I think what you are doing for Kids Are Heroes and Wags for Hope are indeed noble. I am glad to have found you on twitter!

  • Gabe said,

    Thanks for the kind words Kyra.

  • Lilly said,

    Hi Gabe:

    I just came across this entry today, but couldn’t agree with you more. I see my followers and the people I follow as people,not twitter numbers or stats. While I am relatively new to twitter, I do see that many people seem to believe that what makes them “important” is their follower list.

    I’d rather have fewer followers, but with a genuine and vested interest in the topics I follow and promote, that basically evolves around the nonprofit field, philanthropy and collaboration.

    Thanks for your insights.

  • Gabe said,

    Thanks Lilly,

    For some reason that is the case which makes no sense. Most people who “get” social media realize it’s not about the numbers. I recently created another Twitter persona to go back to my roots but unfortunately don’t have time to update it. Sometimes lots of followers can be good in my case as it continues to get the word out…

  • Jane Chambers said,

    I do not understand this trend, but I want to learn and share information that I find useful or interesting. For that I do not need to have lots of followers. It is the “social” in social media that attracts me to sites such as twitter and the exchange of ideas (rarely the exchange of products).

  • JustObserving said,

    What a wonderful post! I agree with you on so many counts!!! Like you, I try to earn followers and connections one person at a time, and I hope that these new Twitter friends enjoy my daddy blog AND that their tweets interest me, make me laugh, make me think, etc. I can’t stand auto-DMs, either. Thanks 4 sharing!

  • John Haydon said,

    Gabe – paying to get followers to be retweeting is only short-cutting the hard work.

    Check this out:

    http://johnhaydon.posterous.com/is-retweeting-on-the-verge-of-extinction-plea

    John

  • Gabe said,

    Wow! I hadn’t seen that before. Paying for (or getting paid for)retweets is ludicrous. I trust that we will be able to see through this activity if it grows in popularity. Recently I noticed that one of my followers was regularly retweeting my posts. I threw one out yesterday of a new blog post and she retweeted it right away. Obviously she didn’t read the post. I checked her profile and all I saw were retweets so I unfollowed her.

    Also your point about people buying followers is shortcutting the hard work is definitely true but there is more to it than that. When I pay someone to cut my grass, I am shortcutting hard work because I don’t want to do it. In the end I get a nice lawn. When you pay for followers you do not get the connections with them. So that’s like paying for someone to cut your grass and they go out and spin donuts on your lawn and in your garden. Now you have to undo what they did and cut your grass anyway.

  • John Haydon said,

    The hard work is creating solid, useful content.

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