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.

Check this out:

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

John

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…

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.