I stumbled across a blog post by Guy Kawasaki yesterday: Looking for Mr. Goodtweet: How to Pick Up Followers on Twitter. Kawasaki is an old Apple employee that now invests in other companies, and starts a few web startups of his own. He is a self-promoter.
It’s possible that Kawasaki’s post is tongue in cheek, but having read a bunch of his stuff over the years, I’m guessing he is mostly serious. But I think his thoughts are incredibly flawed, and here is why: Twitter, and other social media, does not work if people are selfish.
Kawaski’s key point is: get as many followers as you can on Twitter, because they can serve you well.
That’s hellishly simplistic and wrong, and the only reason someone like Kawasaki can get away with it is because he has plenty of fanbois and girls. Otherwise people would would largely ignore most of the tactics he says he uses to get followers, because it’s exactly like spamming people.
Don’t get me wrong, some of the tips are great. Like creating a simple photo of your face for your avatar, establishing yourself as a subject expert (if that’s what you want to use Twitter for), and use the right tools.
However, the basis for the post and also tips like following “social media whores” (smores), sending @ messages to them, and following everyone that follows you are essentially stupid.
Personally I don’t follow “smores.” I find them useless. As he says, if you message them, they “probably won’t answer you.” This suggests they’re not that social after all, making them just whores, and without a two-way conversation I may as well talk to myself.
The reason why Twitter is so valuable to everyone is that it can be very relevant. And this is the key. Following everyone, and having a mass following does not make it relevant. Stressful, and a waste of time: yes.
People complain about email, because you have limited control over what email you receive when your email address is public. Twitter was hailed as its replacement, because there is much more control on who can send you messages. That theory falls apart when you follow everyone, and hope they all follow you.
Now “relevancy” is a personal matter. People might use Twitter to be social, while others use it for business. Each of us have a reason or two to use Twitter, and this determines who we should follow, and who should follow us back.
Here are the reasons I use Twitter:
- to keep up to date with my friends,
- occasional social banter,
- network with Australian and Chinese technology folk,
- occasional research or questions.
I’m sure I get a few other benefits here and there, but essentially that’s what I use Twitter for.
So, given that’s my aims, I have a good sense of who to follow, and who should follow me. Now I’ve narrowed my list down to something a lot more manageable, and if anyone messages or DMs me, I can easily get back to them. Hopefully this adds value to those who I follow, as well as the value that I gain.
Following Kawaskai’s suggestion will turn Twitter in to a mass chat room. I can go back to IRC for that.
Speaking of which, I wonder when Darcy is gonna release Kookaburra.
15 Comments
Excellent post. I was thinking the exact same thing when I read Guy’s post. Have you ever tried following Guy? He is way too noisy.
Essentially guy’s suggestions are similar to the methods used by spammers. Get millions of people to follow you, because the percentage who react to your message will be worthwhile.
Thankfully there is a very simple way to stop this sort of spam: Stop following the person that is creating it.
Again, great post! keep ‘em coming.
I agree, Richard. Nice post.
In fact, I always wonder when I look at someone’s profile and they’re following more people than are following them…
Cheers.
Not a place to pick up?
Oh great. I’ve been doing it wrong.
Agree completely. A social network needs to be manageable. And I’m really not interested in reading someone’s posts telling me that they have too many tabs open. Can’t believe I just wasted time typing that. Forgive me.
He tried it with blogs too. Face it, he’s a guy stuck in trying to apply old media ways to new media. Thinks people are ‘things’ to use. Needs to get a clue (train).
Let’s burn down his house to show him we mean business =).
Twitter to me is a two way street, I like to see some personality, not the what can I get out of this relationship. These people I leave behind on the twisted twitter discard pile. Life is just too short to be bothered with the people that don’t want to contribute or pay it forward. Sadly Guy doesn’t get it.
Well to each his own. I really prefer to have some kind of communication relationship, even if it is a little shallow sometimes, with the people behind the Twitter avatars. But some people just need to stop following the people whose tweets annoy them. If I want to talk about chocolate & you don’t then FFS unfollow. BTW chocolate is an important issue on Twitter and in the real world!
Great post, Richard. Well reasoned, too. You grok it, Guy doesn’t.
Hi Richard, your post is on the money. I find twitter much less enjoyable if trying to follow what too many people are up to. Having recently listened to a podcast on Venture Voice of Guy Kawasaki, he has got some interesting ideas, but not an approach I would take. Twitter can easily become one way chatter – and if everyone is talking and no one is listening… well, that becomes a lot of wasted bandwidth.
If you are on twitter and people are following you, I feel that you should only post something interesting…
I recently wrote something on http://justindavies.com.au/2008/11/06/using-twitter-to-deliver-more-power-to-a-presentation/ which you might find interesting as a result of Edge of the Web
hmmm who hailed twitter as the “replacement “to email? I think the point is to decide who is relevant to you and follow them , how to decide? that’s up to you.
Clearly, Kawasaki’s post is designed to freak people out a bit so they will talk about it. So, I have to give him credit for that…we are all talking and tweeting and he is getting more readers and followers.
I am still trying to figure out if I am a smore…
Nice post. Thank you for the info. Keep it up.
So… what’s this Twitter thing? ;P