Recently, I was hanging out at a meeting of the Oregon Chapter of the National Speakers Association and two of my peers were bragging about the number of followers that they have on Twitter. They were voicing a common belief. For many, including the mainstream media, success on Twitter is considered to be directly related to the sheer quantity of one's followers. That's one of the reasons why there is breathless reporting now taking place regarding Charlie Sheen's rapid rise in Twitter popularity. This reminds me of the incredible hullabalo that surrounded producer/actor Ashton Kutcher when he became the first celebrity to gain one million Twitter followers.
Certainly, the number of people constantly flogging their products and services on Twitter is escalating which I suppose is the reason why many seem so desperate for followers. Although I'm a relative newcomer to active Twitter use, here are three reaons why I strongly believe that the quality of one's network is more important than its quantity.
1. Learning
Even with TweetDeck, the cool free social media management software I use to categorize and track my "tweeps", it's still hard to stay on top of what people I care about are saying since their volume of tweets is large (and growing). By monitoring what my followers are saying, I've gotten data and stories for presentations; ideas for for blog posts and eNewsletter articles; and, and a much better sense of trends in word of mouth marketing.
2. Opening Doors
After following Bob Burg, the co-author of the excellent book The Go-Giver: A Little Story about a Powerful Business Idea, on Twitter, he followed me back. Since then, we've exchanged messages via Twitter that have been useful to the marketing of our book Secrets of Working: Unleash Your Potential and Create Success. Since Bob is such a successful author with lots of people vying for his attention, I'm convinced that it would have been nearly impossible to get his attention through some channel other than Twitter.
3. You Are the Company You Tweep
When I check out the Twitter profile of a propect, client, journalist, blogger, I usually click to see who they follow and who follows them. When I see that these groups include people selling schlock or porn (sadly, two very large groups on Twitter), I wonder why they don't block these individuals from being followers which just takes one click of a computer mouse. Call me old-fashioned but I ascribe to the belief that you are the company you tweep keep.
How do you weigh quality vs. quantity when determining who to follow and who follows you on Twitter?
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