Before Twitter was Twitter, a twitter was nothing more than a series of short, high-pitched calls or sounds. And now that Twitter is the Twitter that we know, the blue bird has become synonymous to microblogging, social media involvement, a marketing platform of sorts, brand awareness, an avenue where some personalities connect and unfortunately lash at each other, et cetera, et cetera.
The good and bad of tweeting, all in a single sentence.
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And whether you’re a brand making a name for yourself, a blogger trying to get your message across, a celebrity reaching out to your followers, an average Jane or Joe sharing stuff you find interesting with friends, family and colleagues, the more Twitter followers you have, the more influential people perceive you to be.
I am new to Twitter, and as of this writing, I have a total of 164 followers. Not very influential nor popular, eh? As a blogger, sometimes this bothers me, especially after reading from here, there and everywhere the importance of Twitter to build a blog following. And since I’m relatively new to the platform, here are two things about this social media tool that interest me:
1. Some people think it’s rude not to follow back.
Okay, so I’m new. But that doesn’t mean I’m gullible. Following people doesn’t oblige them to follow you back. Twitterverse may be a virtual world, but it’s still a world that upholds freedom of choice. (Generally speaking, yes.) If people find what you have to say interesting enough, something within their line of business or field of expertise, they will follow you back without asking them to.
Then again, I generally follow back. There are but a few followers I have failed to include in my following list, thank goodness for that.
2. Some people follow you. And when you follow back, they unfollow.
Seriously, this is the part I don’t understand. People not following you back shouldn’t be taken personally, and yes, I’ve just said that and I stand by that. But people using the follow button as bait? I would like to believe these people don’t know what unfollowers.me is for. Maybe they don’t find my posts interesting. Well, could be, and I don’t blame them for that.
And given that they have followers totaling up to six digits and a following count of just over 100 when they’re not the Pope, what am I supposed to think? That they form the elite snob squad? I’ll be honest; I can’t help thinking they just used me. It may not be personal, but I don’t think I can tolerate this culture of snobbery. However inconsequential I may be in the Twitterverse, I’m not giving these snobs more reason to carry on being snooty.
After all, the world doesn’t always have to be about them.
Conclusion
I’m still trying to unlock the secrets (or not) Twitter has to offer. But just like anything of value, I recognize that to become successful in this social media game, it’s not always about the numbers. More than quantity, it’s the quality of followers that matters.
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I used to have at least 5,500 followers and now its down to 5122, a lot unfollowed for reasons I don’t know. Having a good amount of followers helps especially if you are doing advertising online, advertisers look for that aspect. But you are right, the quality has more weight than the quantity!
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Wow, you’ve got a lot of followers, Rose. Well, yes, we can’t force them to stay if they don’t want to, right? What irks me are those that follow and then unfollow once you follow them back, especially when it’s so obvious that they’re just using you to gain more followers. Hay, social media. 🙂
Maricel recently posted…To Niche or NOT to Niche: What Bloggers Are Saying
I only started to join this social networking because it does help my ratings in my blogs and through twitter it is another way to expressing your stances over certain issues.
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Same here. It’s only now that I’ve started to care. Before, I didn’t much. 😀
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I am not that new to Tweeter but if my memory serves me right, we almost have the same numbers of following. This follow and unfollow manner of some Tweeter users is something an odd behavior. Those doing this act are just simply selfish people.
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Maybe my definition of “new” is a bit skewed here. It just seems like I’m “new” to almost anything social media because I haven’t taken the time to really learn the ins and outs. Like, for example, I’ve had an account with StumbleUpon for a while now (later than Twitter though) but I haven’t really explored everything there is to it. Just so we’re clear. 😀
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I’ve been with Twitter since 2007 and yet, I do not have a really long list of followers compared to those who have just recently joined. But that’s Twitter. People follow you. You follow them back and then they unfollow because they want to show a better follower-following ratio. I used to get depressed whenever people do the follow then unfollow thing. But I’m over it. People are greedy sometimes. Tsk tsk.
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The numbers can get depressing sometimes. But then, when we start to realize it isn’t all about the numbers, we just feel better, don’t we?
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I am really quite perplexed with regards to Twitter follow and unfollow so rather than making my head ache unnecessarily in trying to understand it , I just do what I think I am supposed to do which is to follow who I think I should and then try my best to produce good posts in the hope of being followed.
Teresa Martinez recently posted…Choosing to Live Green
Really perplexing, I must say. And yes, I’d rather not lose a good night’s sleep thinking things I shouldn’t be thinking anyway. Like they say, if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to be. 🙂
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Unfortunately, there are even bot followers on Twitter. I agree with your conclusion, it’s the quality that matters. It’s not always about the number.
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Bot followers? Really? Now, that I didn’t know. 😉
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i think i do all oft the above. i just share whatever i feel is interesting and informative to others, as well as promote petitions for others to sign. to promote my work and brand as well as to communicate with the world.
I haven’t tried promoting petitions for others to sign yet. I’m curious, how does that feel exactly, Fifi Leigh?
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Yes,I do agree with you that it’s not the quantity of followers that counts,it’s the quality of the followers. I do enjoy reading some tweets of good followers that I have, and I tell you, I can count them despite the fact that i do have lots of followers,hehe!
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Now, that makes me feel better, LOL. Thanks, sis, for adding in your comment. 😀
Maricel recently posted…To Niche or NOT to Niche: What Bloggers Are Saying
To be honest with you, before I don’t see the worth of using twitter. Now, I am using it and so far everything’s okay except for some spammer who simply mess around. Twitter enables me to follow my co-bloggers’ posts and made it easier for me to share links.
Haha, same here, Len. I’m a late bloomer myself, and although I’ve been blogging for over a year now, I’ve got tons and tons of information to digest and implement. Thanks for visiting!
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