Twitter – What’s more important? Conversation or Collectors?
Image by DigitalTribes via Flickr
I’m not sure what to think of this new race to see who gets a million followers first. On the one hand, it seems like some strange popularity contest, where we’re all supposed to run like lemmings and “follow” after a celeb to give him/her more validation and status in the eyes of their peers. Or maybe it’s simply to stroke their ego? I don’t know, but it feels a bit awkward for me.
On the other hand, I’ve read that Ashton Kutcher is going to buy 10,000 mosquito bed nets if he beats CNN to a million followers and CNN said they’d match that if they reach a million followers before him. I applaud them for their charitable actions, but just wish they would have stated that *before* they went on this race to collect followers, rather than afterwards. But hey, I shouldn’t criticize – at least they’re doing something good.
Given this race to collect mega-followers just for the sake of the numbers, I’m re-examining if I understand what Twitter is all about.
I thought Twitter was about the ability to talk to others in a two- or multi-way conversation, without the barriers of status, physicality, situation or velvet ropes. Twitter leveled the playing field so any one of us could “@ reply” somebody else – whether they were Ashton Kutcher, Neil Diamond, or the latest person coming on supposedly tomorrow, Oprah Winfrey. This notion of collecting “followers” as a status symbol doesn’t feel right. I like Robert Scoble‘s approach – he follows almost everyone that follows him and actively responds to everyone – not just celebs, but even those with a single follower. It probably takes a lot of time for him, but it seems quite genuine and warm.
Connecting with people on the internet, even if only for 140 characters at time, can feed into us in many positive ways. I’ve met many interesting people through Twitter and enjoy these new relationships; plus I now even rely on Twitter for my daily news. I hope Twitter remains the place where serendipitous conversations can happen – and not the place where we can collect people like we can collect stamps.
Related articles
- CNN acquires leading Twitter account (news.cnet.com)
- Ted Turner May Endorse Kutcher In The Race For A Million Twitter Followers (techcrunch.com)
- Ashton Giving Away Guitar Hero? We’re Giving Away Chanel! Help Us Get to 1 MM Votes Before Ashton Reaches 1 MM on Twitter! (popsugar.com)
- CNN, Ashton, Twitter … Oh My (mashable.com)
- Ashton Kutcher Vs. CNN On Twitter (cbsnews.com)
4 Comments so far
Twitter is about all of the things you mentioned. When I joined, I joined to connect with some interesting people. It eventually grew into wanting a lot of followers, but not necessarily for the reasons you mention. Just in pure logistics, it’s hard to find people on Twitter. Ultimately I want to follow all of my followers. But having more followers means that you’re putting out interesting tweets, and people want to read them. You can still connect via @ if you’re not following each other. If you want to be able to read your twitter stream and having meaningful tweetrelationships with anyone in twitterland, you have to limit the people you follow. For people like Kutcher, he can’t follow back all a million followers. As far as the race to have the most followers, yea, it’s a popularity contest, but that’s not a surprise. Almost everyone on twitter is there to promote themselves or their brand. And in any sort of PR/Advertising, eyeballs is everything. So who can blame any of us for trying to get more followers?
I’ve asked the question before, what is the point of having a large following on twitter if those following aren’t really interested in what you have to say?
I think twitter will remain a place for creating connections, and sharing ideas and conversation as long as there are people who want it, but with the growth it’s experienced it has inevitably become even more things to a larger more divers audience.
you’re right, Kathy – this is sick…
oh, by the way, all you hundreds of thousands out
there right now reading this, please follow me:
http://www.twitter.com/graemethickins
Thanks for your comments. I’m wondering if Twitter really will change, as some of the media are speculating, after Oprah and “all the soccer moms” (don’t yell at me, that’s what the NY Times said!) join Twitter. It seems Twitter will on the one hand be about real-time alerts on your favorite celebs – an IM version of People Magazine – and on the other hand it will be a place to meet, talk, learn, and connect. I think we’re at a pivot point – it’s fun to have a front seat to all of this. I wonder what impact this will have on “web 2.0″ as whole..