Are You a Twitter Snob by @perrybelcher

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Comment by Pittsburgh SEO - Lea Charlton on December 22, 2008 at 12:06pm

I both agree and disagree. I have an account that is social and then I have a broadcast account. I do not follow everyone on my broadcast Twitter. Instead, I go through the tweets accounts and see what they have to say before following. If that is a snob so be it ... I just got tired of pages and pages of "I just went to the store", "I just took a nap", "I just fed the dog" ... those ones typically do not want to converse about business, time management, viral marketing, new resources, etc.

Comment by Michele Costabile on December 15, 2008 at 7:21am

I disagree. I tend to unfollow people that ask the question "what are you doing?". I tend to look for people that ask the question "what have you found?" or "what have you thought?" and these are the tweets that I love and spring more browsing and undestanding.
I also love one liners and small pieces of twitterature, a friend I follow just pastes nice clips from books she's reading.
I whish I could filter out private conversations instead, unless I am interested to follow the whole sequence in a meaningful way. A random reply "@xyz i disagree" is totally useless and it's just noise, as it's just noise when you see a whole screen of replies by a single tweeter. I think I would love an arrow close to the root tweet that allowed me to expand the whole conversation.

Comment by Jim Turner on December 14, 2008 at 3:55am

Great comments and perspectives by all above. I appreciate them very much.

I believe one of the true mysteries of the success of Twitter is that it can be used in so many different ways by so many different people. As I observe the Twitter phonemena playing out, it is extremely clear to me that very few people... I mean a tiny few... are using it the way it was originally intended to be used.

You are supposed to answer in 140 chars or less the question: "What are you doing?" That is a laughable, ridiculous question and is the fundamental reason why I avoided it like the plague when I first saw Twitter. I really didn't have time to waste precious time on such trivia.

If Twitter banned everyone who didn't answer that question in a literal sense - they would be just another social media site that came and quickly evaporated.

But after I came back to Twitter about 6 weeks later and observed the types of interactions and exchanges taking place, I began to see the "hidden value" of Twitter. Some use it as a quasi IM tool. Some use it to post links to their blogs, squeeze pages, etc. Some broadcast motivational messages.

I even came across a tweeter recently who only posts erotic messages. Now who didn't believe that was going to eventually happen? The most boring posts I've seen are those folks talking about 'what they're doing' at the moment.

So with the Twitter landscape being what it really is, I have great difficulty making an argument for who's using Twitter correct and who's using it improperly, because it is what it is to whomever is using it. In my case I use Twitter to build relationships and social communities.In that case I need to have the ability to attract as many like-minded people as possible. Many of the folks end up becoming clients or JV partners. Once they get comfortable with me and like "Jim the Person", they ask, "Oh, by the way, what do you do?"

Taking this discussion to a larger scale, what if Obama had used Twitter and other social media sites to only build a few core relationships with some close personal friends? I'd say he would be back in Illinois in the role of U.S. Senator. :-)

So, my friends, I would say, don't box yourself in with a 'closed' definition of how Twitter can be used. Develop your own strategy and stick with it as long as it's working. What works for you, won't necessarily work for me, and vice versa. But watch other people and draw your own conclusions.

Cheers!
~Jim

Comment by Robb Cheuvront on December 13, 2008 at 11:45pm

Thanks for posting this video Jim. This is something I've been thinking about. I've been trying to keep an equal balance between those I follow and those following me on Twitter.

I see what you are saying Tony, but I do believe that with social media a large number of people can have a meaningful relationship with us as they read our tweets and posts. I worked as a radio producer for a number of years and what I learned from that experience is that the hosts (DJs) of the shows didn't have a one one one relationship with 99.99 percent of the the audience, but the audience had a one to one relationship with the shows hosts.

The hosts can't hear the listeners except for the few that call in, but the listeners can always hear and relate to the hosts. Many radio listeners develop very close, intense and loyal relationships and never make any contact with the hosts or the radio station while they do support the advertisers.

Theater of the mind is very powerful and can create very intense responses and emotions. I see Blogging and social media working in a similar way. You may choose to have some personal contact and interaction with a select number of those you follow, but most following is a one way relationship.

There are both active and passive followers in social media. You don't have to directly interact with every follower or with everyone that follows you as that is impossible. Far more people will read this blog thread compared to those who comment, but they are still relating and reacting to what is being said. Passive followers may be relating powerfully to what your are saying even if they never send you a single tweet or comment on a single blog. And one day they may actually respond in a big way!

Comment by Tony Rush on December 12, 2008 at 6:29pm

I disagree. I think Perry's entitled to his opinion but I think it's a misunderstanding of what Twitter is about.

There is NO WAY that anyone can have "meaningful relationships" with 5,000+ people. So, to follow all those people for no reason at all is a misunderstanding of what Twitter is supposed to be about.

Ed Dale addressed this in a blog post last month that I think offers a much better perspective. As always, take what you like and leave the rest...

http://tubbynerd.com/2008/11/25/follow-you-follow-me-revisited/

Tony Rush

Comment by Jesse Luna on December 12, 2008 at 9:32am

Thanks for posting this Jim. I'd seen people floating it around but didn't watch it until now. Perry makes some good points. But, in the same breath he mentions having a private personal account. I think Twitter is what you make of it.

Comment by Lenai Stewart on December 12, 2008 at 8:49am

Yes this is so True! Thank you For Sharing.....Lets be social guys.... new wave on the internet : )

Comment by Christy Goldfeder on December 12, 2008 at 8:42am

77581. :-)

Nice video. I started out as a twitter snob but quickly realized my mistake. Now I'm actually having meaningful conversations and making valuable connections to others on twitter.