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Debunking the Twitter Power User Myth

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via Twitter

Twitter, Twitter, Twitter. At times, it seems there is little else to talk about in the social media world. With the ongoing influx of self-proclaimed experts (from every imaginable field) and those looking for another outlet for receiving and reciprocating votes on submissions from various social media sites, will we see an increased number of Twitter profiles with outlandish follower counts? If the endless friend requests filling my in-box in the past couple of weeks are any suggestion of this, then I’d say yes. From the looks of their profiles, and their recent activity, it’s safe to assume they have been ignoring the Tweeter band-wagon for some time, and have finally given in. They are late to a party that started a long time ago, but hasn’t yet reached its peak — and they are attempting to make up for lost time.

Mark's Twitter Friends
Image by ‘Pong via Flickr

These migrators (or reluctant followers, no pun intended) to Twitter’s service are pretty easy to pinpoint. You should look for an exceptionally high follow count to follower account, along with an insignificant amount of updates. While we should all welcome new users to Twitter, and the content/interaction they bring, the site has enough fanboys and god-like entities already flooding the timeline without adding to the mix. Additionally, if you are using Twitter as a feed for your social media activity, maybe you should try FriendFeed instead. Either way, the answer to catching up with the Twitter craze isn’t following every semi-familiar avatar you recognize. Try focusing on getting to know those that follow you, follow people based on interests (not influence), and avoid the numbers game. Do this, and you’ll catch up in no time.

If you’d like another take, check out this guest post on TwitTip from @johnhaydon. His analysis is a bit more in depth and should provide a closer look at what’s really important when building your Twitter network.

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1 Comment

  1. Jenny Stradling

    To be honest, I think twitter is a pain in the a**…. I can`t check it every two sec while I`m working, so when I do check it, anything I might want to actually look at is already buried. Sure, it`s fun, but as far as Social Media goes, it`s a far ways off from dominating anything…. i have a few people I`d like to dump… you know, the “flooders” as you called them. I gues I`ll have to look into FriendFeed, I signed up a while ago, but you know, too much social media, not enough time!

    Jenny Stradlings last blog post..Sitewides: Are They Really “bad”?