Twitter Like The Twitterati … But Get Me a Bucket!

Twitter Fame can come from tweeting frantically, as if your butt is on fire and Twitter will bring you a bucket of water to put it out. If you have not already learned this tactic, I will explain it. According to many estimates, there is a very small percentage of “power users” who send the majority of all updates on Twitter. How extreme is it? As a Harvard Business study pointed out, 10 percent of Twitter users account for 90 percent of Twitter updates.

Allow me to shock you for a moment with an observation.

Twitter Politics, Pandering, and Popularity

Some of the most powerful Twitter users are using old school tactics of politics, pandering, and heavy handing to get their word out. When this happens, they throw the great notion of transparency and dignity out the window.

Why do they do this? Power is the best answer I can find. It is a power that is largely more about ego than money … it is a power that some hold dear as they seek to be “King of the Geeks” or “The Most Popular” on Twitter. To their regret, it still does not return all that they hoped. They just find a few pea-brains to clap their hands and make them feel important.

Sure, you may not see this behavior, but it is just another part of my job to tell you it is there, and that it is quite pervasive. It has an impact on the whole community, and I hope you can see why it matters.

When considering that “other” 90 percent of Twitter users, I find it tragic that so many people have not yet found the great enjoyment and value of reaching out and joining the great conversation of Twitter. More tragic than that, is that it can lead to an ever greater opportunity for the “power users” or “Twitterati” to influence Twitter with a narrowed view designed to suit their agenda. Sure, you can say that it still allows for the voice of the people, but when it gets too carried away with chasing an algorithm to appear as the most popular, it is still a deception in many ways.

The tactics that some seemingly “valuable” Twitter users will use is to play a role to make others believe “how Twitter really works” and what is “important” to the Twitter community. Fine, call them “leaders”, and in some ways, they are. I want to remind you that it is easy for many people to fall into a bad habit and think it is the right thing to do because “everybody else is doing it”. Your parents surely posed the question to you something like: “If all of your friends were jumping off a cliff, would you do it, too?”

Some of these “valuable” users (often called Twitterati) try to promote getting more Twitter followers, and others will try to manipulate and even threaten others to promote their message. I saw the latter in a really ugly way when somebody who previously unfollowed me and blocked me then joined into a petty power play asking people to unfollow my Twitter feed, hoping people would stop listening to me. It was totally political and childish, and it was not because I was poaching whales or beating up little kids. I was simply being honest, and being me … many people sent me messages of respect after that rant.

It was not too long before this person came to seek me out and talk up their respect for me while asking for favors again and asking me to retweet their latest promotion. I guess my retweet was valuable, but yet, not quite valuable enough to treat me like a real person, but rather a megaphone.

Quick, Twitter … Get Me a Bucket!

The type of user I am talking about will often tweet like their butt is on fire and somebody should bring them a bucket of water. They try to send enough Twitter updates to be sure that everybody will see their name, without regard for whether it is good, bad, or indifferent. I would never complain about somebody tweeting a lot, because I do that, but I try to keep it interesting, relevant, and a two-way communication. However when people just send a rapid-fire barrage of popular links from Google Trends, Digg, Stumble, and Alexa Hot Urls with some advertisements for their clients who hired them for their amazing social media acumen mixed in there, and sent with hopes and demands for others to retweet it for popularity, the relevance and value of Twitter suffers. Then they will retweet some random thing that you sent, just to remind you that you should be retweeting their agenda, and if you do it, you may get even more of their favor of retweeting something you sent that they never even read or cared a damn about. It can even be worse with an innuendo that if you do not cater to them, they will badmouth you and tell people to unfollow you. It all gets far too High School-like. Now, I have a different reason for asking for a bucket … See the video below. 😉

If you liked this article, please share your comments. This also goes well in line with the subject of two of my blog articles titled: “Do You Tweet and Retweet Seeking Favors?” and “Twitter Follower Frenzy“.

If you really liked this article, please order my new book, “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends“.

Sorry Twitter, But You May Thank Me Later!

Have you ever apologized for something that you have not yet done? That is what I am doing here, but at the same time, Twitter may thank me for it later.

I have tried to make it pretty clear to my readers that I recently wrote a book titled “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends”. The book is now ready for orders, and I do not plan to let anybody forget it.

So why am I apologizing?

I wrote a really useful book to help new and experienced Twitter users alike, so that should be a good thing, right? I guess you could say that I am apologizing for the self-promotion that some people may complain about. After all, it may seem pretty self-serving to repeatedly tweet about my book. Well, I am sorry, but I plan to do just that.

I plan to tweet it, blog it, and scream it from the top of my lungs for a few days. I can only hope that people will understand that while I am feverishly trying to get the word out that it is intended for the betterment of Twitter. I believe that when enough people read the book, it can have a great value to the Twitter community. Hopefully my many friends and followers on Twitter will forgive me, and thank me later!

I am asking for your help!

I know you may have better things to do than to help me promote a book, but I am asking for your help. If you will review the Introduction and the Table of Contents, I hope you will see this as a worthwhile effort.

Please Tweet to help me to tell others!

Twitter Success Stories

Do you have a Twitter success story, or do you know somebody who does? If the answer is yes, I want to hear about it.

If you have heard something that gave you a smile, made you cry, or just made you think about why you use Twitter, you are not alone. Every day we see “tweets” that reinforce our belief in people and prove that we are not alone. It may be a story of a restauranteur who was able to bring more smiles with their culinary delights, or the person who found a job and saved their home and kept their family secure.

Some success stories are more profound than others, but they all count. Some of the success stories of Twitter have changed the world for a few, and others have changed the world for many. I want to hear about all of them.

Please take just a moment of your time to tell the story of how Twitter has changed your life, or forward this article to somebody who will. Your story may be submitted as a comment to this blog post. You may also reach me to discuss the story by phone at my direct line, toll free, *REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE* (*REDACTED DUE TO AGING WEBSITE*) or by Skype (username murnahan).

I will select stories to be included in my soon to be released book, “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends”. If I select your story, I will credit you in the book, and your copy is “on the house”.

Please be sure to include your Twitter username in your comment in the form of http://twitter.com/yourusername.

I do not often push my readers to retweet things, but in this case, I am asking you to spread the word and help me to find positive stories to show the readers of my new book positive and uplifting examples of what can happen when we work together.

Please help me to uncover the Twitter success stories that prove that Twitter really is the great social media resource that so many of us have come to enjoy.

Do You Tweet and Retweet Seeking Favors?

I really did not plan to write a new blog post tonight, but this came to me so profoundly that I could not avoid it. I realized a topic that has really bothered me for a while, but I just never came out with it. Well, here it is … love it or hate it.

If you tweet, retweet, blog, Facebook, YouTube, Digg, Stumble, or talk nicely about people because you are seeking favors, just stop!

I normally try to reciprocate kindness when it is due, as we all should. However, I must question where to draw the line. What I mean is if you hit me up asking for favors and you connect it to how you have done me a favor, you are not asking me to be a friend … you are placing expectations on me. It can almost feel like a threat in some strange way. It is like saying “I did something nice for you … shouldn’t you do something nice for me?” There is no kindness in that, there is no favor, and there is less room for the human filter that each of us represents. If you believe in my message and you think it is worth spreading, I certainly invite your favors. If I like your message, and I think it is worth spreading, I will do the same. If I write something that holds no merit and is unworthy of attention, or if it is disagreeable to you, I would never expect your favor.

I suppose the Good Old Boys club is still open for new members, but is it still relevant to today’s information channels? I guess the answer is both yes and no. As I wrote in my blog post “Social Media: How the Big Dogs Get Paid“ people in the social media field often build relationships in which they will work together to spread a message. As long as there is honesty and integrity in the message, I am generally happy to help. However, I have been hit over the head with some of this recently. It seems that I get a lot of requests to scratch somebody’s back. It is all fine and good to be reciprocal, but is it good to take away the human filter that makes us who we are?

If all I was doing was tweeting, retweeting, blogging, Facebooking, YouTubing, Digging, Stumbling, and etcetera because I hoped people would return the favor, would people still care what I had to say? I do not imagine the answer is yes.

Maybe I deserve this for asking my blog readers to help me spread the word about my upcoming book, “Twitter for Business: Twitter for Friends”. I would like to note, that I stated this as follows: “I hope that you will join me in this effort. If so, I humbly thank you, and assure you that I will do my best to not let you down.” The stated effort is to help me spread the word about a book that I sincerely believe can help others to understand and enjoy Twitter better. A part of this effort is to help people see greater value in Twitter and that will not happen if each of us is doing what we do because somebody is expecting something from us in return.

Be true to yourself, be true to others, and keep your human filter functioning. Do not do things only to please others. As I have said before, “I do not try to please everybody, and that pleases some people very much.” This may not be very popular, but I would rather have your respect than your favors.

NOTABLE INSPIRATION: I wish to note a couple of things inspiring me to write this article. Actually, I would consider them the straw that broke the camel’s back. One is a recent blog post by Louis Gray titled “Are Authors or Publications Impacting How You Consume the News?” This article discussed the politics of blogging. Another inspiration was a direct message I received on Twitter from somebody I had just met that read “Tweeted about ur blog to my peeps, will be happy if u say something kind re http://xxxxxxxxx.xxx to urs :-)”.

I guess it just struck me that if we all start tweeting things because we had to be asked, what happens to tweeting things because we really wanted to or cared about it?

Twitter FollowFriday SPAM

Do you really think that sending a virtual wall of Twitter usernames at everybody you know is going to be read? This may help you to realize a bit of what you may not have known about the Twitter hashtag #FollowFriday. First, you should know that retweeted FollowFriday endorsements do not count, but if you don’t know what I mean by that, you should read the rest of this before you send a single FollowFriday tweet.

Where FollowFriday Began

FollowFriday began as an idea for endorsing other Twitter users who provide value to your network. Here is the blog post showing where it all got started. At the time, surely nobody suspected that it would cause such a clutter for Twitter users each Friday, the way it is today.

How Does FollowFriday Really Work?

In short, the real benefit of FollowFriday only comes if you are heavily endorsed. It is measured, and it is tracked at TopFollowFriday, TweepleRank, and perhaps others. It can surely not be presumed that you should try to follow each Twitter user that comes to you with a FollowFriday hashtag, as that would be impossible. However, I have wondered what relatively new users, or those unfamiliar with these ranking sites must think when they see that wall of names that is circulated each Friday.

Where is FollowFriday Today?

FollowFriday is largely comprised of Spam. I cannot imagine that you do this, but I certainly do not go through each FollowFriday that comes to me and try to frantically follow each one of those great treasures who received an endorsement. I use TweetDeck to filter out the FollowFriday hashtag. Otherwise I would miss all of the important tweets from friends and colleagues that I wish to read.

Maybe some people try to keep up with all of the so-called endorsements, but surely not for very long. There are following limits set by Twitter regarding how many Twitter feeds you can add in a day. Surely nobody who follows many people can even conceivably follow all of those Twitter feeds, much less actually look at each profile to see what they are getting into.

The hard cap set by Twitter allows you to follow 1000 new people per day, and not to exceed 110% of the people following you. If you have under 2000 followers, the cap for following is the greater of 2000 users or 110% of those following you. Understanding this cap as it relates to the volume of FollowFriday spam, you can see how this becomes unsustainable. FollowFriday becomes as much a crap shoot as just choosing from a random selection of Twitter users.

Don’t Retweet FollowFriday Endorsements!

Retweeting FollowFriday endorsements is where the real spam comes in. First, you should know that retweets do not count toward the measure of FollowFriday popularity as I described above.

By following over 11,000 people on Twitter, (and I mean following … if you tweet me, I will see it) I have a pretty good perspective on FollowFriday. Retweets, in my experience, account for about four tweets to each one endorsement. I find from a random sampling of FollowFriday tweets that many of the people presumably endorsing me are not even following me nor do they know a thing about me. How is that an endorsement? It is NOT! That is why I call it spam.

FollowFriday Done Properly

If you want to give somebody a proper FollowFriday recommendation, make it clear. Include why you think they are a good person to follow. Say something clever or meaningful and make it original. If you see a FollowFriday endorsement from me, it may just say something like “Follow Yoon (@yoonhoum) because he is sharp as a pitchfork”.

It is best if you do not include more than one or two, but maximum of three people in your endorsement. Sending a tweet full of usernames will not do your friends any favors, and it will not make you more popular with most people. Please note that with over 20,000 public tweets sent and 1000 direct messages per day, I use Twitter enough to make this observation.

I welcome your FollowFriday endorsement, and I consider a real endorsement an honor. On the other hand, I consider it a disrespect of the purpose of Twitter as a communication tool when I see a huge wave of tweets from people retweeting something they never even reviewed.

Please Share Thoughts on FollowFriday

I want to hear it from you. What do you think of FollowFriday? Has this changed your perspective any? Do you agree? Do you disagree? Share it with the rest of us and leave your comment here on the blog. Also, please be kind to your fellow Twitter user and click here to retweet this.