It's no secret. I'm a huge twitter fan. Absolutely love it because it gives me little glimpses into the lives of the people I follow. But like any other technology that hits the fan, I think there are growing pains. I think lots of people are on twitter simply because "everyone" is on twitter. So we start using it before even evaluating how or why we use it.
Here's one of the issues I keep bumping into: what is the optimal number of people to follow on Twitter? I follow 90 people--family, friends, staff, and a few folks I really respect as leaders. But to be honest, I could barely keep up with 50 people. At what point do you hit the point of diminishing return?
Following everybody seems like following nobody. But following next to nobody seems rude. What is the happy medium? How many people do you follow? Who are they? And why?
23 Comments:
That is a great question. It reminds me of my Facebook account; I have 287 "friends" but only correspond with 10-20 at most. I have 47 Twitter followers but only focus on a core group of 10.
Unfortunately I think a lot of Twitter & Facebook users treat the number of friends and followers as "trophies," almost a contest to see how many they can recruit.
For example, can you realistically follow 47,598 people? ;)
I think it really depends on what you are wanting to use twitter for.
You truly cannot track with hundreds or thousands of people you are following, but by following them back, it opens up the opportunity for communication. In other words, they can't DM you without you following them.
If you chose to follow everyone who follows you, you still can bypass being flooded with info. I use tweetdeck and have a couple of groups I watch closely. Those are my friends/family group and my leaders group, which adds up to about 40 people. If someone wants to get my attention, they can still @ reply me or DM me, and that possibility is open because I followed them back.
Like I said, it all depends on how you are wanting to use twitter. For me, I follow EVERYONE back who follows me. But only a few exceptional tweeters actually get consistently read. (like @markbatterson) That's my two cents....
Like you I think there is a limit to the number of people you can follow and still have valuable interactions. However, I'm currently following about 500 who I've read through their bio and checked their first page of tweets. I look for common interests and people who are interested in connecting. If they just post a Bible verse every day or tweet about how much coffee they are drinking or stuff I'm not interested in I won't follow back.
I've probably reached my saturation point but I find I can still skim through about 100 tweets in a matter of 5 minutes or so...only stopping at the ones I find interesting or valuable to my interests in church planting or discipleship, etc. I do this about 3 or 4 times a day and only spend about 20 to 30 minutes total on my tweetdeck.
Here's how I use twitter to add value to my network. Thanks for asking the question and seeking to find balance in your use of twitter.
my thinking goes something like that dunbar number - 150 people seems like the threshold. and then i add some more - people that i want to learn from.
i agree with thekidpreacher, there are some other tools that i use that help - rss feeds of search.twitter.com and tweetdeck's groups and searches.
I follow some family and friends and then I follow a variety of leaders that I have come to respect and who give me insights as well as glimpses into what they are doing. Like you, I am not sure of the where the point of diminishing returns lies. I have stop following people who give me too much information or who seem to be just repeating what has already been covered. I have also followed someone for a season and then stopped to add new people.
Follow conversations not people.
Check out http://www.flowerdust.net/2009/04/21/following-conversations-not-people-on-twitter/
Insightful commentary by Anne Jackson
God Bless,
Derek
http://www.BranchChurch.org
I agree that it seems rude to not follow someone that is following you. I will follow most anyone that follows me, unless they are spammers. In order to not miss the tweets of those that I'm most interested in, I use Tweet Deck. Tweet Deck allows me to organize my followers in categories.
I use facebook to stay in touch with my family and close friends. I use Twitter to stay in touch with what's going on in the world.
I use Twitter solely for evangelism purposes. So as a result, I follow everyone who follows me, except for two types of people:
1) Obvious spammers -- and that includes just about any topic
and
2) People who post something every 2-3 minutes.
It's easy to keep up, because I use tweetdeck. It notifies me when I have a new message. If it's important or to me specifically, it pops up as a reply or a direct message. If it's general, then I just check it every half hour.
I also try to respond to interesting tweets or to people who are making statements about their day, their beliefs, their family, things that have happened to them.
This helps me make a connection. I have met people through Twitter who then visit my blogs and may not be Christians. Then they either post comments or email me -- and I also invite them to "attend" our church services that are live online.
The possibilities are endless. If I follow everyone, then everyone who is valid appreciates it and pays attention when I post something.
This winter I was overwhelmed by how many people I was following, so I went back to why I joined in the first place: nonprofits (my field) and news. Therefore, I rarely follow people who are friends in real life. (I use FB for that) I feel more sane because Twitter has a focused function for me.
I think I follow about 140, but of those only about 100 are active Tweeters. Most post several times per day (not every other minute).
Like any other tool, you need to know why you are using it and how it fits into who you are, what you do, what you need. If it's not helping you advance your mission or cause--axe it.
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I think each person has to find the balance that is right for them. Several factors come into play on the WHY they use Twitter and the HOW they use Twitter. The WHY is self explanatory but the HOW makes a big difference since several 3rd party Twitter apps like Tweetdeck or Seesmic make it easier to follow more.
For me, I mostly use Tweetdeck as my Twitter’ing application. Tweetdeck enables me to follow a lot of people and sort those I follow into groups which I can watch more closely and interact with regularly. I have a group for personal friends, a group for “church leaders,” a group for “marketing,” etc. Even still with groups, I’m normally actively (daily) following a couple hundred cumulatively in my groups.
At least twice a week I browse the “All Friends” column (everyone I am following) in Tweetdeck and will often add someone to a group whom I see has interesting Tweets or I will at least interact with general friends in some way.
I don’t Tweet much from my phone. When I do it’s just outbound, not really interactive. I do not AUTO follow anyone. I think AUTO follow is silly.
All in all, I love Twitter. I’ve made many offline connections that started online. I’ve met some really interesting people and the whole “six degrees of separation” thing has really shown itself big time. Twitter has brought that sixth degree down to a third degree almost. :)
BTW… my Twitter ID: http://www.twitter.com/danieldecker
I have meet so many people through Twitter that I would never have met in any other way. Like you for instance. I read an essay you wrote in Len Sweet's "The Church of the Perfect Storm" and wanted to read more.I can't move to DC so I rely on Twitter, Facebook, blogs, podcasts.Whether you ever follow me is of no importance.The fact that I can glean from you and then "pay it forward" is the key.
Rudeness in digital relationships? Do we have virtual insecurity now?
Follow people based on your security of stewardship and relationship. If people get bent out of shape because you don't follow them, then let them deal with their own insecurity.
Otherwise we'll all start suffering from interweb people pleasing.
My thoughts,
Ben
Twitter: benrainey
(Not looking for followers, just letting you know that I also tweet, and am probably the rudest tweeter because I follow so few.)
Mark,
I think things like twitter and facebook are a little bit like cell phones. I have a belief that my cell phone is for my convenience and not everyone else's. Just becuase I have it doesn't mean you should expect to be able to contact me anytime you want. With twitter, it is there for your benefit. If you give into the pressure of accomodating everyone who wants to be able to have a certain amount of connection to you, then you it is no longer for you. And when did it become a sin to have something like twitter just for our own benefit? I can imagine you feel an enormous amount of pressure to not offend anyone or make them feel like you think you've become too big follow them. That is when something like twitter is unhealthy and no longer needs to be a part of my life. Of course, I don't have the same struggle you have. So I'm sure the pressure is something I don't understand.
Rusty
I follow lots of people, but turn on device updates for the people I am personally connected with. That way I have the best of both worlds.
I follow 15 - 20 people and really read what they say. You are one of them. That is what I have time for.
1726 and counting is my threshold for the people I follow. I have people segmented off in groups in Tweetdeck, so there isn't any critical mass number that I feel overwhelmed. 2370 currently follow me. I'm also in social media in a more professional manner so my threshold is probably WAY higher than the normal person. I follow people who look interesting, have value in their current tweets, or that I want to network with.
I don't follow everyone back that follows me and I don't unfollow those that don't auto follow me back. There is no wrong or right way to use twitter.
Are you using Tweetdeck, PM? I think that is a good way to keep up with more than the amount you referenced as a comfortable number.
Twitter is like a giant party. Jump in the stream when you want to engage or segment off the people you truly want to hear from.
Terry
@deucehartley (Fair warning, I tweet...a LOT)
I agree. And I'm still trying to figure out whether Twitter is even valuable to me. But, anyway, I follow alot of people because they seem interesting to me, share one or more common interests, or inspire. But, honestly, I would have to spend ALL day everyday keeping up with all the people that I have chosen to follow and I obviously can't do that. I use TweetDeck, too, and like the grouping approach to filter out what I want to see at any given time. But I have also heard of folks who create several different Twitter personas to represent different parts of their life. So there'll be a persona for friends, one for coworkers, one for sports, one for tech, etc. But I don't know if that's any less work in the long run.
Mark--I follow a lot of people. The usefulness of this, however, comes after I divide many of these who I follow into groups(tweetdeck) The groups that I watch are useful and interesting to me.
I'm finding the comments for this post very interesting. The answer to Why one is on Twitter is pivotal. I can see why someone who is using it for sales and marketing would find following as many people as is technically possible (by Twitter guidelines), as optimal. Of course, following someone who is following you is an excellent way to make the customer feel important. And who inside the Church who wants it to grow isn't in sales and marketing (though we don't necessarily like to think of it that way)?
On the other hand, using platforms like Tweetdeck to track the people that you're genuinely interested in seems inherently dishonest. People think that you're really following them when you're not. Or is it that we should all presume that everyone is using Tweetdeck? Then, what is the point of being followed at all?
I follow as many as follow me...course that is my twitter rule.
And then use tweetdeck or Seesmic Desktop to sub-group those I follow into usable columns.
@Cherie
Permit me if I may to respond to your statement. Using tweetdeck is far from being inherently dishonest. I use Tweetdeck to group out people that I'm MOST interested in hearing from all the time. For me, it's a select group of marketers and business/church leaders. I also have my closest personal friends grouped so that when they respond to me or another one of our friends, I can see the conversation.
That being said, I use the web predominantly to respond and see how the conversation is going among the REST of the people that I follow. I'm truly interested in getting to know these people and I jump in the flow whenever I have something to add to the conversation.
I use tweetdeck as a way to control the flow of information. For me it's a created digital mastermind. Some of those people I've segmented off don't even know I exist.
I hope that makes sense!
~Terry
We were using Twitter for a while but stopped because it got out of hand. We were contacted by a company in Scottsdale, AZ that specializes in text messaging to churches only called MCJC Ventures, LLC that is providing an existing "texting" platform to get a daily message out to a charity or church's donors or members. I called the company (480) 236-9272 and asked them about it, they gladly sent me some information on it. I asked them if they have any churches currently using their texting platform and they told me Creflo Dollar Ministries and Jamal Bryant Ministries (but mainly megachurches in the Phoenix area) and have been using it for some time now. They charge each donor or "subscriber" as he put it $4.99/mo. to get a daily custom text message directly from the church and the church gets a good portion of that back in donation revenue. Seems there may be a new technology for revenues for charities now with this! Anyone else heard about this?
Carla
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