Good article. I would also add that to keep followers you need to know when to stop tweeting so often.

I do really think that Twitter is pointless and takes your time. Do you have a lot of time? Then I understand why you use Twitter. It’s just a hype like iPhone and really really rubbish.

The whole concept – however – is good but it would be much useful in a corporate environment at an enterprise.

Ryan, you get up 5.30 am, this is because you need to tweet? Also, I do think that checking mails only twice daily is a rubbish attitude. Replying to client’s email is what is needed to be done rapidly not twittering.

Oh, yeah, and my favourite one when people on this blog posts about ‘great Ryan’, ‘pretty cool’, ‘awesome’..

Come on! Let’s do something yourself and not schmoozing all the time..

Only recently picked up the twittering myself but I like it. I have already seen alot of interesting stuff that I might have otherwise missed – such as ubiquity.

Also Someone’s Cranky!

Haven’t we already discussed, on this very blog, that Twitter is a social medium? Last time I checked (outside in “real society”), the object of social mediums was not to gather as many friends as possible, as if in a real like Pokemon game. What possible gain does a large number of followers give you? Ego boosts? More opportunity to spam them with pyramid schemes? This article is ridiculous.

Twitter isn’t one thing. For people like Stephen Fry, Ryan, Arrington et al it’s more of a broadcast thing. There’s no way you can be social with that number of people.

My follower count has grown slowly but steadily to 200+, and I follow about half that number. Keeps it manageable.

One horse, multiple courses.

Gruber sums it up.

@Bradley

“What possible gain does a large number of followers give you?”

I think it’s unwise to follow a lot of people. I follow around 250, max. However, it’s *tremendously* valuable to have a lot of people following you, because you can learn a great deal when you ask them questions.

When I ask for people’s opinions or thoughts on something, I usually get around 10 replies from my followers. It’s amazing.

@Ryan: that’s actually a pretty decent reason for having a lot of followers. I wonder, though, whether for the ‘average Joe’ if that sort of practice works? You’re well known in the web industry, so you’re bound to garner more replies to questions than (say) myself. Also, this technique only works if you’re a public tweeter. As Twitter becomes more spam and marketing-oriented, more and more of my friends have become private only. At this point, you have to forcibly remove yourself from those kind of exchanges. It’s a shame, but at the moment Twitter doesn’t support a mechanism for making some of your tweets public whilst the rest are private.

Thanks Justin!

http://twitter.com/rkbtm362
follow me on twitter

I use Hummingbird to get more followers on Twitter. I think this is the link: http://www.hummingbird2.com