Citizen Marketer 2.1

Aaron Strout

Following 10,000, Filtering and the Value of Large Numbers

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As a person that appreciates symmetry and patterns in nature, I was intrigued this morning when I saw that I was following exactly 10,000 people on Twitter. Even better, I am only 8 followers away from 11,111 which in some ways, is an even more perfect number (no official reason, I just like the symmetry better). I don’t normally mention following numbers in public as it’s a turn off but I couldn’t resist if for no other reason than the fact the reason I mentioned in the first sentence.

I wasn’t really expecting any responses other than maybe a snarky “who cares” or “I just unfollowed you so now you have 9,999.” Instead, I got some thoughtful replies from folks like Adam Zand, Chris Selland, Dan Blank, Alex Howard and Hadley Stern.

The gist of the comments/questions (as you can see from the answers above) was, “how do you follow so many people?” and “do you really see value in following so many?” My immediate answer was:

  • Out of the 10,000 people I follow, only about 500 or so of that group do most of that tweeting. Of that group, I pay close attention to about 200-300 (a relatively manageable number) using Tweetdeck
  • To Chris’ point, I may not “really be following” all 10,000 of the people I have connected with on Twitter, but I believe that my willingness to follow back gives these folks a feeling of connection and makes them feel like they can DM me or @ me when they like (I try and respond to all personal @’s and DMs). In fairness, I also have an “all friends” column in Tweetdeck and at least a few times a day, keep an eye on this open stream for new folks to add to my inner circle of people to follow.
  • Adding a third item to this that I tweeted after the fact, the serendipity that I’ve enjoyed as a result of engaging with such a broad audience has led to some amazing things like new business, podcast interviews and even the opportunity to write the foreword to Janet Fouts latest book.

While I realize that my strategy doesn’t work for everyone (just like I’m finding out that my blog-reading strategy varies wildly from person to person), it seems to be working for me. I’m not sure what happens when this number grows to 15,000 or 20,000, right now, I’m going to keep adjusting my filters and enjoying the benefits of lots of social “friends” to give and receive valuable information on research, restaurants and rollodex access).

What is your Twitter follow strategy?

Engagement vs. Serendipity

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Earlier this morning, my Twitter friend, Michael Calienes who is also the co-founder of The Conversation Factory, tweeted out a clip he did on video social network, 12 Seconds. You can watch for yourself but for those of you that prefer the written word, Michael’s question was “What if over the next couple of weeks you un-followed everyone who’s never engaged with you on Twitter?”

What I liked about Michael’s question was that it wasn’t an “eff you” kind of statement but rather a thoughtful one. His follow up question was, “Do you think it would improve the relationships you have with the people who do engage with you?”

http://embed.12seconds.tv/i/embed?v=200202
unfollowing the unengaged on 12seconds.tv

What I liked most about this quick video was that it got me thinking about engagement vs. serendipity, two things that are possible more now than ever via social media. The first concept, engagement, is obviously something that is high on any marketer’s priority list. The second, serendipity, is something that we love when it comes our way but rarely do we feel like we have much control over the phenomenon. To me, that is really the beauty of Twitter because it allows both to happen simultaneously.

But that’s not what Michael asked in his clip this morning. He wanted to know would paring down on followers that are essentially “dead weight” allow us to spend more time with the people that matter. In essence, this is something that I think we all grapple with in life in general.
So here’s my answer… as tempted as I am to pare down my 8,000+ followers, I never will. You know why? Because every day someone new who was in the list of “haven’t previously engaged with” crops up and adds value to my life. There are a few personal examples of how this has helped here and here It’s also been invaluable in my professional life helping me helping me drive leads, create partnerships, find podcast/blog interviewees, or even land speaking engagements.
What do you think? If you had your druthers, would you slim down the number of people you engaged with based on reciprocity? Or are you like me — willing to roll the dice based on the possibility of what might be?

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