Booksquare University

I am equally bemused by the celebrities flocking to Twitter and the backlash against those celebrities. On one hand, you get kudos and respect for Shaquille O’Neal, who uses both the Twitter website and a mobile app to post updates. On the other, you get the ridiculousness of Ashton Kutcher challenging CNN to a “first one to get a million followers” contest. And, of course, then Kutcher’s ante is upped by pseudo-celebrity Spencer Pratt.

Building your Twitter following is not a popularity contest, and these challenges serve more to make the celebrities look grasping and desperate (no really, begging people to follow is not Twitter cool). Of course, we have a reasonable sense that the group noted in the first paragraph are composing and posting their own tweets. Some are even engaging in a human way.

It’s the ones who can’t even be bothered to put together 140 characters that make me roll my eyes (and make me wonder why anyone would bother following them). If your tweets are an endless stream of self-promotion, you’ll lose followers quickly. There is a lot of talk about the value of followers, but it doesn’t necessarily compute that large numbers equal engaged audience. For your message to be meaningful, it must be heard.

I remind myself of this quite frequently. I have a respectable number of followers, but I also have a good sense that more than a few signed up for Twitter, started following a group of people, but haven’t been back since that first day. I appreciate that they added me to their list, but I think I’m more appreciative of those who participate, engage, ask questions, comment, or, ahem, indulge my love of shoe pictures (especially since I’m currently on a footware diet!).

When I consider the value of followers, I truly believe it’s the great group who take the time to read what I write that matter the most. If the experience of others is any indication, some of the one who gave up on Twitter after that first day will come back. I hope they still find me interesting and keep following!

For those who follow celebrities on Twitter, hey, if you’re entertained by what you read, great. But please don’t buy into the notion that it’s all about building big numbers. While we say there’s no right way to use Twitter,
creating a large list of people to talk to, not with, is about as close to doing it wrong as you can get.

The best Twitter experiences come from those who engage in conversations. Following or being followed by large numbers of people can be a wonderful experience…as long as you’re getting what you need in terms of information and relationship-building. Finding the right people to follow means you’ll look forward to reading your Twitterstream.

Being followed by the right people means you’re reaching people who are genuinely interested in what you have to say. No matter what you’re selling — from words of wisdom to shoes — that’s the key.

For those who are forming the loyal opposition to celebrity Twitterers, you don’t have to follow. That is the beauty of the Twitter opt-in system. Yes, there was a lot of excitement over the fact that Oprah joined the service. Yes, it’s a big news story. Tomorrow it will be something different. Chill, folks, chill.