Twitter Twaddle

Recently, there has been a glut of 'How To' posts on increasing your twitter followers. I've been reading these with great interest. Not that I'm actively trying to increase my Twitter followers, but I'm always curious about how people who have sent only a couple of hundred tweets containing information of little value have managed to amass hundreds of thousands of followers.

These blog posts are full of instructions on how you use loop holes in the Twitter follow rules, to follow as many people as possible in any given day, and then unfollow anyone who doesn't follow you back, while being careful to not trigger the Twitter Spammer net that gets your account blocked for following too many people. Or they coach you on ways in which you can purchase your Twitter followers. Yes...purchase!

In the comments of these blog posts you see people thank the bloggers for this valuable information and they are going off to do the exact same thing.  And now in Twitter profiles people are putting in warnings that they will unfollow you if you don't follow them. And this is where I get confused.

What is Twitter for? What do you want to get out of it?  For me, Twitter is a tool that enables me talk to readers, fans, bloggers, and industry professionals that I wouldn't necessary ever get a chance to converse with.  It's also a great tool for meeting like minded people, interesting people, people with exceptional view points that trigger controversy/conversation/deeper thought.  I follow people who I like, who challenge me to question myself and my beliefs, people who make me laugh. So why on earth would I unfollow any of these people just because they didn't follow me back? By unfollowing someone of interest just because of a lack of return follow, I'd be only denying myself potential knowledge or laughs.

I do follow a lot of people who follow me, especially those who tweet with me regularly. They're interesting, and I'm invested in what they're up to in their lives, but if they tweet in a language I don't understand, or don't tweet at all, or perhaps are the biggest Snooki fans in the the world and only post beach pictures of Snooki's bum, the chances are I won't return the follow.  It's not because I don't appreciate them following me, but I'd rather not have my twitter feed full of Snooki's butt and the like, if you know what I mean.

When it comes to writers, readers, bloggers, and anyone else in publishing world, I think the quality of your followers far outweighs quantity.  What's the point in having millions of followers if nobody reads your tweets? You're just sending your 140 characters into a dark void. I just don't understand the current obsession over who has the most followers. It means absolutely nothing. And I'm pretty sure high follower numbers does not equal better book sales.

Anyway, that's my twopence worth on what's occupying my mind on this stunningly beautiful summers day. I really should stop perusing twitter and reading all these blog posts and instead, head off to the beach or something. I strongly encourage you to do the same, but if the weather sucks where you are, or if you can't tear yourself away from your computer, I'd love to hear your thoughts on the importance of follower numbers. Or if you have have any statistics that contradict my thoughts, I'd LOVE that too.

Have a wonderful day.
All the very best and talk soon.

Leigh