
Last night I was on a panel for the Davinci Institute’s Startup Junkie Underground event. Inevitably there was a question about how social networking appears to be a waste of time. It is; but only for newbies who haven’t been taught how to use the tools efficiently to get the most benefit out of them.
This question for the uninitiated has gotten even worse since the Oprah Effect hit Twitter. Now people start off thinking it’s a popularity contest and everyone with over 10,000 followers is worth paying attention to.
Yesterday there was snake oil and today there are programs selling you Twitter followers. This isn’t incredible news since it’s been happening for over 6 months, but it’s getting out of hand. Every day more internet marketing affiliates are spamming people with these offers.
A friend just sent me a link to a company selling 1,000 followers for $87. The offer balloons to 10,000 followers for “only” $497. I’m not posting the link here because I don’t want to give them any promotion.
No matter how many followers you buy, you probably won’t have as great of a following as Rudy, the cat who got 500,000 Twitter followers without paying a dime. And you may not ever be as cute as Rudy either, but that’s another story.
Having 500 Twitter followers who find value in your content, enjoy reading what you say and engage in conversations with you is infinitely more valuable than 100,000 followers who don’t read a thing you write.
Appearing to be popular on Twitter with only empty content (i.e. talking about your opinion of the latest summer blockbuster) is a waste of time and money.That said, there are people with tens of thousands of followers on Twitter who are great to follow because they influence beneficial conversations.
Quantity + quality content = massive influence. Quantity - quality content = wasting time.
To be fair, Twollo and Hummingbird are two services that have some good reviews for delivering targeted followers. If that’s true then there is some value in the service, but you still have to know your keywords, provide interesting and entertaining content, etc. or the followers mean nothing.
The value of social networking is in building relationships. This happens by authentically sharing yourself, what interests you, what happens in your business, connecting to people in your city, collaborating with others, etc.
It’s called social networking because social without networking is just opinions, gossip and fluff.
And finally, there’s the fact that 60% of Twitter users quit after a month. Most people who don’t seek out a friend or ‘expert’ to show them how to get value out of their time on Twitter won’t use Twitter. If you don’t ‘get it,’ you’ll leave it. If you don’t have followers engaged in conversations with you then it was all for naught.
If a tree falls in the forest and no one hears it at least it impacts the ecosystem. If you buy thousands of Twitter followers who aren’t your target audience (personally or professionally) and don’t care about what you have to share, you’re just an idiot with a lighter wallet. And really, who wants to be that guy?
P.S. Hilariously, after I wrote this post Adsense put ads on the post selling Twitter followers. I have no control over these, so lets just laugh at it together.
Tags: hummingbird, twitter, twitter followers, twitterers