Follow Responsibly: 5 ways to keep twitter clean and honest.
I’m a relatively early twitterer. I started using twitter in March of 07 and boy were they great times. No one was trying to market anything, it was just a bunch of cool kids getting value out of this new way of communicating.
Since then, twitter as a whole, has changed. It’s gone from a place of sincere conversation to being a cesspool of so called Social Media Experts, celebrities and all sorts of marketers.
And as this new era of twitter dawns I guess I feel the loss of the old and have struggled a little as it has turned into the cesspool that it is.
Why do I call it a cesspool? Well, here’s the problem. When Ashton Kutcher gets a million followers and everyone rejoices that the underdog has beat the media giant, they don’t realise that they’re creating a new media giant. One less governed by rules but far more by instant and spontaneous gratification.
The marketers and celebrities have come on board to do one thing, sell shit to you. And now they have a direct channel to message to you. Their game hasn’t changed, it’s just that now you’re a very active and willing participant, talk about Permission Marketing at its height! I mean seriously, AplusK follows 81 people and has 1.2M (and growing) followers, oh, and Oprah is following a total of 10.
This disproportionate ratio is sending a very clear message: twitter is a place to consume not to engage.
And thus my issue, a new breed of Twitterers is either trying to sell you shit or is being sold shit and Twitter’s DNA has changed as a result.
I want to be clear, I have no problem with selling shit, but that is (or at least should be) an ancillary benefit for being an active participant of the network and not the other way around.
So, as we sink deeper into Twitter being a reflection of our marketing and messaging infected real world, my mate Nick Hodge has some advice:
@delic8genius dont sub to the #wankerati. Simple. #unfollowsunday is my cleaning day :-)
So as is very often the case, Nick is right. Twitter is whatever you want it to be. Follow who you want to follow and Twitter will be the Twitter that you want it to be.
So, if you fear the possibility that Twitter becomes overwhelmingly a channel for one way communication, you can do something. You can follow responsibly. 5 tips to following responsibly:
- Unfollow a celebrity (or 2 or 3): Not saying you shouldn’t follow a celebrity that you connect with, but I can’t believe that many people really care about Ashton Kutcher’s life (even if he does have a vintage smokin’ hot wife)
- Unfollow the “new media”: Next time one of your twitter friends uses the phrase “new media”, unfollow or discipline their ass. Twitter is not new media. Also, follow some good advice and be a practitioner not an expert, as tempting as it may be to think you know it all, this is not a medium to know it all (it’s for know it all’s)
- Fix your following/followers ratio: If you are following a disproportionally high number of people relative to followers, you are a troll and can’t possibly be getting any genuine value out of Twitter. Begin a mass unfollowing and for your sins gimmie 5 x #unfollowsunday’s. Remember, you’re more awesome the more followers you have not the more that you follow, the latter kinda makes you a loser.
- Unfollow bots or virtual twitterers: Virtual twitterers are ok at events for announcements and for customer support I guess but other than that, there is generally no place for fake twitter entities.
- Be the good: Ultimately, Twitter newbies will follow your lead so be the citizen that you want others to be. Follow and engage with the great twitters and unfollow the not so great. Your followers will do the same.
If you feel this is an appropriate approach, please ask your friends to follow responsibly too.
-mk
Great blog from @delic8genius on how Twitter is losing it’s great roots and how we can get it back as we loved it http://tinyurl.com/c62l7d
RT interesting piece from @delic8genius bout the #wankerati http://bit.ly/aBiKA April is the tipping point for twitter in Sydney apparently
RT @websuccessdiva: Groovy Stuff! Follow Responsibly: 5 ways to keep twitter clean and honest. http://tinyurl.com/c62l7d
Reading 5 ways to keep twitter clean and honest: http://bit.ly/aBiKA
RT @beckinoles: Reading 5 ways to keep twitter clean and honest: http://bit.ly/aBiKA
Very sorry, but Twitter is practically the dictionary definition of “new media”. You can say it’s not all day long, but that won’t actually change a thing about it.
RT @beckinoles: Reading 5 ways to keep twitter clean and honest: http://bit.ly/aBiKA
I agree with you, but also agree with the first comment. Yes, it’s new media — but the beauty of it is we ALL have to give permission on both sides. It’s up to the individual user on how they are going to use Twitter :-) Good stuff, thanks :-)
Ha! Nice post!.
But agree with Mark – it is New Media. Get a coffee and read my analysis why: http://liako.biz/2008/12/thank-you-2008-you-finally-gave-new-media-a-name/
It’s a many-to-many communications medium, the functional definition of New Media. In English, it means two people can talk and other people can watch or join in.
Well made points, all!
But… I have no problem with having a hundred or so MLM god-bothering dufuses who think I’m incapable of getting my own dates setting up follow-bots and ending up in my followers-list. If they think I’m going to say something useful to them or retweet their product links, they can think again. That said – I choose who I follow, and the tweet-stream of the people who I’m interested in tends to be dogma and MLM free. There are a couple of celebs that I follow just cos they’re either interesting or seriously lolz-some – @wilwheaton for example, or comedians like @arjbarker, @dhughesy and @realbillbailey.
So far I have not found any situation on Twitter where I’m *FORCED* to put up with spam or other bull… it’s the perfect permission marketing paradigm. They don’t have my permission, so I don’t have to put up with their crap. :) If one of them slips through the cracks and starts link-spamming me, I just unfollow them. Easy! :)
I’ve not had an MLM or godbotherer start direct messaging me yet. The day it happens, that person gets not only unfollowed, but blocked and reported to the @spam meta-user.
For the record, I’m just a geek, not a “social media commentator”, so my analysis is very much related to my own situation, not to any others. The mileage of you and the redoubtable @NickHodge is clearly at variation to my own, so fair play. I just wanted to put a balancing opinion on the table. :)
Cheers
Jeremy
Wish I had of been around the twitterverse in those good old days.
@delic8genius Btw, loved your blog on keeping Twitter clean and tidy http://delicategeniusblog.com/?p=817 I started today :)
Maria, I’m with you I am mourning the loss of the good old days on Twitter even as I embrace the present. I still enjoy connecting with diverse people and having two-way conversations. I am not interested in jumping on the celeb bandwagon just because they’re there. Twitter is still what you make it and for me it’s a place to learn, share and engage. Thanks for the follow responsibly message, it is needed!
and there’s my split brain, sorry I was on the phone and typed Maria, crud! Sorry about that!
Twitter has “jumped the shark” – happened when Rove, Dave Hughes, Ashton Kutcher & all those other celeb’s jumped on board – and discussed on Ellen, etc. It was GOOD because it “wasn’t” FaceBook.
I just did a clean-up (#unfollow’s) – actually just 5 mins before I read this. Didn’t realise how much clutter & junk I had.
Have been guilty of #wankerati too – actually biting into the @aplusk thing vs CNN – but I’ve been re-born (un-born ?)
:-)
Well said, mk. I totally agree. I’ve been trying to weed the most egregious marketers from my list lately.
A friend just enthusiastically showed me a video on Twitter marketing where the speaker demonstrated all these ways to gain followers and make “useful” tweets – just to gain even more followers. It was like watching one of those Get Rich Quick schemes on late night TV. Frightening.
@delic8genius on 5 ways to keep twitter clean and honest http://delicategeniusblog.com/?p=817
@Scobleizer you’re absolutely right re godin, unfortunately we’ve entered a new era where participation is not revered http://bit.ly/aBiKA
Twitter is a transient technology. Just like the first camera-phone that did neither phone calls nor photos very well, but was extremely successful because it was the first of its kind and it let you do both very poorly.
Twitter is a transient between the Instant Messaging of the past and the global conversation of the future. On one hand it is global on the other it’s not really instant, let alone a real conversation. It has a long was to reaching its full potential.
Perhaps it’s not the goal of Twitter to be a global conversation, or record there of… perhaps it is just “your facebook status”… perhaps it is just a jibba-jabba platform to proclaim to the world that you do in fact exist, and are still on the crapper or have just sold your 1 millionth pretzel.
Either way, one thing is for sure…
…Twitter is proof that in our time its more important for people to be heard, than to have a conversation. Just like FaceBook is proof that it’s more important to be seen, than to see people.
great article on twitter housekeeping. i’m all for this: http://delicategeniusblog.com/?p=817