Comments on: Why I Changed Course on Twitter

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:56:34 +0000

I gave up the tweets a long time ago for reasons I spelled out on my blog. It was good for networking, but mostly felt empty and wasteful.

By: jacqueline Bigar

jacqueline Bigar — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 18:44:13 +0000

Frankly I am glad you dumped the unknowns, Goeff. I do not know how many times I said to you: Good norning Geoff, to be ignored in cyber space.

Then suddenly a few weeks ago I heard Good morning Mom, before I could say anything. Moms like attention :>

Thank you.

By: Linda Zimmer

Linda Zimmer — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 02:51:34 +0000

Just had to say welcome to sanity – and what social network tools are really intended to enhance.

I’m with you, but like Chris, use a second Twitter channel to listen.

By: Chris Brogan...

Chris Brogan... — Thu, 17 Jul 2008 01:01:57 +0000

I only twitter on @chrisbrogan. I *read* on another account as well as on @chrisbrogan.

My point is that I have created tools to manage the complexity as a different take to deflowering.

By: Geoff Livingston

Geoff Livingston — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:52:10 +0000

All interesting views. I guess social network usage is really a personal matter.

Chris, interesting point. I think it’s somewhat interesting the your real Twitter profile is not real Twitter. Does that create authenticity issues?

By: Jeff Davis

Jeff Davis — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:17:23 +0000

What I’ve learned is that if you put a solid effort into building your following/follower profile – only linking with those who you know or have vetted, quickly un-following those who distract from the conversation, etc. – then the result is a valuable Twitter experience. It takes time and effort. Seems like many early adopters had a random “come one, come all” approach that worked at first and seemed cool, but in the long run got old and frustratingly uninteresting. My next question is what is the right number to follow? I’m at 350 and it feels like I must be close to the max. @contactjeff

By: Chris Brogan...

Chris Brogan... — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:42:23 +0000

I could’ve shown you what I do. I have two. One for the people I most absolutely MUST know what they’re doing, and one for everyone. I read both. I *never miss* the people I have to never miss.

One’s the Matrix. The other is the Breakfast Club. : )

But love to you. You’ll get even more focused when you do it that way. Just gave me an idea, too.

By: JessieX

JessieX — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 03:23:47 +0000

Me, I’m using that rule of 150 thing I read about in one of Malcolm Gladwell’s books. 150 Facebook friends max. 150 people I’m following on Twitter, max. et cetera. Sometimes in order to add someone I want to, for example, be FB friends with, I have to decide who I’m dropping. It’s very interesting to me to watch my reasons and choices about who I connect with in SM and who I don’t, and how that shifts over time.

I think this “following” and “friending” thing genuinely is a new life skill. Getting lots of friends or lots of followers can be cool in the rush of a new tech or platform, but after a while, volume and high numbers is not where the skill and intelligence is. Selecting who, what and why, however, is.

One fiddy. Dat’s it, per technology, for me.

By: BarbaraKB

BarbaraKB — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:17:34 +0000

Agree! As @AnnOhio says, “if you don’t add to my life…” I also follow some who (*shock*) don’t follow me back but still respond to @s and/or I find tweets interesting/helpful. So many ways to use Twitter… yeah!

By: Lyn Mettler

Lyn Mettler — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:17:14 +0000

I totally understand. I am up to 186 and am feeling the same growing pains already and trying to decide how to handle it. It does make it difficult to contribute in any meaningful way and to have much of a conversation. Do you think the etiquette of Twitter will change as more people experience the difficulty of following such large numbers of people and as people start to “tweet” more often?