Everyone always seems fascinated with Twitter follower counts. Friend Beth Kanter was recently added to the official Twitter recommended list, which in turn added more than 100,000 new followers to her account. We decided to see what kind of impact the new following brought with it.
We did this by retweeting a link to the above photo featuring her and fellow BlogPotomac Keynote Shel Israel. Before Beth’s tweet, the photo had approximately 140 views. After she tweeted it, the photo garnered another 260 views, ten of which you could assume came from prior tweets and links.
So unofficially, Beth’s then 120,000 followers produced a click through rate of 0.2 percent. Now on my feed of 7,500 followers a popular photo like the above if it’s not retweeted (as this one was when I dropped it) usually gets about 50 click throughs, or approximately 0.7 percent. In this case if you include RTs, I accounted for roughly 150 views or 2 percent (sounds like email click throughs).
So the lessons learned? Generally speaking, with more casual followers you lose engagement and influence power.
While the actual number of click throughs increased with numbers. if the following isn’t organically or naturally cultivated then people care much less about your tweets, and are not as likely to click through. Influence wanes without relationships. Social media is still relational. It’s better to cultivate a rabid community than a massive following.
I’ve seen this same phenomena on large client Twitter accounts as well as heard it from other folks with 100k Twitter followings. Bigger is not necessarily better.
P.S. See Beth’s post on how she came to be listed, and the impact it’s had on her.
Popularity: 57% [?]
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@geoffliving opines on @kanter’s 126K followers: “Influence wanes w/out relationships; Bigger isn’t necess better” [link to post]
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Interesting: What 100K Twitter Followers Gets You: Less impact? [link to post]
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What 100K Twitter Followers Gets You: fortunately, I don’t have this problem [link to post]
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RT @northernchick: [link to post] What 100K Twitter Followers Gets You | Fascinating.
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Geoff Livingston Blog: More casual Twitter followers equal less influence; [link to post].
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[link to post] What 100K Twitter Followers Gets You
#BlogPotomac Keynotes @kanter and @shelisrael at the White House – v. interesting
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RT @GeoffLiving New Blog Post: What 100K Twitter Followers Gets You [link to post]
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RT @GeoffLiving: New Blog Post: What 100K Twitter Followers Gets You [link to post]
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What 100K Twitter Followers Gets You | Geoff Livingston’s Personal … [link to post]
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Quantity or quality in Twitter? Blog reminds us that communication is about building relationships: @GeoffLiving [link to post]
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RT @gyoung9751 More casual Twitter followers = less influence. [link to post]
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More casual Twitter followers = less influence. [link to post]
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RT @heidiotway: Do you really want 100,000 followers on Twitter? [link to post]
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My takeaway: social media is about relationships… RT @heidiotway: Do you really want 100,000 followers on Twitter? [link to post]
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Is #socialmedia all about numbers? Or is there more to it? RT @heidiotway: Do you really want 100,000 followers? [link to post]
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If I’m not interacting/gaining anything it’s not worth it. RT @heidiotway: Do u really want 100k Twitter followers? [link to post]
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Do you really want 100,000 followers on Twitter? [link to post]
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RT: @heidiotway Do you really want 100,000 followers on Twitter? [link to post]
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@wheresPAUL similar but diff post + insights from @geoffliving & @kanter: What 100K Twitter Followers Gets You [link to post] #nptech
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[twitter] What 100K Twitter Followers Gets You | Geoff Livingston’s Blog [link to post]
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RT @KateDickman: GREAT article for those who think the more followers they have, the better. [link to post]
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RT @akhilak Great ex of why social media still based on relationships. RT @TargetStars What 100K Followers Gets You [link to post]
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What 100K Twitter Followers Gets You [link to post]
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Great example of why social media still based on relationships. RT @TargetStars: What 100K Twitter Followers Gets You [link to post]
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@akhilak Thanks for the RT. It’s been awhile! How are you? Hope all is well.
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A case study on followers from the Twitter “recommended” list [link to post] (ht @KateDickman via @wherespaul)
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@erictpeterson answer to your @twitalyzer question part 1 http://bit.ly/U89o6 and part 2 [link to post] ur thoughts?
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Relationships, people! How did I miss this? @geoffliving on what 100K twitter followers gets you: [link to post]
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RT @askdebra: Relationships, people! How did I miss this? @geoffliving on what 100K twitter followers gets you: [link to post]
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Here’s What 100K ‘Twitter Followers’ Gets You [link to post] http://friendfeed.com/e/55056928-5fbc-4509-baed-505b4fc7e256
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What 100K Twitter Followers Gets you [link to post] Great study by @geoffliving and @kanter
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@GeoffLiving re-reading “What will 100K Twitter Followers get you?” [link to post]
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RT @geoffliving What 100K Twitter Followers Gets You | [link to post] Hmmm..another day older and deeper in debt?
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