• My Twitter Rant

    Posted on February 3rd, 2009 by and currently 22 commenting.

    I admit it, about a year-and-a-half ago Geno came to me and told me he signed up for this thing called Twitter. Of course, I asked about it. And after he told me, I told him that it was interesting. And totally stupid.

    Fast forward and six-to-nine months ago, I’m on it and exploring what it’s all about. And now you can’t turn around without Twitter being mentioned in blog posts, news articles – whatever. I’ve read a lot of people’s opinions about Twitter and I’ve had so many thoughts swirling around in my head that I had to purge myself of them. Thus this post full of my personal opinions. So here we go:

    1.    Your Twitter is not my Twitter. This comes directly from a recent meeting with Dr. Mihaela Vorvoreanu. And my take on it is this: Ask 25 people what they use Twitter for and you’ll get 25 different answers. Some use it to keep up with friends. Some use it to find inspiration. Some to find knowledge. Some for mindless thoughts. Some just for fun. And some for none of the above.

    2.    Twitter is not a popularity contest. This one is a biggie for me. It’s SO EASY to get caught up in the “number of follwers” game. Addictive, even. But who really cares? Whenever someone tweets that they are 4 people away from 500 followers, they are actually now 5 people away from 500 because I just unfollowed them. It’s not about how many people you can get to follow you. Any monkey (or bot) for that matter, can go out and follow 10,000 people and mindlessly they’ll get 4,000 followers back. It’s quality – not quantity.

    The other tangent on this is TwitterGrader and the rest of those “graders” – they’re gimmicks people. If you’re goal is to be in the top 10 in the city, state, nation or world on TwitterGrader, you have my sympathies.

    3.    Don’t take it personal. If I unfollow you, it’s just that I’m finished with that conversation. It’s not personal (well, not always). I don’t want to talk to you anymore. And I don’t take it personally if you unfollow me. Don’t let it hurt your feelings and I won’t let it hurt mine, okay?

    4.    If you’re on Twitter all day long, I really start to wonder about how you get your job done. Seriously. If you’re updating 45 times an hour, I’m thinking to myself, “Doesn’t this guy have a job?” Or if you’re constantly Tweeting after hours I’m thinking, “Doesn’t this guy have a family?” Look, Obama (or his staff, rather) used Twitter to let us know what was going on. Do you really want Obama on Twitter answering your personal questions all day long or fixing what needs to be fixed?

    5.    Twitter isn’t for everyone and every company. There are people running around literally badgering companies, politicians and whomever will listen that they should be on Twitter. First of all, companies need a strategy before they are on Twitter and secondly, it just doesn’t make sense for some companies to be on there – because their customers aren’t on there. So whenever someone tells you that they are a Twitter expert you have two options: 1) Laugh your ass off or 2) smile politely, turn and walk away.

    Look, I like Twitter. It’s cool to see all the different adaptations and experiences brands and individuals are having with it. So know that just because the above might be a little negative, I’m all for Twitter.

    And now you can unfollow me @spikejones.

  • http://www.davidlano.com/blog David Lano

    Spike,

    I couldn’t agree more with your Twitter analysis. I opened a Twitter account about a year ago when I first started hearing the buzz. I thought it was lame at first, but slowly realized it’s benefits. Today, you can’t ignore it. It’s everywhere.

    Thanks for sharing your thoughts. Oh, and I followed you. :)

  • Colby Gergen

    As an extenstion to #3: don’t take it personally if you follow me and I don’t follow you back. I’ve actually received a message of someone perturbed that I didn’t “return the favor”. It’s not a favor you did for me. I don’t know you, I didn’t ask you to follow me, and if this is going to get me on your bad side, I don’t want to know or follow you. I blocked this person.

    And good job pimping your twitter after ranting about the numbers not mattering (which is true).

  • http://www.keithmonaghan.com Keith Monaghan

    Reminds me of something Tim Ferris, author of The Four-Hour Work Week, said: Don’t listen to those spouting “rules”. Use twitter to engage people your way.

    Nice post. Thanks, Spike!

  • http://www.worthwhile.com Chris Rackley

    Whoa, Spike! I think I just had a blogasm! WHOOHOO!!!!!

    Amen and amen to your thoughts on Twitter, and if I may be so bold as to just turn the conversation a little, here’s a word of caution to twitter users that comes from a much higher authority:

    Proverbs 29:11 – A fool utters all his mind, but a wise man keeps it until afterward.

  • http://crowesmostlymovies.blogspot.com Simon Crowe

    Good rule of thumb – try to have more followers than people you’re following. Right now I’m 58/72 to the good. (Oops, don’t unfollow me for discussing numbers!)

  • http://laurelpapworth.com Laurel Papworth

    Completely disagree with everything :)
    Seriously, I do.
    1. There ARE inappropriate ways of connecting on Twitter. Spam/tweetbots anyone?
    2. Leaderboards help the community determine who is of value in what space. Top Mommy Twitterer will attract an audience, Top Social Media Twitterer another one. Think of it as personal recommendations but rather than personal, by the numbers. Collaborative value sharing.
    3. If you don’t value what I have to say, how can I NOT take that personally? If your readership of your blog dropped off, is it a case of “oh well, I like what I write” or do you wonder what is going on? Try to connect personally with the people on Twitter. Engagement means caring. My favourite quote about the meaning of community is that if you don’t show up one day, people miss you.
    4. Ambient always-on information and discussion is so very ‘now’. Some people are “always on” their phone. This generation doesn’t like to be disconnected. Get used to it, multitasking is part of a generational change. We can both do things and tweet about them at the same time.
    5. How about explaining to companies how Dell made a million bucks on Twitter & Dells clientele are deeply non-technical :P How about listing their competitors in their market sector on Twitter? How about listing journalists they may want to reach through PR that are on Twitter? Building construction workers have used Twitter for a Q&A, if they can, I’m sure most industries can.

    You sure you like/understand Twitter? Heh.

  • Colby Gergen

    Simon, I was wondering if you could provide some logic for your rule of thumb.

    I feel that, unlike in sports and bottom lines, numbers don’t matter in Twitter followers and followings. I follow those who I feel I need to follow for personal reasons (friends, family, etc.), entertainment reasons, or other reasons like I feel a certain Twitterer tweets items that expand my knowledge base (i.e. I follow Guy Kawasaki because he tweets links to interesting and educating articles. I follow Shaq because he is an amusing guy). I don’t allow myself to get hung up on numbers because that is simply limiting opportunities, something that I’ve always been taught to avoid.

    By being preoccupied by the numbers, one effectively decreases their contact base, personal and business, which impacts opportunities for discussions, collaborations, learning, etc. I’m not saying you need to follow everyone, I surely don’t and would be overwhelmed with tweets, links, and mediocre promotions if I did, but don’t worry about the numbers and just keep yourself surrounded by good, neh, great tweeters.

  • http://www.weirdotoys.com Justin

    Ha! Good closer, Spike.

    I’ve always been annoyed by Twitter, but I’ve still done my best to use it here or there just to give it a chance. I think I just don’t undestand why anyone would “give a sh*t” about what other people are doing daily.

  • http://brainsonfire.com Spike

    David – thanks for the comments.

    Colby – great addition and great point!

    Keith – thanks for the quote. Great stuff!

    Simon – Always good to hear others ideas on the follower/following thing

    Laurel – Thanks for the thoughts. Your #1 has nothing to do with my #1.
    #2: I don’t believe in the “influencer” model. I believe in the “passion” model. There are TONS of Twitter users just starting out and have a handful of followers that are smarter, better writers and much more passionate than those that have multiple thousands of followers.
    #3 If you’re taking it personally, you may need to take a look at your priorities. You disagree with me here, but I don’t take it personally. Sharing our ideas and opinions is what it’s all about, right?
    #4 I agree that multi-tasking is part of the user landscape these days, my point is that I think there can be such a thing as OVERuse of SM and a neglecting of the real world.
    #5 There are a lot of companies that have done a great job using Twitter. But don’t you think there are instances where it just doesn’t make sense for a company to use Twitter? Like the local mortuary? Or maybe the port-o-potty delivery guys?

  • http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com olivier blanchard

    Spike, you will be surprised to hear that I agree with many of your points. But rather than write a monster comment here, let me think on this and dedicate a blog post to this topic. I need to go gather my thoughts. ;)

  • http://www.worthwhile.com Chris Rackley

    Laurel – I’ll debate #2 with you: 2. Leaderboards help the community determine who is of value in what space. There is no value in the vast majority of these twitter users if you do not already have an active relationship with them. They produce massive amounts of worthless tweets to try and move up a “ladder” on twitter. What’s funny is that the people who are typically at or near the top talk about how it’s “no big deal,” but then they frequently tweet about it. Pleeeeeeease.

    They tend to hijack your feed, taking up 1/3 or more of your 30 most recent posts. Sure, you could use tweetdeck and put them off into a different area. But wait – where’s the value now? Nowhere.

    So to me, leaderboards are good for one thing: Halo 3.

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  • http://www.mssinglemama.com Ms. Single Mama

    I personally think the porta-potty guys should totally have a Twitter account.

    No, seriously… Twitter is not for everyone.

    Depends on what you want to use it for. Personally, I have found Twitter to be much, much more useful by following more people and having more followers.

    I just love knowing that – now – if I pose a question I’ll hear back instantly, whereas with less followers that wasn’t the case because people may not have been on Twitter at the same time.

    I use Twitter to connect with my blog readers, network with others in the creative field and lastly to get that instant feedback to pressing questions such as, “Holy crap my son just passed out in his car before his Christmas recital, what should I do?”

    As a single mom with little family or support I find it’s better to bug total strangers with random but important questions than my friends.

    One point to yours on people Tweeting often and not having a life… it could be a generational thing but taking a second to post a Tweet from my iPhone doesn’t mean I’m slacking off at work or neglecting my son. So I’ll have to differ with you there.

    @mssinglemama

    P.S. The moms on Twitter told me to head home and let him sleep. They were right, he woke up with a fever the next morning. All hail Twitter.

  • Sarah Pledger

    I’ve just recently joined Twitter and have been trying to figure out what it’s all about. So this post, along with all of the back and forth discussion has cleared it up quite a bit. Appreciate all the posts.

    Oh, and #1 said it all: “…Ask 25 people what they use Twitter for and you’ll get 25 different answers.”

  • http://brainsonfire.com Geno

    Spike Jones secretly checks every free moment how many new followers he has… ;-)

  • http://brainsonfire.com Spike

    Dammit, Geno. Don’t tell.

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  • http://bizthoughts.mikelee.org Mike Lee

    Funny, I was just sitting here, looking through my Twitter feed, and wondering, “How the heck do these people have time to tweet so damn much?” I’ve been trying to use Twitter more often, but when I’m out with family & friends, or in a meeting with clients or colleagues, the last thing on my mind is: “I must publish what I’m doing to 100 people following me on their phones in 140 characters or less.”

    But maybe that’s me. Some friends say the same things about my blog. (“How the heck does he find time to blog so much? Doesn’t he have a life?”) I guess it’s all a matter of personal priorities and preferences, huh?

    Great list!

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  • http://www.worthwhile.com Chris Rackley

    Spike, the coolest thing about your post is that everyone started writing blog posts just to counter you. Look at those trackbacks!

    On that note, I just signed up to be in the next official Spike Jones mentoring class at http://www.imaspikejonespadawan.com

  • http://gvatikan.ru/197/ BeжливыйCнaйпep

    Прикольно. Хотелось бы еще почитать чего-нибудь интересного на эту же тему.