Posts tagged twitter followers
OK. 30,000 followers. Now what?
Oct 31st
Back in college I had this hilarious geology professor who told me that “tsunami” was Japanese for “Where in the hell did all that water come from?”
That’s kind of how I feel about life on the web at the moment. I just hit 30,000 followers. That’s crazy.
Two years ago, I started a tradition of documenting my social media journey and at each major milestone, I write a post describing what it is like and how things are going. I just hit 30,000 followers so it is time to reflect on the situation.
When I started writing this post, it started out describing the mechanics of connecting with so many followers but it morphed into a psychological self-examination. I decided to cut out the parts about Twitter tips and expose the raw edge because there has been a significant personal development since my last “journey” blog post.
In a very small way, in a very small niche, I am achieving an element of celebrity. I have a gag reflex even saying that, but I can’t be honest without describing it that way. And I’m not handling this situaiton so well.
The tribe grows
First, the numbers. Friends and followers has grown as I mentioned, but is also escalating. It took me 18 months to get 10,000 followers, a year for 20,000 and six months for 30,000. This is being fueled by teaching, speaking, The Tao Twitter, and the blog.
My virtual assistant and I continue to prune the spammers. If I didn’t do that I would probably have 100,000 followers by now. I love the fact that, to the best of my knowledge, all my Twitter followers are real people. So the number is big, but the tribe is real, and amazing!
Whether it is because of the “social proof” of the numbers or (hopefully) the way I am connecting with people through my speaking and writing, people are starting to describe me as an “A-Lister.” This makes me cringe. I walked into a room last week and somebody said “here’s the superstar.” Some people tell me they are “fans.” Others have said they are afraid to talk to me.
This is a deeply uncomfortable situation. I am just a guy writing a blog, a husband, a father, a friend, a son, a brother, a teacher, a writer, a business adviser. That’s plenty for me. That’s a good place to be.
Celebrity as a mindset
This notion of “celebrity” exists in people’s minds and there is nothing I can do about that, but here is my wish: I want you to know that I am no more worthy than you … or anybody, for that matter. Every person is amazing in their own way.
I know when people use these terms they are meant with affection and I want to handle it with grace but boy I am out of my element with this fan stuff. And it’s about to get much worse.
This situation is going to be profoundly more challenging when my new book comes out in a few months (will be announcing this in a few days when the title is finalized). Here is my promise on the book — It is going to be unlike any other book you have ever read on business and marketing. You are going to love it. And I know that to do a good job for my publisher McGraw Hill, I’m going to have to be in the spotlight. In fact, I will need to seek it.
That “40,000 milestone report” I will be writing for you a few months from now is going to be interesting. How do I promote myself and this book without coming across as a jerk? I am seriously concerned about this. It goes against the grain. I love to write, teach, and help businesses grow, but I don’t seek to be a “celebrity.” Increasingly, that seems impossible to avoid.
The results of the experiment?
Now I know this seems improbable. You may be thinking … “Geez you idiot, how can you expect to write a book and not have to deal with the spotlight?”
I have been simply following what seems like a natural path. Consulting and teaching led to the blog. The blog led to The Tao of Twitter, which took off like a rocket. That book led to more speaking and exposure. New ideas formed and I started writing the next book. And then, I looked up and people were calling me an “A-Lister.” Ummm …. what???
People go into acting to become famous. People run for office to achieve power. I did not start the blog to become a celebrity. It was an experiment.
And here is what the experiment proved. With content and an engaged network, anybody can have influence now. Even me.
So it is what it is. I know that as long as I am engaging and writing, people will have this expectation of me and that’s the way it will be from now on. So I need to view this as a privilege and deal with it gracefully.
This turned into a stream of consciousness blog post, eh? Maybe too weird? Oh well. I decided to let it rip. Yes, this is one of those times I wondered about pushing the “publish” button. I exposed the edge and took a risk but I trust you guys.
Are celebrities made or born? Do you have to have a certain kind of personality to thrive in the spotlight?
I know I can stay centered in my personal life, but is it possible to find joy outside the comfort zone? How do I re-frame this situation so I can stop cringing every time somebody puts me in the spotlight?
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20,000 Followers. Now What?
Feb 24th
There is no playbook for Twitter. I’m learning as I go, just like you, and I’ve tried to share my ups and downs along the way.
I’ve written about the spirituality of the social web, the social media time crunch, and my anxiety about the velocity of change and my own social media overload.
One year ago, I wrote a post called 8,000 Followers. Now What? Since that time, I have gained 12,000 new followers … so a lot has changed! I don’t often write about myself but it seems to connect with people when I share my experiences, so here’s what it’s like to have 20,000 followers on Twitter.
Where did all these people come from?
As {grow} continues to … well, grow, I’ve been blessed with many new readers from every corner of the world. This has directly translated into Twitter followers — about 1,000 per month and accelerating. I haven’t had any specific plan to gain followers, it has come in an organic way. If you follow me, or I see that you tweet about {grow}, I will generally follow you back.
Not only do I have a lot of followers, I have a lot of ENGAGED followers because I have aggressively culled spammers from the beginning. So my tribe is legitimate and my tribe is awesome!
One question I’m often asked is, why do I follow so many people back … what good can possibly come from it? Actually, a lot! I discuss this at length in my book The Tao of Twitter, but the short answer is this: Think of Twitter followers as atoms bumping around in a test tube. The more atoms there are (as long as they are relevant to your business) the better the chance for a reaction — a business benefit! The catalyst for that reaction is engagement through meaningful content, and the relationship is sustained through authentic helpfulness.
Business benefits of Twitter
I’m a blogger but I also teach and run a business. Why do I spend so much time with Twitter? Because it flat-out delivers the goods! Here are a few real business benefits I realized DIRECTLY from Twitter connections in the past 12 months:
- Invited to teach at Rutgers University.
- Awarded an engagement to be the social media consultant for the UK consulate in New York.
- Enabled the dozens of connections that created Social Slam, one of the premier social media events of the year (you’re coming, right?).
- Acquired my three largest customers.
I could easily write 100 more business benefit bullets. I have been very fortunate, but I see this same kind of success happening repeatedly for many friends and students. Here’s the best part of all – I’ve developed deep, meaningful relationships that will last a lifetime. Not just Facebook-style “friends.” Friends you would have over to dinner!
It is poetic and sublime that my 20,000th follower has the last name of Gandhi. You can’t make this stuff up.
What about the wall of noise?
When I wrote my last Twitter update a year ago, I was creeped out by this growing number of people following me. How would I cut through the noise?
To be honest, it hasn’t been that bad. Yes, Twitter is mostly noise even if you do a good job culling the spam. But I realized I had neither the obligation nor the patience to engage with a crowd that large. However, I DO engage with anybody who makes an effort to engage with me. I manage this primarily through lists, which I view on Hootsuite or Seesmic. I’m at peace knowing that I can’t be on top of everything and respond to everybody as I would like. I know that sometimes messages are going to slip through the cracks. I just have to do my best and hope people are gracious.
Another trend I’ve noticed is that some connections last forever but others come and go in waves. People will connect for awhile and then I won’t hear from them for a few months. So it’s more like waves of people lapping at my beach, not a tsunami knocking me over!
The economy of favors
One advantage of a large number of highly-engaged followers is that I can tweet stuff out for people and topics I believe in and sometimes it makes a difference. It’s nice to be in a position to help wonderful people.
I receive requests for favors about every hour of the day. I’m glad to help, with one exception — When I have no idea who you are! That makes it kind of awkward. I think sometimes people feel they know me through the blog but if you have never showed up through comments or tweets, I probably don’t know you’re out there. I “tithe” at least 10 percent of my time each week to help people in the {grow} community through phone calls, emails and other forms of free consulting. I enjoy this … but let me know you exist first : ) If you make an effort to connect, I seldom refuse a request for help!
How many followers is enough?
The answer is different for every person. If you run a beauty salon in New York, having followers from Australia probably won’t help you. Nurturing targeted followers from your area is probably all you need to concentrate on. But if your potential market is the world, then why not nurture contacts from all over? So it all depends.
According to statistics in an interesting post in Tom Webster’s wonderful Brand Savant blog, I would be in the top one-half percent of Twitter users with this follower base of 20,000. That doesn’t mean squat. I know my place in the world, and here it is — Twitter doesn’t affect my marriage, my kids, or my friends. To the extent that it helps my business and my students, that is a plus.
What about Klout?
Since last year this little topic called social influence has started to make waves. It’s easy to get knocked off center when somebody is making a report card about you. I like to compete in business and in sports but I think paying too much attention to Klout will be destructive. My Klout score was 76 at one point and the other day somebody said it was a 71. I had to admit that just for a moment, I felt competitive about that! But that is going to drive the WRONG behaviors in me and others. So I am blocking that stuff out and focusing on what I love — creating insanely great content, connecting with amazing people no matter what their “score” is, and being helpful.
What’s next?
Obviously you can’t plan for something like 20,000 people showing up on your virtual doorstep. I think that I liked Twitter best when I had about 400 followers. But when somebody follows me, I consider it an honor and I’m not going to disrespect that, especially with all the proven benefits that have occurred. So, come on in. We’ll be in this together and I’ll figure out a way to handle it.
Well, that’s my 2011 Twitter progress report. What successes and frustrations are you experiencing with Twitter, and how can I help?
Illustration: National Geographic
Why do I need 10,000 followers?
Jun 23rd
Photo credit: I don’t know. Probably some porn site. This is an actual Twitter follower of the guy mentioned in the article. If this is a picture of you and you’re not in the porn industry, I apologize. I was just trying to make a point. Now go put on a tee shirt.
Mark – why so few followers when it seems you have great content? Is that part of your strategy? Just looked-thought it would be more …
At first I felt defensive. Well — I LIKE my 400 followers. I’ve only been doing this a few weeks. That seems pretty good. Right??
So I decided to check out the guy who sent me the message. He has over 12,000 followers and 700 connections on Linked-in. I felt Twitter Envy swelling in my chest. Is it possible to exhibit alpha male behavior on Twitter?
I looked over his list of followers and what I found astounded me. Many of them had names like “HelpYouMakeCash” or “Psychic123.” Tons of them had names like “pS5bo1g6″ with no photos. And a very high number featured icon photos with women baring their chest, or nearly so. Who would brag about a community filled with this stuff?
When I get followers bearing (baring?) those attributes I knock ‘em out. First, I’m not in the same game that they are. Second, I would not want any one in my Twitter community I would not proudly introduce to my kids.
What’s the point of all of this social media stuff anyway? I’m writing this blog and Twittering on a regular basis to contribute to the dialogue with a group of insanely cool people. I have learned SO MUCH from you guys out there. I like my new online peeps. I get excited when you respond to a blog post or RT one of my Tweets.
I genuinely want to CONNECT with my growing community but already have some concerns as the followers grow each week. At some point I think it will become too much and I haven’t thought of a next step. I want to be a good community member. Is that possible with a thousand followers? How do we build a sustainable, manageable community with a meaningful dialogue?
Welcome to {grow}
You’re in marketing for one reason: Grow.
Grow your company, reputation, customers, impact, profits. Grow yourself. This is a community that will help. It will stretch your mind, connect you to fascinating people, and provide some fun along the way. I am so glad you’re here.
-Mark SchaeferFollow Mark
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