Mediaphyter – A Communications Cocktail

I think that Twitter’s recent surge of mainstream attention has attracted a crop of users — and potentially confused some veteran users — as to the true focus of the service. While Twitter can be used in different ways, when you boil it down the primary benefit of Twitter is networking, information sharing and expression of ideas. Before I go on, let me make a list of what Twitter is not:

1. A venue for a popularity contest
2. An obligatory mutual instant message system
3. A place where anyone has anything to prove

“What are you talking about, crazy woman?”

Bear with me. I’d been thinking about this for a while but the apparent Twitter confusion was made clear to me last week when someone I don’t know decided to unfollow me, make a big deal out of it and apologize for the action. It didn’t bother me at all and I proceeded to explain to her via blog that she did the absolutely right thing — and also gave her some Twitter 101 advice. I lose and gain followers whenever the wind changes directions. Even some of my meatspace friends have unfollowed me because, while we are great pals in the 3D world, our Twitter purposes are not complementary.

I think there are social media novices out there who feel that when they sign onto Twitter they must follow certain other folks that everyone else is following. I won’t pretend to be in that group but think of how many followers Robert Scoble, Guy Kawasaki and Jason Calacanis have just because they have names. Are their Twitter feeds valuable to everyone that follows them? I find that impossible to believe.

I personally follow Scoble because we often disagree and his Twitter comments help to fuel my ideas. I follow Kawasaki because I truly feel he has interesting insights and experiences. I don’t follow Calacanis because it seems that almost every tweet is an overemotional reaction to even the smallest of issues.

None of this reflects how I feel about Scoble or Calacanis as people or is it a reflection of what I perceive their overall value to be in their industries. It’s Twitter, it’s not personal.

If someone is on Twitter to collect followers and is going to care about getting unfollowed then he or she is there for the wrong reason and likely wouldn’t offer as much value to begin with. I’ve seen some popular Twitter personalities use their feeds as a platform for pushing agendas and random non sequitur reminiscent of “Rain Man.” I asked a friend once why she follows some of these folks, and she said, “Because you kind of have to, right? They are like the leaders of the Twitterverse.”

I almost shrieked. Can I take a mallet to the word Twitterati now, please?

My point is, that the only way anyone is going to get value out of using Twitter if if they tailor their feeds to meet their own needs and not worry about the A-listers or B-listers (or D-listers in my case) and only follow those with whom they truly want to engage or whose information they truly benefit from hearing.

I don’t worry about what I tweet. I write what I want at the frequency I desire. I also make sure I respond to those folks who “@” me 90 percent of the time, which can create some noise (if you haven’t yet figured it out, you can opt to not eavesdrop on Twitter, which saves a lot of noise). Some people love my randomness and others don’t like it. When someone complains to me my response is always “There’s an unfollow button under my name on my profile page.” It’s not that I want to alienate other users or that I am being snobby, but I am not going to turn my feed into something inauthentic just because a few people may no longer find what I have to say valuable.

I actually want people to unfollow me if they feel I am wasting their space. I want to know that these folks have the smarts and understanding of how social media operates to make Twitter work best for them. I know that some people feel they need to follow me because i write for ZDNet (which is silly) or because I founded and still help herd the Security Twits (also silly). But if I am not writing about anything that interests you please, unfollow me. I will not take it personally and I will not unfollow you just because you unfollow me (I may, at some point, unfollow anyone if they make me roll my eyes more than once). I also do not award prizes for those who do follow me. No one does that. And don’t let anyone else “bully” you into making you think you have to follow them, either. Make the Twitter experience your own.

As an aside, I follow about 400 people which is the max that I can handle while still deriving value from my feed — and I still miss stuff. I currently have about 1,200 followers who at least found me interesting for a moment. I apologize for not following everyone back but I am heeding my own advice. But if you engage with me in conversation I generally do follow back regardless of the number of followees I have (or I’ll knock another feed out just for you). If you just follow and don’t say anything to me I don’t know you’re out there.

So, let me know you’re out there. Or, unfollow me. You can always reach me via either blog or via email or via carrier pigeon (well, if you have carrier pigeons). I won’t hate you. I might just respect you more for taking control of your social networking world.