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Do You Want Close Relationships or a Mass of Twitter Followers?
May 24th, 2009
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by Warren Whitlock · Filed Under: Making Money with Twitter · Social Media
I was reading Twitter Marketing: Why You Don’t Need to Mass Follow Users
The discussion turned to whether one should have a lot of connections, or close relationships
Why not both?
I have both, and know it’s possible.
It’s very natural that someone known by hundreds of millions on TV would get a million followers on Twitter. I would expect that the relationship with each of them would be at least as close as the relationship they have through TV, magazines, etc… at least there is some chance of 2 ways communication.
Of course, if I had to choose, I’d got for close friends over numbers. But with Twitter, you don’t have to choose.. There is no right way for follow ratios, how often you tweet or how you use Twitter.
NO RULES
I hear tweeps say “I can’t imagine how you have a relationship with thousands” They are right. Before I had thousands of connections, I couldn’t imagine it either. This is all brand new.
I do not expect 50,000 people to read every tweet. I DO read ALL my @ messages, all the tweets with my handle and hundreds of threads a day. It’s become a natural part of what I do.
Does it take a of time?
Nope, it SAVES a lot of time. I have loose relationship through email, phone, teleconference and media with subscribers, clients, prospects, friends and business assoicates. There is no way I could reach out to them in any way other than Twitter.
Twitter alone does not make for a full relationship.. but it sure helps.
Technorati Tags: twitter followers, twitter marketing, follow spam
I suppose this will fluctuate from moment to moment or day to day and depending on what you have to say or who you specifically want to reach out to – nothing is written in stone and the latest tools allow for these flexibilities -
You are right Warren – Twitter really does help to build relationships. I love the NO RULES factor of Twitter – (although there are several ‘unwritten’ rules… But all in all we choose to use it in the way that suits us).
Hello Warren,
Glad to hear that you get so much benefit from Twitter – hope it will work for me like that too.
I am fairly new to Twitter and currently have only 533 followers as compared with 4461 friends on Facebook. I’m used to using Facebook to ‘chat’ to a lot of people but actually finding Twitter harder – the 140 character rule is HARD for me – I’m loquacious
i.e. I yabba on a lot 
Also I keep forgetting – for days on end – to check my DM’s – still like anything I guess there is a learning curve – I know that I keep learning new things about Twitter virtually every day.
All the best.
Robert.
Hi Warren,
Nice post. I’ve had to form 2 twitter accounts, one I use when I am “mobile”, because it’s just so hard to keep track of more than 100 or so folks when I am using my phone to check in.
Like you, I do read all my @replies, and direct messages, and it doesn’t take up tons of time, if anything it saves time because you can actually get a pulse on “the world” you live and do business in, in just minutes.
Have a great day mate!
Twenty Twenty
http://www.exhostage.com
I agree. It requires a balance. I enjoy the large following so that I can stay on top of things I am interested in – grandparenting, positive thought, squidoo. And I often find wonderful links! I also like staying in personal touch with a smaller group of friends and fellow lensmasters. It’s the best of both worlds!
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Hi Warren,
I enjoy the process of greeting each person who follows me that I wish to follow back. For me it is was quality vs quantity, but I am finding that you can have both – it just takes longer.
I have established some surprising friendships just by sending a few words of greeting. Connecting with people all over the world is very enjoyable. I also love connecting people together on Twitter that I think would find value in meeting each other.
It’s always a pleasure to read your posts – keep on blogging!