A person on Twitter posed the question, "Is it better to follow or be followed?" Here's my response:I signed up for my Twitter account with eyes opened and feet firmly on the ground. I had and still don't have any extra-ordinary expectations for the time I invest online interacting with people I follow or choose to follow me. It can be flattering when I'm followed by people I wouldn't have otherwise known. I'm curious: "How DID they find me? What was so interesting that they opted to follow?" "Is this person trying to boost their Twitter numbers, and have no real interest in interacting with me?" I don't (immediately) follow every person that follows me.
I'm not on Twitter for a numbers game. I must feel a quality connection over mere numbers. I read a Twitter article that talked about personality types, one of which was a Twitter snob. Sorry folks, I'm no snob, but I don't care to read about every mundane detail of someone's life. I always try to offer information tips, tools, and links to my followers when online. Is Twitter an out of control schoolyard sandbox without a set of written and/or understood rules? Perhaps it is.
I'm not interested in everyone who follows me. I'm not interested in people who forget they've a Twitter account, spammers, or those on a constant mission to push products. I enjoy the time I spend on Twitter, but don't take it or myself too seriously when online. Is Twitter here to stay, or the latest online craze? Twitter can be addictive if you're not careful. Twitter is a tool. Use it at your discretion, but it's probably best not to mandate rules. I live in a democracy until further notice. It's better to be true to yourself and allow the gurus, superstars, and pundits do what they will to keep themselves happy.
Guilt should have no place on something that is meant to be fun, interactive, and entertaining. Enjoy life!
This cartoon sums it for me: Twitter in Real Life: The Follow-Back
5 comments:
Cool post. I agree, for the most part. When I first joined Twitter, I had no idea what I would do with it. In fact, I didn't use it for a good while because I joined then thought, "Oh Lord, I just joined another social networking thing." LOL NOW, I like using it to connect with like minded creative people and those I might connect with on future endeavors.
Great post. I joined Twitter to network. I'm not against making friends, and posting tidbits about what I'm spending my day doing, but ultimately, for me, it's about micro-blogging about composing. Most of my Twitter friends are related to the entertainment industry in one form or another, but I have no problem unfollowing someone who gets too personal.
I'm there for the interactivity of Twitter, I want there to be a back-and-forth at some point or I'm going to stop following you. I like your justification for your presence on Twitter, and I'm looking forward to future blog posts from you.
Good post man. I think anything you decide to become a part of should be pretty much on your own terms.
I joined twitter for the social networking and didnt know exactly what to expect. Now I use it as a type of journal and a way to alert new people to my existence on the planet. Being an artist, every chance for exposure is a possibility.
I actually just made a little 'love-letter' to Twitter on youtube.com/robertantonnyc a few days ago.
Great post & question. When I first joined Twitter it was because people like ProBlogger and Donna Maria Johnson said it would be a great way to market/promote my business. So, I signed up for 2 accounts. One for the biz and one for a creative outlet. Both to network socially and professionally.
I used it sporadically over the summer, but got back to it after attending an online writers' conference and the NaNoWriMo challenge. Now, I am tweeting more than I'm blogging and following people just because they're following me. I do plan to thin out who I'm following to those that are interesting and relevant to what I'm doing and build my business network.
First time browsing your blog...and I love this one...and it is so true..someone I know..well my ex and twitter is her life...atually she was the one who introduced me to it, and she was there 24/7 (thought at the job cause she wasn't working) but she's still on there...but my thing is twitter was another reason why she let me /us go..she lives in tx and i live in ny so imagine how hard the distant relationship was. I would text her or called she would just ignored me but she would be on twitter and communicating with her friends, ok me of course felt some type of way brought up the issue, ok other things in our relationship wasn't going well too-she deleted me off twitter, so she went that low and deleted me off as a follower..don't have a problem with that but that's how serious it is to some ppl. I am on there now and whenever I'm bored i get on it..my reason for actually really using twitter is since I want to be a writer and making friends and someone who knows more and been out there might help me in any type of ways but spending my whole day and night on there and every min gtelling peeps what i'm doing-NO NO!!-I have a life!
very nice post!
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