(Visual Notes of Jeremy Epstein’s talk at the 140 Characters Conference)
A few months ago, I started a new Twitter account for my business. The business is very focused on visual communication, so the people I followed were from that field. I really enjoyed that twitter stream, so much more focused than the 1100+ people I followed in my personal account.
Life went on as usual, until I saw Jeremy Epstein talk about his approach to Twitter at the 140 Characters conference. I have a ton of respect for Jeremy. He’s smart, he’s business savvy, and he delivers great value for his clients.
The gist of what he said was that it’s not so important how many people follow you. You really don’t have any direct control over that. It’s more important who YOU follow, and how many people. It makes sense to follow people that you want to learn from. And it makes sense not to follow too many people, or you won’t be able to really absorb what they have to say. He said that he tries to keep the number to 140 people or less. There’s more to his approach than this, but you can read his thoughts to get a fuller view. He caught some flack for this approach, but it made sense to me.
His talk, combined with my earlier revelation I had with my business twitter account spurred me to revisit who I follow and to see where it made sense to trim that list.
A few days ago I followed over 1100 people. As I write this, I am following 444 people. And I’m still trimming. I’ve noticed my twitter stream has become more relevant to my interests.
Now, get this straight, if I unfollowed you, it does not mean that I like don’t like you or don’t think you are awesome. It’s just that I don’t need to get updates from you several times a day. Feel free to unfollow me if I’m not contributing to your twitter stream in a way that makes sense for you. I won’t mind. And if you want to get in touch, you can always email me, or give me a call. Love to hear from you.
I know this can be a little emotional. A few months ago, my friend Bre Pettis decided to slim down and he stopped following me and I bitched and moaned until he refollowed me. Sorry Bre! Now I get where you were coming from. So take a deep breath. I still like you. I follow people who don’t follow me back, and vice versa. Not a big deal. But it took me awhile to get to this point.
Do whatever works for you. I follow people like Laura Fitton who follow tens of thousands of people. Laura is great. Good people. And I follow people like Scott McCloud who follow 71 people (4000+ follow him).
That’s it. What’s your approach to following people on Twitter?
twitter/jonnygoldstein
7 responses so far ↓
iconjohn // Jun 25, 2009 at 1:11 pm
I agree with keeping your follower count to a minimum but less than 140 seems a bit cheap. I was easily handling up to about 300 but now I find myself checking Twitter way to often. Lately I’ve been trimming, starting with many of the news groups that retweeted so much any way. It’s a work in progress, but I’m quite happy with the near 600 that I follow (sailing, vlogging, Philly, tech).
Jonny // Jun 25, 2009 at 1:17 pm
That’s cool. Gotta find what works for you.
Jeremy // Jun 25, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Great write-up. Thanks. I will re-blog, of course.
As for iconjohn-I probably could follow more than 140, that’s for sure, but I kind of like the 140 characters/ 140 characters (i.e. people) notion, so maybe it’s arbitrary, but it has a ring to it
Julie Minevich // Jun 29, 2009 at 10:15 am
I’ve found that using Tweetdeck (especially since it now syncs among different computers and mobile instances), I’m able to focus my attention on a smaller circle of Twitter users while still being able to reciprocate following those that follow me. And as my interests change, I can modify my settings to always be attentive to those Tweeting that can provide the best value for me. I know this isn’t a novel solution, but I do think that this allows me to find a nice balance between quality and quantity.
RedWrites // Jun 29, 2009 at 10:29 am
I un-follow over Tweeters. I want to hear from all my Tweeps without scrolling past so many Tweets by the same person.
jonny goldstein // Jun 29, 2009 at 11:06 am
Hey Julie,
Yeah, then you can have your cake and eat it too. And cake tastes good.
RedWrites,
Yeah, unless I’m REALLY attached to a particular person, ultra frequent tweeting makes me want to unfollow as well. Of course I occasionally get overexcited and send out a burst of tweets myself. But I’m not a chronic overtweeter.
jonny goldstein // Jun 29, 2009 at 11:15 am
Julie,
Just thought of another thing regarding reciprocation. I don’t feel the need to reciprocate as far as following someone who follows me. If they follow me, then let it be because I have something of interest to them, not because I’ll pad their numbers by reciprocating them.
There’s a whole game element to this, and games are meant to be played. But you can play however you like. Fun to hear other folks’ approaches.
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