Now that Ashton Kutcher has challenged CNN to see who could reach 1 million followers first and won, people are wondering all about Twitter. CNN’s Quick Poll today shows that only 6% of people are using Twitter (as of April 17), which begs the question “Who cares?” So Kutcher got a million followers, so he’ll donate 10,000 mosquito bed nets to World Malaria Day, why does anyone want so many followers?
Social Media Experts™ will tell you that you need lots of followers to have “influence”. What do you think Kutcher will do with this new influence? Well first off, he’s going to ring-and-run (aka ding-dong dash) Ted Turner’s house. That’s great for school kids, but what will he really do? Tell a million people he’s having brisket for dinner? I certainly hope he uses his celebrity and influence to get folks to be active in the causes he believes in at the very least. Donating to World Malaria Day is a good start, but how will he get Joe Six Pack to do something?
So what is the value of influence, anyway? I recently developed 25 new followers in 24 hours after having a tongue-in-cheek conversation with colleagues about search engine optimization (SEO). I may be no Ashton Kutcher, but now I’m inundated with SEO Experts™ who are following anyone who tweets about SEO. Are these quality followers? Are they even reading what I write? Apparently not, because if they did they would realize that I’m not generally a fan of their tactics. Does that mean I should feel elated that I have nearly 350 followers? Not so much.
I’d argue that quantity does not equal quality, and that “influence” is overrated. I might even argue that influence is a metric created by SEO/SEM “experts” to lend credence to their tactics. After all, if more people follow you, more people click on what you link to, and that leads to sales. Right? Does anyone else think this sounds like the Southpark Underpants Gnomes?
Here’s the thing about having a bunch of followers: they may not be listening. How many people or organizations have you followed, but you really don’t read their tweets? I’ve had more than a few of those, where they seemed like a good source of ideas but they just didn’t engage me. What’s your influence if your followers aren’t listening?
At a certain point, we just become more white noise when too many voices enter the fray. By focusing on quality of content instead of quantity of followers, I think we’ll see more valuable online social interactions and increased genuine influence. After all, wouldn’t you be more likely to take the advice of someone you like and respect?
I’ll just sit tight and wait for Qwitter to tell me when all the “experts” have left me, and I’m really ok with that when it happens.