Great video, it’s a good lead-in to what I feel is quite an interesting and important conversation. I suppose I agree with you in general but I disagree on some of the finer points.

First, you noted that you have several followers who you would never have any need or desire to follow, and that in general there are a number of reasons why Twitterers aren’t best served by following EVERY SINGLE person who follows them. Just by virtue of simple math the “gurus” you mention have a much higher number of these undesirable followers, because they simply have so many people following them. This explains some of the disparity (although obviously not the 1500:40 types of ratios you used as an example).

I could talk more about this (I’m very opposed to the notion of some sort of “Twitter Etiquette” obligating people to follow each and every follower), but I think there’s a more important issue here.

You said it yourself: “…at first, you’re going to be confused.” The “why” of Twitter is almost impossible to grasp unless you’ve taken some time to really sink your teeth into it. I can name a number of friends and colleagues from all walks of life and levels of involvement in the tech world who have initially doubted or even completely written Twitter off, and then come around (in some cases after a period of months). For whatever reason, Twitter is just really difficult to buy into initially, although those of us who’ve drunk Evan and Biz’s Kool Aid can attest that it’s really quite invaluable (as social media services go).

I think we get into really dangerous territory when we try to define ANY set of rules for how someone “should” use Twitter, whether that means “follow as few as possible” or “follow absolutely EVERYBODY.” The only half-rule I’ll support is people should do what they feel most comfortable with, because it’s clear that Twitter takes some easing in to truly appreciate. In addition, trying to follow an arbitrary set of rules for use on top of dealing with the initial frustration and confusion that new users experience is likely only to increase the number of people who don’t give Twitter a fair shake. Allowing (or better yet, encouraging) people to approach Twitter in their own way benefits us all. Perhaps moreso than any other social media service, when more people are on Twitter, we all win.

I’m twenty-one and most of my best friends are graduating from college next month. I’ve been trying to get as many of them on Twitter as possible because I believe it can be a really valuable tool for all of them, almost regardless of the path their life is on or the industry they’re about to find themselves thrust into. And to my earlier point, Twitter is more fun for me when my friends are on Twitter. I can’t imagine trying to convince them that there are a set of unwritten rules for following when it’s damn near impossible for me to explain why they need to be using the service in the first place, beyond “You really just need to try it out for a while and you’ll get it, I swear.”

Now, it happens I have a few microstories that help me explain myself a little better, like the short @ conversation I had a few weeks ago with Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay. Now, it was a completely inconsequential discussion about the nature of Rickrolling. (And yes, for a twenty-one year old trying to establish himself in the world of tech and marketing, a 5 minute microconversation with a wildly successful tech billionaire is still exciting and humbling, even when it’s about a stupid meme.) But the fact that it’s such a silly topic actually gets to the heart of the discussion. When enough people are on Twitter, there’ll be more than enough conversations to go around, regardless of any self-imposed sets of rules Twitters create to manage their own experience.

Ryan MF
http://ryanmf.com
http://twitter.com/RyanMF

But let’s cut the crap…
If you’re following hundreds of people - you’d better damn well be reading all of those messages if you’re going to accuse those who only follow a few dozen people of not communicating effectively..

Don’t mistake what Robert Scoble is doing with “being friendly”… or “being a good community member”.

He has a very clear reason as to why he’s following 20,000 people…

If you read Robert Scoble’s tweets from April 9th, he says that the reason he follows 20,000 people (and no longer accepts any more reciprocal follows) is because he wanted to gather a group of early adopters.

Robert Scoble spends hours a day going through his feeds to communicate with these people. Most of the people who say “follow all is the way to go” DON’T do this.

This isn’t communicating…

There’s a small group of people who I want to “look over the shoulder” of on a daily basis… They’re my friends, co-workers, my girlfriend, and people in my industry that I want to keep track of. People who I’m specifically interested in - because of WHO they are…

They’re the people I follow…

Then there’s a bunch of people who I’m interested in because of WHAT they say… People in my market-space… Close people who share the same interests as me.

In the nicest possible way, I DON’T CARE when most people buy the latest gadget, or they’re enjoying a nice meal, or whatever… It makes no difference to me, and it jams up my Twitter feed with irrelevant crap - when I could be reading about my girlfriend’s day, or my colleague’s latest marketing experiment, or my friends’ latest news…

I DO I care about this..

I READ EVERY ONE of these messages.

THIS is communication.

When I want to find people who are interested in the same things as me, or do market research, there are several Twitter search engines that let me connect with those people… Like Tweetscan…

Then, with the @ symbol, I message those people directly… Who then reply with an @ symbol…

VMWareFusion is a brilliant example of this.. He uses services like this to find out WHO is saying WHAT about his software products, and responds to questions directly via twitter within minutes.

If you want to follow everyone - go for it.

It’s “nice”…

But unless you’re genuinely reading everyone’s messages, you’re fooling yourself that you’re communicating better than Twitter’ers with smaller “following” lists.

Let’s cut the crap…

Just because you’re interested in what I have to say, that doesn’t obligate me to be interested in what you had for breakfast.

Read my feed because you’re interested.. not because you want me to look at you….
Interest me if you want me to look at you.

@BrentHodgson

On the other hand, I get your point about interactivity and what real conversations are all about. Interesting points to consider on both sides. As a new Twitter enthusiast, I’m really enjoying the “dialogue” on the issue.

@Stevie_Knight

Robert Scoble follows 20,000 people, and you can see evidence that he pays uncanny attention to his stream. He employs a “pull” approach to twitter. He wants to learn as much as possible from as many as possible.

Ed Dale, on the other hand, follows 30 people. Clearly, he employs a “push” approach to Twitter. I presume it’s because he is, at present, looking at Twitter purely from an Internet Marketer’s perspective. How can I employ this technology to further my own business interests and use it as a one-way communication and teaching vehicle?

As I said in my earlier comment, I believe there’s room on Twitter for the full spectrum of uses.

Personally I lean fully towards the Scoble Approach, even though I’m also looking at Twitter to further my own business interests.

With the Scoble Approach, you’re able to intelligently converse with your audience. Apart from the awesome knowledge and insights that you gain from the people around you, that also creates a much more trusted atmosphere if and when you decide to push out something that’s in your own business interest.

Best regards,

Dewald
http://twitter.com/dewaldp

So far I’ve been challenged in engaging in conversations. It appears one realy has to be “tuned in” to twitter to carry a conversation or miss out on this aspect, because it makes no sense to respond to a tweet that was posted a day or two earlier… Or am I totally wrong about this?

Also, I started following a few people who seemed interesting and who were already followed by many of my friends… But some of them are turning out to be very disappointing - including links to their promos in every twitter post. So watching this really ads to my confusion what’s considered good twittering and what isn’t.

Anyway, just getting to know you, Tony, on Twitter, and I’m thankful for your tips here.

My learning curve has exponentially accelerated since I joined Twitter.

When I follow someone, I don’t even look at their current number of followers. I’m not interested in following only popular folks and gurus.

Everyone has a voice and has something good to contribute to a conversation. With that in mind is how I approach Twitter.

Now, is Ed Dale’s approach inherently wrong? I don’t think so. It all depends what one wants to get from the Twitter experience.

There’s room for everybody on Twitter. Except spammers, of course.

Best regards,

Dewald
http://twitter.com/dewaldp

I agree - it should be 2-way. I follow 101 and have 121 followers. Social being the key word here. I have had to unfollow a few as well, but overall, I like this form of communication.

Mike