Mashable has launched a valuable debate today – the issue of quality, not quantity, when it comes to Twitter followers.
Let me just say that without question, the quality of your followers on Twitter – and whom you are following – matters so much more than quantity.
The whole point of using Twitter as a business marketing and networking tool is to actually interact with, converse with, and build a reputation with a growing audience of people that are interested in you.
Just like in every other type of online activity, on Twitter if you are auto following those who follow you, automating your updates, and doing things that are not 100% you – then you are compromising the very essence and power of Twitter as a networking, marketing, and branding tool.
Robert Scoble, a social media guru, just unfollowed 100,000 followers on Twitter!
The reason – too much spam, no quality interaction, and following people he didn’t know. Here’s what he had to say about it on his blog:
On Monday I unfollowed 106,000 people on Twitter. The reaction so far has been quite interesting. More than 7,000 accounts have unfollowed me back. They did that so fast that I assume they are just bots that are looking to increase their follower numbers. I knew I’d lose them, but that’s sort of why I did it. People who are following me just to get another count on their follower numbers are just plain, well, lame.
But it’s worse than that. When I unfollowed everyone all my spam just stopped. Dead. No more spam. Not since Monday. Twitter is actually quite enjoyable. Not a single DM spam. Not a single piece of spam has come through the home page
I think there’s a great lesson here for anyone who is serious about using Twitter as a networking and marketing tool for their business – focus on quality connections, not quantity, and your return on effort will be substantially increased!