Note: I have also written a much more comprehensive post on Twitter followers that can help you even more.
Note: I updated this post in October 2008 to give you an idea of what has happened since I wrote this post.
I’ve been using the Twitter microblogging platform for several months now. It’s a cool quick way to send mini-blog posts into a public timeline of posts while allowing communication with other users.
By chance I happened upon this post about Twitter yesterday, which talked about one blogger’s (BuzzNetworker’s Colleen Coplick) experiment with following a whole lot of Twitter users: about 1000 of them!
So, yesterday I started to follow about 380 Twitter users (I was already following close to 150). So far about 80 of those people have started to follow me in return, which is cool, and I’ve exchanged messages with a few of them.
It’ll be interesting to see if my new Twitter followers will follow me here to my blog – always wanting more visitors to my blog.
EDIT: as of October 31, 2008, I have 1266 Twitter followers, while I am following 1081 Twitterers.
If you’re a new reader who’s checking out the blog for the first time, then hello! Thanks for stopping by! Feel free to leave a comment and introduce yourself! You might want to subscribe to this blog: I’m always working on more interesting stuff here!
You got me, Mark! I actually really count on Twitter to find new blog posts. Thanks for the add.
I would be anxious to see if Twitter followers use Twitter more than an RSS reader. Soon Twitter followers will be a measure of blog stats instead of subscribers.
@pratt – welcome and thanks for stopping by!
@kristen – I’m starting to use Twitter to follow other people instead of checking RSS feeds, which becomes rather tedious at times.
I’ve been at Twitter since April 2007.
Biggest variable for Twitter for me?: human brain. If a Twitterer is only blog posts, then a quick unfollow. But if only @ and chattiness, quick unfollow also. Good Twitter follow for me is good conversation, information and relationship. Thus, Twitter does not replace RSS but is a human, realational RSS. Truly social. Truly revolutionary.
Peace.
I tried Twitter, I really did. But I just found it too tedious. Maybe I’ll try it again.
@BarbaraKB – excellent points. I wonder if anyone is using Twitter for things like story telling as well?
@Mimzie – Twitter might not be for everyone. It seems to have its best effect when you’re following a bunch of other people (and some of them follow you back, too) and you can watch the continuing stream of chatter.
I use Twitter to find new blogs and to find new information about topics for my own blog posts, so here I am. About a year ago I was the anti-Twitter Queen…and I challenged readers to give me a reason to use it. They did, and the rest is history.
That’s a lot to follow. Can you digest that much information by the refresh?
Followed your recent tweet here, and glad I did. Thanks for following me in twitter.
Tanner Hobin – new subscriber.
Hi Mark,
I stop by most people’s blogs to get a better feel for who they are for the purposes of tweeting. I may or may not revisit them. I’m a homeschooling mom so all of the business blogs are really irrelevant to my life. I still ck them out & glean what I can though.
Just leaving you a comment to let you know I was hear & I read your blog.
@Karoli – good point about using Twitter for blog post fodder. Don’t you find that it’s supplementing (if not replacing) your RSS reader?
@Jay – there’s no way I could digest all Tweets coming my way even if I sat 24/7. I scan and do the best I can.
(tweet tweet, wave wave)
@Tanner – your name is familiar somehow. Thanks for stopping by, I checked out your blog as well.
@Shan Zan – thanks for commenting. This isn’t exactly a business blog, although there’s certainly some overlap. It’s more about an amateur-eyed view of communication and social media.
@Steph – hey, cool! I checked out your blog earlier. Very pink. Oh, and well written.
Hi Mark, I’m a recent Twit convert. I didn’t see the point of it for awhile, I finally got it this past weekend. I sort of have it running like music in the background and found some gems of info along the way.
@Marti – Reading through the Tweets is a bit like panning for gold, too.
I have yet to try Twitter. I never quite saw the purpose of it.
@Barbara – It’s incredibly confusing at times, but it’s an interesting way to dip into, and contribute to, an ongoing stream of information.
[...] example, Mark Dykeman is doing an interesting Twitter experiment that I believe will prove my point. Mark is increasing the amount of people he follows on Twitter [...]
I am now a follower…lead on! I shall take your advice…Cheers! My phone is on the fritz or I would Twitter more…
@Sammy_sunshine – hey, long time no see! Hope all’s well! Yes, by all means, follow along!
[...] couple of days ago I described someone else’s Twitter experiment. I decided to try the same kind of experiment: start following a bunch of people and see [...]
Hey Mark! It’s nice to meet you – I’ve been following you since yesterday, I think it’s a very interesting experiment. I’m not subbed to your blog, because, like people have said – RSS can get so tedious. And my Reader right now is in bad need of a spring cleaning – you’d just get lost in there! I always check people’s URL’s, though, when they follow me – to get to know more about them.
Mahalo! Hey I’m on vacation.
@Lisa Marie – nonetheless, thanks for stopping by!
@kara – hope you enjoy your vacation.
[...] Twitter follower experiment, which I made an update to a few days later, seems to be paying off. I know that at one point I [...]
[...] few weeks ago I was following about 1400 other people on Twitter. I’m now following about 850 people. I was a bit abrupt in unFollowing some people, but I [...]
[...] quite frequently as MarkDykeman. I developed a decently-sized following on Twitter through my Twitter experiment. Between reading Tweets and making them I probably spend 1 – 2 hours per day on the service. [...]