Good thoughts here Jun. As you said, social networking is used differently by every individual, you could argue that by following more people, you’ll show up on other people’s ‘followers’ which in turn increases you reach, when hypothetically can lead to more ‘valued’ followers in the long run - it may introduce you people you never would have found otherwise. For example, I had to start somewhere, so I started following people who looked interesting (like you Jun) - at one time, I was following close to 400 people, now I’ve cut it back to around 200 - my perception of value changed since first jumping on the Twitter bandwagon.

Initially, I thought ‘I’ll follow a lot of people, some will follow me back, and I’ll build relationships that way’ - now, I value all of the people I follow - and I let things flow naturally - I seek out people to follow when I run across their blog, or their website, or one of my friends recommends them. The process has changed for me over time - and I think a lot of others can relate to this ‘Twitter evolution’.

How did you all begin your Twitter lives? I’m interested to hear if it was similar to what I went through, or if you’ve let things evolve naturally since the beginning.

Great video my man, and it’s an honor to be featured in it!

Let me get right to it:

Like you, i don’t think there’s a social media right or wrong, it depends solely on the use each of us give to it. But then, it really makes you wonder, what’s the use that people like Perry give to Twitter?

I won’t call him names, i won’t play his game. But if we preach so much about how listening, REALLY listening (something that you can’t do when you follow over 60,000 people) is what matters, then you can’t say that what us “snobs” do is wrong. We engage, we know who we talk to, we even take these relationships outside of twitter.

Let’s put it this way. If you follow few people, and you make connections with them, learn from them, then you can appreciate the update flow like a gentile breeze. But if you follow like Perry does, then there’s no way you can appreciate that tornado of updates.

It’s we the picky ones that listen. They just talk. A lot probably.

Haha. You really tore into him - well done. I just watched his video, and it is really…unbelievable.

Ok, so when I first started using twitter I did not follow everybody, and then when I was around 50 or so followers I read something from Guy Kawasaki that said “follow everybody that follows you” (I think in entrepreneur magazine) - so I decided I would follow everybody.

But no no no no! A few months after deciding to follow everybody it became clear to me just how stupid that philosophy is. The premise of “follow everybody that follows you” is to create two way dialogue (or to retain followers) — but just like 20orSomething said, if somebody makes a connection with her she will follow them… and you don’t need to be following somebody to make a connection with them. @replies are not restricted and you can even @reply John Mayer.

So, realizing this I no longer follow everybody who follows me, and it is great! I realized just how much crap I was reading when I was following everybody…wasting so much time on people I don’t have ANY interest in.

Thanks for the video Jun

I agree w/ Perry somewhat. People folllow those that they’re interested in. People do not follow because they’re not interested in that person.

If you’re not following back MOST of the people who are following you then you are a Twitter Snob. Using TweetDeck I can easily scan through my followers, reply, DM, and RT everything that catches my eye. The “big-shots” of Twitter can do the same, but they’re not interested.

David Gideon

In essence, quality over quantity.

Still, a lot of people are able to manage conversations even if they follow a thousand. Even then, a thousand is already too much and 6k+ (like Perry) does seem kind of far fetched and absolutely a pain to keep track of.

And I totally agree with Carlos Miceli about picky ones being those who really want to listen and make a connection.

Follow only those who matters, those who add values to your passion and those whom you would like to build meaningful relationships with.

Very good question Jun. Nope, don’t know anyone who automatically friends everyone they get an invite from on facebook.

If I don’t know you, then I don’t know you and will not friend you on facebook.

If I don’t know you and I get notified that your following me, I’ll check you out.

1. Do you have a site that you link to? (Please don’t let it be your job! Unless it’s your company, that doesn’t tell me anything about you.)

2. Are you funny? I could always use a laugh.

3. Are you doing something amazing that I’d be interested in? (I mean really amazing, not just in your head…)

4. Do we have anything in common? (PR, Social Media, DC area, NYC, Yankee/Met fan, Music lover)

5. Have you ever spoken to me? (@jaywalk1 Here’s the thing…)

Every now and then, I’ll follow just because, but generally, if you don’t do well with any of those questions, I probably will not follow you. Don’t take it personally because there’s one thing you’re forgetting….I don’t really know you.

As for that guy, I have a few words: Good for you.

Everyone’s got their own process. There are several people who auto-follow, dump the undesirables into a forgotten Tweetdeck group and keep it moving.

I choose not to do that, and if you’re really wanting to connect with me, Twitter’s not the only way to do it. I have a blog linked to my twitter account, and if you’re on your A game, you’ll know exactly how to find my email address.

Though I autofollow, I am only at about 740 followers. My experience has been that I can follow the stream when I am online, and I go back as far as I feel like into what I missed.

Yes. Occasionally I am confronted with annoying tweets. If it gets bad, I unfollow or block. (Like the guy who sends the exact same tweet every 30 seconds.)

More often, I catch something I can connect about and some amazing interactions ensue. (Such as with you, Jun. I would not have known about you otherwise. And, thanks for using “Hoarders” )

As for things I can’t catch, so what? It would just be part of the endless twitter stream if I didn’t follow so I won’t fret if I miss it. It is all about the moment. I’d rather load the dice.

Though getting to meet in person may — or may not — be a nice bonus, the whole point of on-line communication is that it becomes unnecessary to do that.

I will often view my latest followers to see if I can connect why they followed or if they are spammers. I then either follow immediately before my autofollow kicks in or I block them.

I like the combination of spontaneously having new people enter my world while still exercising some control. It also is a real treat when someone tweets a response or initiates a conversation because they happened to view one of your tweets somewhere down the line and found it relevant. Why eliminate these endless possibilities?

I do agree that artificially generating a massive following is an embarrassingly public reflection of ego and a “Pick me, pick me!” holdover from high school. However, if it is for promotional purposes, there is something to be said for “reach”.

This is an awesome post Jun!

I’ve actually seen this Perry Belcher’s video and had very similar thoughts about it. Once people follow more than 500, they really don’t follow their public stream anymore. Some people want to keep up with EVERYONE who they are following (definition of following right?), and so they keep it under a manageable 200. After all, caring about 200 you know is way better than not caring about 60,000 you don’t know.

Basically, it’s about whether your twitter account is following someone or if YOU as a person are following someone.

I also checked out his other video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XuEXFzUpkA8

He talks about how he has 2 Twitter accounts, one to be “popular” and one to actually follow. He basically says that he got tons of followers by being awesome, but someone called him out too by saying:

“You are such a farce pumping out scam bullshit.
Hey Belcher nation here’s the REAL “Fundamentals” that this scum bag scammer is using.

1. Add thousands
2. Wait for follow backs
3.Hurry back and add more thousands
4.Wait for follow backs
5. Repeat process multiple times a day.” (took out some unnecessary bashing)

Haha, I’m obviously not as extreme as this guy. I do think it is ok to get followers by following more people. I don’t think it’s ok to credit that to how awesome you are, and then call everyone else who is not doing the same thing a Twitter snob.

Your perspective on this topic mirrors my own. I am also of the thinking that you should build a like-minded, relevant community for purposes of connecting substantively, not friend collecting to inflate your stats.

It think it all boils down to intention. Those who wish to build relationships and derive value from the experience through knowledge sharing and collaboration tend to keep their numbers low and curate their community. Those who opt to use Twitter as a megaphone to self-promote and peddle their “online money making services” or “free ebook,” only care about racking up numbers with little interest in the person behind the avatar. And more often than not, those who do auto follow back typically use services like Tweetdeck, where they can sort those whom they actually want to listen to, into groups, only creating the perception of “friendship” and padding their so-called popularity.

At the end of the day, the real value of Twitter is what you derive from it. So, if following 10K+ users is an enriching experience for you, have at it. But unless you’re a superhuman bot programmed with highly advanced artificial intelligence capabilities to read through millions of posts on a daily basis, you’re cheating yourself — and your community — and missing valuable opportunities — and authentic connections — in the process.

This is an amazing post. I come from the school that anyone in the Twitter community is an expert since we all share on specific talent. I follow only the people I value and interact. I have unfollowed the so-called Twitter gurus. The vast majority of them do not do the most important thing on Twitter: collaborate and connect. I take pride in the fact that the people who follow me (@julito77) appreciate what I bring to their network. And I feel the same. An excellent post and video, this HAD to be said.

Hahaha, I just noticed Twitter is a Twitter Snob
http://twitter.com/twitter

Ok, so my favorite part of this is when you question whether or not Perry is a douchebag. I am still LOLing about that.

I used to auto follow back. Then, I realized I couldn’t join in any conversation or get to know anyone in my Twitter stream because I had 1000 random followees (made that up!) coming at me. I ended up unfollowing half at one point and now I do not follow most people that follow me.

I’m with the others that say when someone engages me, I’ll follow back for the most part. I’m not trying to be a snob by having a lot of followers and then not following a lot; I’m just trying to ENJOY using Twitter by filtering the noise.

You think Perry can even find someone to have a lasting conversation with if he follows 70,000 people? Come on. This guy is a joke and he probably made this video to get even more notoriety than he already has.

You can’t define anyone on Twitter - people use it their own way and NO ONE can define what is right or wrong. I mean, ok, maybe Evan Williams, Biz Stone, and Jack Dorsey can. Maybe. It’s a simple service that was created to be manipulated and shape-shifted to suit a lot of different needs. Hence, the popularity.

But, dude, Perry, go ahead - you want to think myself and others who don’t auto follow are Twitter snobs. Whatev. I think you’re a Twitter douche, so I think it evens out.

Hey Jun!

First, thanks for including my tweet! I definitely commend you for taking on this topic and being frank and honest with it!

Like many have said, there is no “right” or “wrong” way to engage in social media, especially Twitter. There may be more effective ways to use it to get what you want out of it, but in my opinion, everyone’s approach should be different.

Some people let Twitter (and social media for that matter) rule their life. Don’t get me wrong, I love social media, heck I’m employed as a “Social Media Strategist,” but I’m a strong advocate for balance.

I only follow people who’s content interest me, but that’s not to say that if I don’t follow you, you’re not interesting. I’m on twitter because I want to engage in two way conversations and add value. If I’m following everyone who follows me, that mean more time infront of the computer screen developing relationships, reading tweets and engaging. Consequently, that means less time enjoying life away from the computer and engaging in real life, in person relationships.

Twitter and social media are GREAT tools and personally, I’m getting tired of hearing people write about “how to get more followers on twitter” or “how to be the worlds best blogger and get 600009837228 comments” (ha). Shouldn’t we be using these tools to talk about and expand on life and what interests us?

Rebecca over at modie wrote a great post on this
called “Stop writing about social media to be a successful blogger” which more or less sums up what I’m trying to say
http://modite.com/blog/2009/03/30/stop-writing-about-social-media-to-be-a-successful-blogger/

Anyways, thank you for opening up this dialogue. Great work, keep it up!

Meghan

I think people hoard followers just so they can shell out their links to more people; that’s really what it comes down to.

Though I did like what MarcandAngel said - they do it as a courtesy and then make groups on a twitter program - that makes sense.

Currently, I don’t follow everyone who follows me becasue if I did, how would I expose myself as much as possible to the things the people say that I’m following?

If I followed 10,000 people then I’d see myraids of peoples tweets instead of a small few.

Honestly, I think a good argument can be made that the more you care about the people you follow, the less amount of people you will follow.

I enjoyed your presentation here. I too found his premise a little shaky.

awesome post. it’s really cool to see both sides of the fence. some are picky and some are not. either way i think we can all agree that twitter is about connecting and there is exponential value in that. that’s really why i created http://twittermass.com…the whole point of building it was to help people to connect with one another. this post, however, has given me some more insight in what people value the most, so i very much appreciate that.

my twitter application also supports both auto following and manual following. so whichever side of the fence you’re on…give it a shot and let me know what you think. jonathannelson@me.com

@jonathan

I try to follow folks in my industry and share my interests. I clean out my following folder every month. I unfollow folks who don’t add to the conversation. Great post and insight! I am not a snob or a hoarder, just a user.

Jun,

Thanks for the compliment on the spelling of my name. I try to be unique!
I completely agree with your continued insights around this issue. The fact of the matter is that auto-following is a disingenuous practice designed to manufacture popularity and use an artificial community as guinea pigs for self-promotion. You cannot possibly interact meaningfully with thousands upon thousands of users, and those who purport otherwise are either lying or using a filtering service.

Either way, it’s in direct opposition to the true spirit of networking and knowledge sharing, and ultimately deteriorates the value of an open community.

Some friends and I recently touched on this in our “Follow Friday Manifesto,” with audio commentary by me, and several others, about relevancy, and how the number of people who follow you is meaningless: http://budurl.com/ffmani

Thanks for sparking such a great — and entertaining — discussion. I love the comments your video has gotten. . . you have some very creative readers, and there’s a few new Twitter terms I’m going to be adding to my vocabulary! (Hat tip @JamieVaron, in particular, for her colorful description!)

I’ve noticed as twitter gains momentum, more desperate folks from the marketing field (#deathofprint) seem to arrive and attempt to rebrand themselves as “social media experts” as they try to remain relevant. After collecting thousands of followers, undoubtedly they will use that figure in a cheesy (powerpoint) presentation to companies who don’t know any better as an example of their own personal reach. Unfortunately, followers are about quality too. If a person has you separated out into an everyone stream that they don’t pay attention to, then good luck getting them to click on crap.

I’m convinced that the following behavior of people like Perry Belcher (I call them collectors…sorta like crazy cat ladies) is based upon a lack of experience simply using social media. Sure, some people self-promote prolifically on twitter…in fact there are entire accounts set up to do just that (and incidentally they typically don’t followback ANYONE…hehe), but the ones who do it successfully are actually contributing interesting content in the form of a blog post, video, shared link, whatever.

Hilarious video, btw. I love that I don’t really need to watch his and give him any undeserved traffic since you included clips Douchebag, indeed.

Hey there Jun,

Just found your blog via Google Alerts and have to say it’s going on my subscribe radar.

I’m firmly in the “quality over quantity” camp. Though I have more than 1,000 connections (I don’t like the word “followers”, seems off), so I’m not sure if that makes me a hoarder in your books?
The key factor is the conversation. I use third-party apps to monitor different needs and people. Just like I would have favoured friends offline, it’s the same online, so I will filter out some of my favourite people.

Yet at the same time I will actively start conversing with anyone and everyone that is in the “normal” Twitter stream. I want to get to know people, and hopefully they want to get to know me into the bargain.

With regards Belcher, it’s hard to take the words of anyone with a convicted felon sheet seriously. Perhaps the reason people don’t automatically follow Belcher back is that they don’t want to be associated with someone that scammed sick people out of their money for false drugs and medicinal products…

Looking forward to exploring your blog, fella.

Cheers!

You have to understand where perry is coming from.

It make’s sense.

The famous people use it as a broadcasting tool… and the people who are looking to connect with people follow a lot of people that follow them.

I agree with both of you… both make good points.

Neither one of you is “right”

Hi Jun,

I saw a link to this page via tweetdeck, via someone who I don’t follow (well I do now) but it’s obvious you haven’t seen the video I will give a link to in a second…

Mr Belcher is under 10 years probation and is a convicted fellon… AND sold fake medication

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SBsS2BbkmlY

Now on the subject of twitter and followers… if ANY genuine person wants to be a “rockstar in their own bathroom” then that is cool by me… your blog got MY view because I am very active in the community and I am so damned nosey I want to know everything that happens… and I LOVE my followers… and never sell them as much as a clothes peg!
I would be careful though… in the marketing world, as “displaying” negativity about “another” makes you just as bad if not worse than the accused… in this case good call, even though you were not aware of the fact that Mr Belcher is a convicted fellon, but please be careful as marketing ninjas are watching… all the time
If and when you would like to have a “go” at another Guru… just give me a shout and I’ll tell you EXACTLY where they are up to… then you can really punch hard
Review: 3/5 punchy but you gotta go for the kill… if your gonna kill… KILL… don’t mame or they can fire back right a ya
Nice post though!

Good post. True, true. It’s easy: Everyone is looking for something different, there’s no right or wrong!

The only stupid thing is following hundreds then unfollowing just so you can look like a celeb.

Good job.

For me Twitter mirrors life.

1. Viewing someone’s page without following - Is like looking at someone across the street because you see something you like.

2. Just one of you is doing the following - kinda like chatting with a stranger at the grocery for 20 secs and then never seeing them again.

3. Both following but no connection - more like acquaintances. You may have a common interest but never really connect. (Like your neighbor 3 doors down. yea you live on the same street but other than that…no connection)

4. Both following and connecting - just like your friends in real life.

Just like in real life where it takes time to become really good friends, it takes time for #4 to happen on Twitter, at least for me.

Now let me go *69 that telemarketer that called earlier and schedule some basketball. I don’t want to be a douche.

ALSO Jun… (couldn’t add the reply on the “string” there)… I can moitor ALL of Belchers followers and let me tell you THIS:
only 19% of Belchers followers have been “active” (posting etc) withing the last month!
All the rest are “autofollows” “robots” etc… AND… THE reason he has so many is he has done teleseminars, webinars etc… with the lists of all the BIG marketers… and in his “homeboy” style has told them to “go follow the belcher”… AND SO…

All the “actives” from ALL the big boys lists he has worked with are there in his followers for the taking! BAAA!
(by the way for anyone viewing this… wake the hell up and go find em ON HIS LIST) … psst… they are the ones who make you rich! shhhh! You never heard it from me!
I think I need to go to confession!

Great video!

I love these types of videos. You bring up a great point which is that Perry obviously contradicts himself in his ’strategy.’ I think that when people follow you on Twitter, some people find it like a common courtesy of just following them back. In reality, when you are following over 500 people, it is hard to read every one of their tweets. Does that mean you should un-follow them? That one tweet that you may catch from them may have some great value.

Keep up the great work!

I rarely do the email followup to comments after I add, but this post and the responses have intrigued me and I am so glad I continue to follow it. Here are my additional thoughts:

1. I find that egos don’t do well on Twitter. Sure, you might start great when you think that it’s all about the numbers, but when you get into a numbers game, it becomes ego. Ego only goes so far, eventually Twitter community will call you out. That is why Twiter is so damn cool.

2. We are ALL experts on Twitter. I said it before, but I will say it again. Everyone on Twiter adds value in his or her way. Those who don’t see this just don’t get it and never will.

3. We are all use Twitter differently. I actually do manually follow anyone who follows me, but I don’t make that decision until I take the time to read a person’s tweets and then I decide. Quite frankly, I followed Perry a month back and he was way cooler when he ONLY had 30K followers. Now, it’s a much different story. I don’t see value in what he tweets about, even though he is a decently cool guy. I am now in the Twitter stage where I actively look for value. A few months back, it was different.

Yes, we all use Twitter differently and that is cool. But what is not cool is when someone like Belcher starts to abuse his so-called expertise. Self-promotion only goes so far. You need to connect and respond to people. He no longer does that. Maybe he needs to unfollow about 65000 people and remember that he too started at zero once. And how did he feel then? Always remember that you are no more special than anyone else in this world.

Great stuff guys!

G’day Jun,

First of all nice video.

Now, I must admit I have tweeted the ” Are YOU a Twitter Snob “ video multiple times over the last month. The reason being is because I took the video differently. I honestly feel that if someone ie Kevin Rose has over 70,000 followers that he should be following a few more than 120 tweeps. Are you telling me out of the other 69,880 tweeps that he has nothing in common with or does he think he’s to good to follow anyone else? I don’t feel that anyone is that worthy and deserves that much attention if he/she don’t want to listen to what others have to say. There is def. something behind it and I would actually like to hear from a so called ” Twitter Snob ” because I feel it’s not about Auto Following but about the number difference between your following v. followers. You can’t sit by and expect everyone to follow you but yet you follow No one back. To me this is being a ” SNOB” so there for your a ” Twitter Snob “! I’m the first to admit that I don’t follow everyone back that follows me. When I choose my followers I look at a few different things.

BIO: What’s there interest!

UpDates: How active are they!

Last Couple of Posts: This helps ensure there not a spammer!

Now, as far as keeping up with all the Tweets once you follow over 1,000 it isn’t easy but it can be done. I do it daily …! TweetDeck allows you to setup Groups. This is very handy for sorting out your different interest and the followers who belong to that certain interest group. I have only been tweeting actively for 3 weeks and have over 1700 “QUALITY” NOT QUANTITY followers which after sorting my #FollowFriday will put my following somewhere around 1500. This does’t make me a “Twitter Snob” because my Following and Followers numbers aren’t exact. This just says that certain Followers don’t have the same interest that I’m looking for in daily tweets. Now, if I follow someone and over time I see that this Tweep isn’t active I will UnFollow immediately because Twitter isn’t a numbers game w/ me. It’s not about how many Updates I can tweet. With me it’s all about the QUALITY of updates I tweet. I have tweeted over 6,000 updates in 18 days and this doesn’t make me a Spammer. It’s just shows I’m actively providing my Followers w/ information that pertains to there Interest.

Feel free to comment on this post. I’m all about Open Discussions.

By the way I agree with Perry when it comes to ” Solo Media “Kevin Rose is a good example of that. ( SO WHAT ) he’s the founder of Digg who cares? I thought Social Media was about connecting with each other. He must be a hard dude to get along with or Social Media just isn’t for him. His numbers truly show he doesn’t give a Damn about what his Followers has to say.

Have a great day my friends ….!

Your response is well respected and I agree with you on much of this. But no matter how much discussion is done regarding this video Twitter will always be a numbers game and you or I can’t change that. Just think, if not for that video we would have never had this conversation and I came away w/ another cool Blog to add to my Favs. I will visit often and look forward to many more topics such as this …..

As always, awesome video.

I definitely don’t follow everyone who follows me back. Though, if they make an effort to reach out and start a conversation with me or reply to my tweets, I’ll check out their profile and if we seem to have a common interest or common friends, I will follow them. This is how I use twitter, and not everyone is the same. If I happen to check out a profile of a new follower and he or she has 65k followers and is following the same amount, the chances of me following them are slim to none. Why? Because I know they’ll just unfollow me in a day or so since I didn’t reciprocate the follow. I also figure that my tweets will just get lost in their stream since they are following too many people. I mean, who can keep up with thousands of people anyway? No one. So what’s the point of following them back?

Twitter isn’t a numbers game for me, but it seems like it is for others. To each their own, I suppose.

The one thing I would like to add is: brands who are using twitter as a means of customer service should have a 1:1 ratio of following:followers. For example, @starbucks. To me, this shows that the brand cares. Unlike a “real person”, a brand may be on twitter to get to feedback, ask questions, make themselves accessible to others through DMs. We aren’t using Twitter for customer service, we’re using twitter to connect with others. There is a difference.

A great video, and clearly the point about twitter snobs is ridiculous.

Yet there is another issue, which is that, sadly, the reverse of people who hoard followers are the ones who mass follow and then unfollow as a way of gaming their twitter grader rankings and making them seem important.

Joel Postman had a good post about it the other month: http://www.socializedpr.com/the-ultimate-cheapening-of-social-network-friends/

lol

you missed the point Perrys video

whats the percentage of people kevin has to those he follows

170 against being followed by 40,000

are you a follower of kevin rose ??

how do you feel that he isnt responding and communicating with people take the time to follow him

and its not just down to the followers its how your treated

for instrance i can ask perry something and he responds immediatly so does Willie Crawford

thats what twitter is ABOUT

if you had an airplane and used it as a submarine its the same thing

twitter is about following people who follow you back , and yes I have some bozos who i de follow

but I give them that chance

Twitter offers a service that we can use in whatever manner is appropriate to our own lives. I know people who only follow people they actually know and vice versa. They keep the numbers small so they can more easily manage the conversation. When Pownce was still around I kept my numbers below 300 there, because I felt it was the best way to keep track of all the conversations. Pownce offered a more content-rich experience (long posts, photos, videos, etc.) so it would have been harder to manage a larger group in that space.

On Twitter I think the value is in who you follow rather than who is following you. I like to follow people who share good ideas related to design, Web development, social media and marketing as well as food, Cleveland, photography and other personal interests. These are the people I seek out via services such as Twellow.

That said I will follow back most of the people who follow me, but I do review their profiles. If they only Tweet about one thing, want to help me get rich quick, link to some long form Web copy promoting some marketing scheme, or don’t seem human, I won’t follow.

Sometimes I wonder if I should be more picky, esp. when followed by someone with big numbers. It makes me wonder if they really want to connect or if they are just trying to build followers. I’m leaning more and more towards not following these folks and looking more closely at their Tweets to see if they are saying anything worthwhile. My thoughts on this vary, but I need to give this some thought.

I also use Tweetdeck, so in theory it doesn’t matter that much. I converse mostly with people in my active groups, but try to also pay attention to the main stream. But I wonder about that stream. If it gets too cluttered, I could miss out on some gems from people who really are producing good content. I think it’s hard to find the right balance, but each of us must come up with a strategy that works for our own lives and not worry about how Perry or others choose to use the system. @hacool.

Thanks man, I opened his profile and unfollowed.

Jun … Gr8 post!

Perry didn’t think this video through … he doesn’t take real positions on things … he just needs to maintain a certain level of activity in order to keep moving units of his scam products. In my robotic opinion, ALL of his videos show a complete lack of understanding and insight.

Three additional points ::

1. I think you’re wrong about him sitting around clicking “Follow” all day long. If you watch him for a couple of weeks you’ll notice that he follows THOUSANDS of people every couple of days. 100% chance that he’s using a follow script … or a program like HummingBird.

2. I think you’re right that Twitter isn’t a numbers game. However, it IS a numbers game if you don’t understand the medium. Exploiters are currently using high numbers as a way to convince the naive to part with their money.

3. In a recent speech at an Internet Marketing meeting Perry states flat out that he DOESN’T read his own tweet stream. He says he “only looks at @replies.” http://internetmarketingparty.com/enchi-442-n.htm {36th minute}:: So he’s only listening when people are talking directly to him … if that isn’t the very definition of snobbery … then I don’t know what is.

Excellent video and article.

By the way, you’re certainly not the only one who thinks this way. Even Twitter themselves think that way, too. They themselves said publicly that auto-following is disingenuous.

For me, it’s something I’ve been fighting for a while. I’ve posted two blog posts about this, and my belief it’s that it’s a blatant myth propagated by spammers who WANT you to believe that not following back is snobbish.

They say that if you don’t follow back, you’re being rude. Er, following someone with the sole expectation of a follow back is, to me, the epitome of rudeness.

The proponents of auto-follow have perpetrated this blatant myth  — i.e., that not auto-following makes you a snob or that you’re being rude — precisely because they wanted to create peer pressure so they can build their giant lists and boost their numbers.

Some people look like they’re heroes when they are fakes, while others who genuinely care about their prospects and clients are made to look like they’re bad people.

And that, to me, is really sad.

Here are the links to those blog posts (please delete them if it’s inappropriate for your blog, with my apologies):

http://www.michelfortin.com/twitter-populated-drones-frauds/

http://www.michelfortin.com/autofollow-fiasco/

I agree with most of the tweets shown in your article. When someone “follows” I’ll review the profile. For an obvious spam (”Hey I got a new PC for free and you can too!”) I won’t follow. Else I’ll follow. If the @ or RT aren’t forthcoming, or if what I get is a bunch of wall-filling philosophical quotes, DROP! I wanna talk! I’m not a collector.

I’m the only one in this world. Can please someone join me in this life? Or maybe death…

I would really appreciate your feedback on my post: http://twitthis.com/hytxvq

Keeping in mind I joined Twitter through a radio buddy back in late April.

Thanks. Your video post is going in my updates @andycrash

This guy is on something or trying to get attention. I try to follow everyone back only if we have conversations. Otherwise it doesn’t make any sense. Every once in a while I unfollow the one’s who I never get a response from. I do ask them to tweet me and let me get to know them better, so it’s not weird when I get a tweet about them going to the gym or something like that! I think it quality not quantity that counts. The one’s who don’t respond even after askinf them to, I unfollow.
It’s a simple as that!!!

I don’t autofollow, and I don’t follow all who follow me. My tweets are sometimes very targeted, so not everyone will enjoy or get anything from my tweetstream - and that’s all good.

Great vid!
James Hofheins

That bunk, that’s because Perry uses Twitterpowerline Followers Software to add followers. But I think his followers like him anyway. But Even the famed Guy Kawasaki uses the humminbird software and he is praised on Twitter. Go figure. Not sure what the difference is

Hrmm, interesting. A lot of good comments in this thread.

Most of the people I currently follow got on that list because a) they followed me first and b) I actually engaged with them in some sort of conversation and I liked what they had to say. Ocassionally, I follow people based on recommendations from others. Rarely do I cruise the public stream any more, looking for cool people to follow.

With apps like Tweetdeck, you can easily see who is RT’ing or replying your tweets, even those who you don’t follow, so it’s really not necessary to autofollow everyone back. Jun you are right that this guy’s message is ridiculous.

I am VERY picky about who I follow. When I am working my account, I’ll post tweets about some of the absurd tweeple who follow me, and the auto followers, and cybertramps. People who follow me agree with me on what I say 99% of the time. We think that auto-follows are killing Twitter, killing the sense of community. For instance, yesterday I had about 300 new followers, and when I got through weeding them, I had picked up about 60 new people I was following, and blocked the rest. I try to keep my “following” and “followers” close to even. When people look at my account, I want them to see that I have a community, not a collection. I do have some that I follow who don’t follow me, like some quote sites, and both of the Twitter owners, and @spam, @twitter, plus a couple of news sites.

BTW, I dumped Perry Belcher long ago. He does not include you in a conversation unless you are one of his “elite”, i.e., the first 100 people who he met on Twitter, and he is insulting if you don’t agree with him. Perry reminds me of the geeky nerd in school who always got picked on, and now wants to show everyone how cool he is. He’s full of it.

What your followers think of you is directly relateable to how many #followfriday recommendations you get. I actually had to get people to STOP recommending me because I could not keep up!

here is my blog post on why you don’t have to follow everyone who follows you. twitter follow is a 1-way relation. it doesn’t have to be reciprocated. otherwise twitter relation would be like the ones in facebook and linkedin — undirected. important distionction. this is not a popularity contest.

pls read my post: “On Etiquette and Math of “Follow” in Twitter”
http://tektrends.wordpress.com/2009/09/05/twitiquette-etiquette-of-follow-on-twitter/

Perry’s a brilliant marketer… and a convicted criminal who loves the limelight, and whatever tactics he can use for his business, however scummy they may be. Do a google search for perry belcher conviction.

Great job on the video Jun, and i always love a little online controversy, but i think you missed the REAL point, which is that Perry’s got a multimillion dollar internet marketing business, and he’s just using a classic “attack” tactic to build more traffic and business.

- then again, i guess you’re kinda doing the same thing, just in a slightly more productive, community-oriented way…

i guess the bigger question to ask here is, “at the end of the day, does your quest to expand the bottom line of your business eclipse the value your providing to your audience and potential PAYING clients and customers…?

- cause if that’s the case, you’re just wasting everyone’s time, including your own…