Quality of Followers
How have you increased the quality of your followers (as opposed to quantity) on Twitter or your blog or other subscription-based technologies?
The quality of followers matters, according to Web Worker Daily in Get Better Connected on Social Networks:
“The quality of followers is key, whether you’re angling for a new job, a new project, or looking to build your profile within a given industry. How can we make better-quality, better-connected followers and contacts through social networks?”
One technique I’ve found valuable lately is to get out to in-person events, such as the Austin Social Media Breakfast we attended, a recent meetup of Enterprise 2.0 types at lunchtime (where I met people who were in the Groundswell book, page 114!), and a focus group for MindTouch where I geeked out with wiki writers and tech comm strategists. The follow-backs I got from all three events are from great people, and I plan to keep in touch.
I also like the notion that you get more followers if you stop talking about yourself. I especially like that there are charts, though it’s just a correlation as the commenters on the post point out immediately. I had also wondered about the method of retweeting something someone said to you – apparently it’s a pet peeve for some experienced Twitter users. Good to know! I’ll try to not annoy high-quality followers.
A third technique for getting high quality followers is to find the most influential people in your industry or area of expertise. Sometimes you have to take a degree of two approach – such as, finding the big names but then seeing who they follow.
What do you think of these techniques? What do you think about the correlation of data about tweets compared to follower numbers?
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