A few people have already been rallying against celebrities and companies who do not follow them back on Twitter. Now that we have our first twillionnaire, Ashton Cutcher, the stakes are high. The question is: should Cutcher follow his entire million of followers, or not? It’s almost a real-life question: if you have a load of money, do you sit on it, or do you share? And if you share, then how do you decide whom to share it with?
Speaking of my personal experience of Twitter, I am not a celebrity, neither is my personal blog in the Top 100 on Technorati. Admittedly, I was quite chuffed when some well-known people in blogosphere and Online Marketing began to follow me. I am very glad that they didn’t stop following me; this means, in conventional Twitter language, that they find “value” in my tweets and don’t mind conversations I sometimes have with a few friends there. Likewise, as a company, we are glad to provide our followers with information that keeps them staying with us.
In the past I had several chances to trial the response of well-known people in Social Networks. A good example that will probably remain on my memory for a while is me sending a message to two journalists. With one of them, I had a contact in 1997, but never talked for about 10 years. When I sent him a message on a social network (not Twitter), he responded, we exchanged a few nice messages, and I remain sure that if the future I decided to talk to him again, he wouldn’t ignore me.
Another person actually taught me at the University, and fair to say, both of us drifted away from the subject he taught and I studied. My contact with him in the years between 1999 and 2008 was more regular, and he certainly knew my supervisor. Considering that he edits one of the leading Russian magazines, I don’t hold grudges that my friendly message remains without an answer to this day. But then the journalist I mentioned first is far better known, and not just in one country…
On another hand, I had to overcome all sorts of inhibitions and insecurities to send a message to one of my favourite actors, and was pleasantly surprised when he eventually replied. What certainly helped to break the ice was that he already knew me through his online forum and a couple of meetings he had online with his fans; plus, my questions weren’t intrusive. We are not “friends” on the social network, but this is fine by me. Again, if I wanted to ask him a question, I know he wouldn’t be silent.
You have probably had your own experiences of talking to well-known people on social networks. What the above examples show to me, however, is that, 1) status doesn’t matter, and that, 2) celebrities are people, too. The actor I mentioned is pretty well-known, and I have no doubt that he is regularly bombarded by dozens of messages from his fans. Stephen Fry undoubtedly has lots of things to do, in addition to keeping an eye on over 55K of people he follows… imagine if he has to do that for all 480K that currently follow him? So, while well-known people open the floodgates of personally managed PR, thus avoiding the assistance of a tabloid journalist, they’re also opening up to a huge number of people whom they don’t know and are likely to never know. It’s not to do with arrogance, but rather with things feasibly possible for a human.
However… I recently had to go through a long list of followers for another user, and nearly a hundred of Twitter profiles had this look (some fields are formatted, for privacy):
Now, it is great if a celebrity or company made people join Twitter, purely for the sake of following Stephen Fry or Starbucks. But does this profile not scare you, or at least make you rise your eyebrows? No tweets, no biography or location, following a single account… surely something rather strange?
This is not to say, of course, that if you go on Twitter and start posting random stuff every twenty minutes, you will have more luck. Maybe we should ask ourselves a different question: why do you want to be followed by someone whom you don’t know in real life anyway? Or perhaps this question: why being followed back by a celebrity or established company has to be a matter of concern? The point of using Social Networks is to start and engage in conversation – but if you signed up for Twitter in March and by the beginning of May have only squeezed out five tweets and not really talked to anyone, then how good a communicator are you that you expect someone else to blindly follow you back?
Forget about celebrities, though. If you are on Twitter and want to make something good of using it – even if you use it purely for yourself – consider doing the following:
- Don’t go under a bogus name. EleeshaT7458 is likely to be taken for a spam, if not by Twitter, then by one of the users who may report you.
- Include your real name, or a part of it. Helps to prove that you’re not a robot.
- Write a small bio. A few people enlist their life statuses: “Son, Dad, Husband, Photographer, Web Designer”. Others avoid mentioning personal stuff and get straight to the matter: “CEO”, “Director”, “Guru”, “Student”, “Single girl”. A company would put a business description in the profile. Knowing what you use (or plan to use) your Twitter for, will help to strike just the right balance, when writing description for this section.
- Don’t just randomly follow people. Surely, everyone has got something interesting to say and to offer. But if you already use Google Reader, then maybe it is better to read Oprah Winfrey’s Twitter RSS there, than following her on Twitter and then complaining that she doesn’t follow you back? There are also great places to search for like-minded or interesting folks, like Twellow.com or Wefollow.com. So, rather than using Twitter to save on your Sun or Mirror, use it to connect with people who may become friends in real life.
- Use Twitter. Twitter started as a way to publicly announce that you were about to have a cup or a nap. Then, like blogging, it grew to be your PR channel, your booking channel, and, in the case of Dell, it even helped companies earn money. A few very quick things you can do with Twitter are: 1) post your thoughts, actions, or links of interest; 2) reply to other users: your followers, those who follow you, random messages, if it is appropriate; 3) retweet (=share) others’ message; 4) tweet YouTube videos and any articles or blogs you find (provided there is a “tweet this” button).
- Do follow more than one Twitter user - and if you have no intention to use Twitter, subscribe to their updates via RSS.
We hope you find this quick guide helpful – especially if you’re hoping for a company or celebrity to take a little notice of you.