Are You Sleepwalking Through Twitter?

Forrester

Jan 13 2012

In September 2009 I wrote a "blog" called "Great ITSM and ITIL People to Follow on Twitter." In stumbling upon it again yesterday I couldn't help wonder:

What had happened to some of the Tweeters on the original list?
Who do I now follow that I didn't way back then?

In doing this I couldn’t help feel that, while I value Twitter as both an information resource and a workspace, I have been somewhat sleepwalking through it the last two years.

Why am I sleepwalking through Twitter?

It seems a strange thing to admit to, doesn’t it?

I literally “work” in Twitter these days and I would lose a dimension of my capabilities and “personality” without it (or a similar social environ). But the fact that I still place a heavy emphasis on the Tweets of the people below, that an updated list would not include that many more Tweeters, and that I didn’t realize that a few of the Tweeters listed are no longer actively Tweeting is quite scary to me.

My conclusion is that I have been very lazy in my use of Twitter (heaven forbid that people think that “number of Tweets” is a sign of Twitter proactivity).

So what should I do?

My original thinking from nine months or so ago (when I realized that Twitter was becoming a little incestuous in terms of my following of people) was to follow more Tweeters. I think I have nearly doubled the number of people I follow but I am still in the same place in many ways.

For information, my current ratio for @stephenmann is:

Following = 767
Followers = 2119

It doesn’t seem bad to most people and I use a list to pull out the Tweets of my “most influential” people. But this, I now realize, only accentuates the above … it really is lazy and incestuous (but I would argue that it IS social).

I have to hold my hand up and admit that I was offered a better way in December but I thought it wrong for a number of reasons (which I won’t bore you with).

That better way? To unfollow a lot of people – so that I can manage a smaller Twitter stream – and to constantly add to, and remove from, the shorter (even minimalistic) following list. Only then will I be able to better see the true worth of Twitter.

So I am off to slowly cull the number of Tweeters I follow. I know some people will be “upset” BUT I want to get more out of Twitter and as the old adage says: “sometimes less is more.” I hope to get down to circa 100 follows that flexes over time.

How do you get the most out of Twitter? I’d love to know.

The original list if you are interested:

The Tweetmeister

· @ServiceSphere (the man never stops)

The Sages

· @jimbofin

· @fustbariclation

· @DavidM2

· @CarlosCasanova

· @pinkerdavid

Great Linkers

· @raesmaa