I was talking with my colleague Steve last week and he made an interesting observation about the state of electronic communication. He said he found a Twitter Direct Message was more personal and meaningful than an e-mail because you opt-in to receive their DM, whereas you can email just about anybody – they have no choice in receiving your message. In essence, by following someone, you make a firm statement that yes, you are interested in what he or she has to say.
I agree with this statement in part, but I don’t feel it applies entirely to me and the way in which I use Twitter. Like any tool, it can and should be used in a way that best suits your needs. Depending on who you are, your ratio of followers to following can vary immensely. Some have roughly the same figure in each bucket, others (especially experts or notable thinkers on specific topics or subjects) only follow a small population while maintaining a following in the tens of thousands range. Take Conan O’Brien for example. At the time I write this, Conan is following 1 person and has over 1.37 million followers.
For those “experts” I think Steve’s assertion rings true – DM is a filtering system giving a Twitter user the ability to opt-in to a two-way communication. There is mutual consent between recipient and sender.
I follow people that I don’t know. My filters for following someone are:
- I know them.
- I respect their opinion.
- The entertain me (once again – see Conan).
If I follow you, you fit into at least one of these categories (hopefully more than one).
If you’re following me, why? Twitter is pretty weird when you think about it. I’m going to go Tweet about this post now.
I hadn’t seen that cartoon before but its hilarious. I think many people use that same set of filters for messages they get.