I believe I recently committed what some would call twitter heresy: I said the heck with numbers and purged my following list by 60%.
In essence what led me to this seemly drastic measure was I got clear on what I wanted to do with twitter. I got clear on what it wasn’t doing for me and what it could do, if I cleared the clutter.
Don’t think you have clutter in your list?
After spending a few weeks having a software developer and my assistant run some numbers for me I can tell you most likely somewhere between 40% and 80% of your list of followers are “crap”. I mean that in the nicest way of course.
Clearly with over 27 million users on twitter, it’s impossible to run data on the whole shebang. But us economists are well known for our theories and little testing of said, while us psychologists are well known for studying everything from the navel to the past lives. Where twitter was concerned a compromise was in order.
I found a way to Run data for a few individuals (beginning with experimenting with my account @KarenkmMonroy) to see how much clutter I actually had. I was a bit on the low side-33% (compared to the other test accounts) of which were spammers of one sort or another.
I have made the assumtion that spammers are problematic for everyone. There are various forms of spam, and I think studies I have read, had it all wrong, spam is the majority of the content–if you do the twitter equivalent of free love–follow everyone who follows you.
Before I go into some data I want to introduce the tool of discernment:
Our minds are not organized to quantify data we are unaccustomed to. Some examples:
An astronaut can appreciate the vastness of space differently than someone who’s never flown at all.
While everyone had some idea that the bail out recently completed by the United States Government was big, what kept the masses from taking to the streets: they didn’t qualitatively quantify the number in the bail out. It wasn’t about too big to fail; it was about too big to comprehend.
It’s the same problem a seeker has: the Universe is too big to comprehend so the temptation to believe one is separate from all that is –it’s immense.
No, I am not digressing, you’ll need this information, trust me.
Basically, what appears to be happening on the individual basis on both the following and follower side of twitter: the larger the numbers of folks who follow you, the higher percentage of crap. It’s the law of diminishing returns. And 10,000 seems to be the ‘magic’ number. Once over 10,000 your percentage of spam followers significantly increases. (if you are dying for the data contact me and I’ll send it to you, but I didn’t intend this to be a ’scientific’ paper so I’m not going to makes folks gag on the data)
My initial goal with twitter was to connect to other people who provided interesting (to me) content. So I came up with the brilliant idea of following someone because folks I followed like them too. I thought it would be a great idea, because some culling surely would have been done. Wrong.
Turns out there is plenty of “free-love’ and not much discernment on twitter. You wouldn’t believe the numbers of porn, suspended accounts for suspicious behavior and spammy crap were in folks following list who clearly didn’t ‘roll’ that way. Why? It’s the old numbers thing: conventional wisdom says numbers are everything.
Spiritual Principal (and everything is spiritual-as everything is energy and form is just the container) informs us clutter is always undesirable. Is begins a ripple effect that leads to frustration andthwarts fulfillment.
So I had thousands of followers, but disconnected by the loud mouths tweeting, ” don’t pay for white teeth”, and “get more followers”, I decided to use a piece of software developed for specific traits of spammers. I un-followed about 60% of my following list. One result of the mass un-follow was the drones, bots of all the spammers un-followed me back. But I had other very desirable results: I received the immediate information I was looking for—tweets I wanted. I could interact with others in ways I had not been able to previously, and have actually made some mutually supportive friendships that have bloomed outside twitter.
Is un-following twitter hearsay? It would seem so, but to me, no.
I wondered how I would follow folks moving forward after the purge. What kind of criteria could I set, and I wondered if others had the same problem-tons of crap following them and they in turn following back.
I asked the software developer if he could target some specifics for me on both sides of the follow and follower list. Yes, he could and we were in business. I picked a random sample to run numbers on. Now, when I say random I mean at the moment in time I need to give him names, these folks were on the tweeter feed, three of them I follow and three of them I do not.
@ ActuallyNPH @SarahPalinUSA @shellyKramer @skydiver @mashable @iconic88 @inspiremetoday
I began with this group and thought random testing should continue up until print time and it did. I ran numbers on 20 other twitter accounts. Regardless of how the users were chosen, their ‘crap’ following mirrored the above tests run on the initial group and ranged between 40-60%.
Exactly what do I mean by crap? Glad you asked.
If the folks who follow you did any of the below:
Try To Sell 24-7
Multiple @s
Nothing But Links
Tweeting The Same Links All The Time
Tweeting Identical Tweets All The Time
Now Absent
No Activity In Over A Month
Deleted Account
Not Active Yet (Fewer Than 10 Tweets)
Don’t Interact With Anyone
Hardly Follow Anyone
Mass followers and no tweets
Pointless babble
Allowing spam tweets to get more followers
Humans consistently overestimate the value of a thing, and are very poor at estimating the benefit. This conundrum has been the bane of behavioral economists and psychologists.
On twitter this is how it translates with the illusion that high numbers are desirable or beneficial:
The clutter in your feed is thwarting solid connections in alignment with your interests. The benefits of twitter are limited, until you have a viable list with folks who read your tweets, and in turn you theirs. Test this for yourself: think of someone you want to communicate with on twitter. How do you ’see’ their tweets?
So you know that earlier idea about not understanding the vastness of something, therefore you do not quite know how to perceive it to begin with? Escape that difficulty, by the specific application of the Principal of Intention.
Ask yourself what is your goal with twitter?
To be a time waster?
Distraction from your day?
To be sold stuff over and over?
To interact, mingle?
To find what interests you?
To explore, see what is out there?
Make contacts and meet folks you would not otherwise?
While I don’t have any twitter ‘rules’ for you, I can tell you the same Principals that apply to life apply here: The clearer you are on this list, the more enjoyment and benefit you will receive using twitter. Don’t fool yourself, there may be 27 million accounts on twitter-but if the numbers hold true 60- 75% of them are crap, and what is left is up to you to wade through. Saying, “no” to everything is as big as mistake as saying ‘yes’ to everything.
Moving forward, I or one of my assistants will look at the home twitter page of anyone who follows me (I hope folks I follow do the same thing!) to have my list be a diverse group of folks who I want to hear from.
Since beginning this new way of following, quality over quantity, I have been asked to speak at some great events, met some beautiful folks, and been blessed in ways I know I don’t know yet. None of this would have been possible if I chased the numbers.
Naturally, I am going to encourage you to move beyond the vastness of cyberspace, your lack of ability to comprehend the dynamics of the unquantifiable, and commit to making everything you do, including twitter, something that blesses you and you it. Clarity, Clutter, Discernment and Intention. Use them and be blessed.
That’s my twitter story, and I am sticking to it.
Blessings,
Karen
Footnote: My purpose in studying other accounts on twitter at random had to do with seeing if the clutter situation was ‘just me’. I also have reviewed several other twitter studies, reporting amounts of “crap” being tweeted with ranges from 30-70 percent. Rather than to speak in generalities about twitter traffic, I wanted to discuss the personal experience.
In case anyone was curious, the app Karen used to clean her Twitter list was The Twit Cleaner, which I wrote.
I also did a chunk of the analysis for her.
Here’s to quality over quantity!
I love how you see the everydayness in the larger picture. I didn’t stop to question the numbers, and by default was having a frustating experience. Thanks.
At first I wanted to argue with what you said. But then I realized I communicate with my tweeps using the @ and I can’t find their stream. Although the new list feature helps with that issue. It’s easy to get too many folks listed and have too many lists and end up back at square one.
Okay, I really disagree. I see your point, but the random nature of twitter is what I think it is all about.
I am going to try to clean out! It feels right to me, I am excited to get some kind of handle on the vastness of the whole twitter world
I do work in social media. Yes we are challenged by the numbers game. But you said something even more important. When we do not understand the vastness of a thing, we do nothing about it. Isn’t that just an excuse?
I think I’d be pissed if I was one of the folks you ran data on. Yes I know it has nothing to do with them, but it seemed like you used them. I like the piece though.
Right on! More, more, more it is the mantra that is killing our planet!
I tired the cleaner, I am glad I did it-but I also don’t like having my numbers go low. It seems like I am not creditable without the numbers.
So are you going to do more twitter studies? I like how you think! Thanks
Ha! I have been feeling bad for my pitiful 100 followers–but now I am realizing I have been benefiting and have connections I would have missed. Whew. I was feeling judgmental about the twitters I didn’t want to follow, now I don’t. Thank you
Sorry, I think you used data to have it say what you wanted. Is it a good idea to be picky about who you follow? Probably.
I think Mark is just trying to pick a fight! I appreciate you making the data available and making it clear you didn’t write a scientific paper. I like it! Thanks
I wondered when the list feature came out, why they did it. But I think they are trying to address the problem–look at the number of folks who ‘did’ twitter and have left it or are inconsistent users due to the overload. Bigger, Bigger, More, More………….sad. So Sad this is a base trait for humans
Brilliant! Loved it!
Getting people to think, deeply and in different ways seems to be a challenge. Thanks for the challenge.
Karen, this was wonderful. In so many ways. I’d love to see you write about the bail out specifically-an update to the ezine you published a while back. Thanks, G.
If you don’t like social media why are you on it?
Social comments and analytics for this post…
This post was mentioned on Twitter by TheTwitCleaner: Great article by @KarenKMMonroy about Quality vs Quantity on Twitter: http://bit.ly/7a1Nxx...
I love it! What a hoot–and you are right. How do people get so dumb anyway? People act like sheep just as much as sheep I think. Thanks for sharing-and walking your talk.
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Hi Gorden, Thanks for the compliment. I have been working on a Ezine–not a blog post. I try to keep blogs short–ezine’s are longer and better suited. Here is the link to the ezine page, you might want to sign up for them. Not to worry, I do not share your email with any one-ever. http://karenmonroy.com/ezine.php
Hi Suzanne, I believe in the power of awareness. When we first become aware of a characteristic, there is a tendency to attack it, marginalize, and avoid it. You have power seeing what happens with more, more and more–you have even more power when any judgments about more no longer ’stick’ to you. Blessings, Karen
Hi Chris, excuses, ones we like and ones that sound dumb rule us. The one day we see, for the first time that something is an excuse–as opposed to what it was before, “the reason why I was right” The vastness is usually one of the last ‘concepts’ I see folks get in awareness. “beginner mind” and ‘be ye like children” are helpful concepts to guide us to what we do not know.
I have to say thanks! Your software was very helpful in getting my head around the ‘crap’.
Hi Tanya, Please let me know if you do get that handle!~ I am looking for one myself. Like I said, I am not an expert in social media (although almost everyone is these days!) But I am an expert in people and Spiritual Principals. I hope the post helped you learn to focus on the Principals and the vastness takes care of itself
Interesting reading giving some practical advice on how to deal with the use/purpose of ‘media phenomenon’ like Twitter. Of course, use and purpose of anything are subjective – each individual decides these for themselves and like the writer I wouldn’t wish to hoist my views onto others but this article imho (newbie to twitter) goes a good measure towards laying out how to find your Tweet voice. The more I use Twitter the more I am convinced that is the way to really get a value added experience back for time I put into Twitter.
Hi Freddy, thank you for the comment. I agree life is subjective! I am advocating Quality no doubt, and that would be subjective too
I know in my own life Quality is an important Spiritual tool that helps balance the shadow in all of us usually expressed as the more manta.
There are only two rules I have seen about twitter I agree with:
1. Write what you want
2. Follow who you want
Stay blessed,
Thank you! I continually preferred to demonstrate in brand new blogs.