True Confessions of a “Twitterholic”

June 6, 2009


Twitter Holic Beginnings

It began around the new year, of 2009.  I prided myself on getting into the “next big thing” . 

Did you know… about 60% of Twitterers drop out within their first month, and I see why. It’s really confusing … followers, following, Retweets, DM’s, microblogging…

I had fits of engagement, then apathy. But these past 60 days, I became totally obsessed – I was a Twitterholic!

Signs of a Twitterholic

I got obsessed with my number of followers, you know…. I hit 2,000 that was a milestone. I should have just been satisfied with that accomplishment and focused on quality not quantity… remember that, before you too get sucked into the mirage of “popularity”…

After I saw this funny "Trouble with Twitter” video, I realized my folly, and decided to correct my foolish ways.

 

Twitterholics Risk Becoming Spammers

I realized I was in danger of getting my twitter account suspended… that my twitter home would become an “owl’s whoo whoo”… a nightmare about to happen!

Itwitter suspended account

I read up on the Twitter Rules… I had become a twitter spammer, I was a twitter whore

  • If you have followed a large amount of users in a short amount of time
  • If you have followed and unfollowed people in a short time period, particularly by automated means
  • If you have a small number of followers compared to the amount of people you are following
  • If your updates consist mainly of links, and not personal updates
  • If a large number of people are blocking you
  • The number of spam complaints that have been filed against you
  •  

    My Twitter Holic Resolution

    When I took a close look at some of my “followers”, I saw the ugly truth: the majority were twitter holics just like me, nobody was really following anyone!  Also, many of the profiles were fake or uninhabited. It was a scary place to go, so I made up my mind…twitterholic before purge

    1. I am “cleaning up” my account
    2. The few people I will follow, I will truly follow and engage.
    3. That’s it really.  I’ll continue to use some of the great tools I’ve grown to love…

    I know that my follower numbers will plummet, that can’t be helped. I declare I am a human.

     

    Recommended Twitter Tools

    http://www.twitter.com

    http://tweetdeck.com/beta/

    http://tr.im/

    http://friendorfollow.com/

    Add To Google Bookmarks Add To Del.icio.us Add To Reddit Add To Technorati Subscribe to RSS

    5 comments:

    Matt Lambert said...

    I think Dunbars rule is 150 relationships - beyond which point things get pretty unproductive.

    It makes each one of the 150 places quite valuable

    Matt

    Anonymous said...

    Truly hillarious! Twitter always seemed to me to me to be the height of vanity unless someone was following a twitterererer in the hope of actually learning something important. And for those obsessed with following and not twitting, isn't that just voyeurism? Twitee or twitor ... two sides of a vain coin.

    Sydney said...

    Funny Post. Love Twitter, have never gone down the automated route. Quickly unfollow any fool that starts talking about automating anything. For me it has always been about the relationships.

    Frank said...

    I have an account but don't really use it. Has it benefited you in any way - or is it just kind of a fun diversion?

    Mark Peesel said...

    Good info here. I find I get followed by spammers and people that just want to show off scantily clad pictures. I check out everyone that follows me and only follow them back if they're interesting and block them if they're spammers.

    I tried an experiment with an odd twitter account and tried to follow everyone I possibly could for a couple days just to see what would happen. I was amazed at the high percentage of people that followed me just because I followed them. It was automatic and robotic and it's obvious that many people think that they should follow someone without even knowing or caring who they are. It's becoming Twitter-polution.

    Thanks again. Keep it coming!

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