Twitter Following Counts are Useless. Here’s proof.

An unsophisticated forecaster uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts – for support rather than for illumination. ~ Andrew Lang

It has long been recognized by public men of all kinds . . . that statistics come under the head of lying, and that no lie is so false or inconclusive as that which is based on statistics. – Hilarie Belloc (The Silence of the Sea)

I always find that statistics are hard to follow and impossible to digest.The only one I can ever remember is that if all the people who go to sleep in church were laid end to end they would be a lot more comfortable. – Mrs. Robert A. Taft

On Thursday April 16, 2009, Jeff Turner writing for the Social Media Marketing Institute gave irrefutable proof that the number of people you have following you on Twitter is a completely useless number. And he did this with brilliance and aplomb.

I won’t go into a lot of detail as you can click on the link above and read it for yourself. Briefly, here’s what happened. He created two fake Twitter accounts. Used a script that randomly followed 100 users an hour and used other automated Twitter services to post messages and handle re-tweets. He generated thousands and thousands of followers.

The results of this experiment are fascinating. The most interesting and disturbing result to me was that Mr. Turner actually changed the sex of one of the fake accounts and only one person out of the thousands that were following that account even noticed the change.

Mr. Turner’s conclusion:

There is a huge difference between a follower and someone who is engaged and listening to what you have to say…. It is better to have 100 truly engaged, targeted followers, people who are listening to you, care about what you’re saying and are willing to act on your behalf, than 10,000 who wouldn’t notice if you changed your gender.

I fully agree with Mr. Turner’s conclusion. I believe, like him, that social media is about engagement, not broadcasting. Broadcasting is old school and is dying a slow and agonizing death. No one listens to commercials anymore, and no one is going to listen to your stream of continual links, quotes, and promotions. Sure its OK to occasionally shout out a quote or a link promoting one of your sites or products, but people gravitate to social media to be…well, social.

I like Twitter. I really do, but I’m getting frustrated by several things:

1. People who continuously re-tweet only stuff about themselves.
2. Spammers who have no intention whatsoever to connect with those they follow, except to dump their crap in the Twitter stream.

3. People who are only interested in tweeting their blog posts.
4. People who constantly broadcast, but never join in conversation.
5. Celebrities who never actually respond to their followers.

6. Companies who promote but never listen to their customers.

7. People who actively promote the myth of “the bigger, the better” about your follower numbers.

As far as I’m concerned, if you are any of these people you won’t be followed by me. If I’m currently following you, I won’t be for long. Read Mr. Turner’s article. I think you’ll find it educational. Here’s the link:

YEO – Why Twitter Follower Counts Mean Nothing

Picture by flicker user kevinzhengli under Creative Commons License. Use of this picture does not constitute an endorsement by kevinzhengli of the ideas in this post.

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