I read somewhere that 90% of Twitter’s activity is generated by 10% of it’s users. I also read that 40% of what’s said on Twitter is mindless drivel. I have found people on Twitter with 90,000 followers that say nothing of any value. They hardly post links. They don’t call, they don’t write. Then I see someone like Valeria Maltoni (@conversationage)with only 9,000 followers. I’m amazed by it because she is right up there with Chris Brogan and Seth Godin in terms of providing high quality content regularly.
So what causes someone to gain traction?
How do you become one of the elite individuals with a broadcast channel 30,000 strong?
How do you do it quickly? Can it be done quickly?
I’ve been using Twitter now for over a year and I have read many of the Twitter guides and suggestions from “big time” Twitterati. I find it interesting that as much as I try to engage others, only a small handful of Tweeple actually reply to @mentions. I was amazed that yesterday I had an exchange of 4-5 tweets with @cheth who has over 23,000 followers. It seems as though generally, even though it is standard advice, many people don’t converse.
It’s easy to tell why some people on Twitter are popular. Guy Kawasaki for instance is a must follow just because he posts so many interesting links it would be silly not to follow him. He’s also well respected outside of Twitter…it makes sense. Celebrities still make no sense to me mainly because I don’t give a crap what socialites do with their time, that’s not how I use Twitter.
As I continue to learn and grow with these new mediums I wonder what you can do, particularly for a business, outside of the two extremes to quickly gain a stronger following? One side is blackhat techniques, guaranteed to ruin your reputation. The other side is to keep at it, be authentic, provide value and engage. It’s a slow moving process but that seems to be the sage advice. The issue I have with this is that it seems much easier to implement this strategy for an individual building a reputation than it is for brands that are otherwise unknown.
So, does anyone have any thoughts on this?