More Is Not Necessarily More
March 2, 2009 at 2:04 pm 2 comments
I should mention (because I’m not certain if I ever have) that any of my posts assume you are promoting something worthwhile.
My job search post assumes you are an excellent candidate and simply need tools to showcase yourself online. The artist series makes the same assumption – that you have an interesting project to promote.
After all, if what you are putting forth is lame (and yes, of course, that’s subjective), you might get some initial hits on your video simply by using tricks (or tips), but it won’t last. Just like film trailers that trick you into seeing a horror film when it’s a comedy – you might get people in seats for opening weekend, but then you’re toast. Online not only might people stop viewing your video – it is very easy for the “swarm” to also turn on you.
It’s also worthwhile to assess your network in terms of strength, rather than by number. For instance, on Twit
ter I often see people talking about wanting to get thousands of followers (“I want to get 22,000 followers STAT!”). Simply put: lame and counterproductive.
First of all, you could have 2 million people following you, but if they are not active, interested followers there’s no point. You are best off cultivating strong, worthwhile connections – people interested in similar things – and developing good relationships. The more people paying attention the better – but you should aim at people who want to pay attention to you. And keep in mind that more people does not translate into more attention. It frequently amounts to more noise.
Similarly, if you have nothing interesting to say, it doesn’t matter that you have a huge number of followers. I am always baffled that the people who seem to be trying to get more followers usually tweet things like “Making PB&J sandwich.”, “At computer now”, “Time to sleep, lol!”
As with cat blogs, the only people paying attention to these kind of things are your close friends (and maybe not even them).
It’s not about numbers, it’s about engagement.
“More Is Not Necessarily More” by Monica Hamburg
Entry filed under: Art, artist series, Social Marketing, social media, twitter, Viral Marketing, Web 2.0. Tags: actor, artists, blogging, film, Me Like the Interweb, Monica Hamburg, monicahamburg, social media, speaker, twitter, Web 2.0, Writer.
Me Like The Interweb 
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Jannifer Stoddard | March 6, 2009 at 3:31 am
This has been very frustrating for me. Trying to get people to engage with you on twitter is sometimes very difficult and more followers don’t mean more engagement at all. It’s annoying when you have people just focused on the numbers and use things like “TweeterGetter”. I don’t want to be just another number.
I once unfollowed someone who tweeted everything she was doing frequently, like – going to brush my teeth, eating lunch now… etc. She tweeted AT LEAST 60 tweets per day, but would never engage with me, just her click group of friends. I had a lot fewer followers back then and when it got to the point where I couldn’t take it anymore, I unfollowed her. Amazingly she was offended, which is weird because she never engaged with me ever! I don’t understand why people don’t get that it’s about quality relationships and communication.
Excellent post – I so agree with this!
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monicahamburg | March 9, 2009 at 10:30 am
Thanks, Jennifer! That’s classic – that she was offended that you didn’t want to listen to her, when she couldn’t be bothered to respond to you.
Also, the whole people being obsessed with who follows or unfollows them is something I don’t get.
And I agree with you – I think it so bizarre when people follow others simply to bump their numbers up. One of my friends felt she did not have enough friends on Facebook, so she began friending her exes from decades back. Bad idea. Of course. 🙂