Turner's Perspective

I just wrote about why the numbers aren't the grail, too... but geez, you did it better.

;^ )

THANK YOU!!  I get all these people asking me to follow them and I look and they have thousands they are following and I think "why in the heck would I want to follow you"! 

Well said, Jeff. I'm starting to freak out at the number of followers I'm getting. I don't want to have a bunch of followers that don't interact. I also don't want to become unable to keep up with those I do know and value.

It's refreshing to strike up a good conversation with someone new that I've reached out to or who has reached out to me.  Too big is just too scary for my comfort.

Hi Jeff, Most of this is greek to me. I admit it. I seriously don't get it.

Hi Jeff - I am bombarded with people I never heard of wanting to follow me on Twitter or connect with me on LinkedIn or be my friend on Facebook.  I do post links to my blogs and other things of interest on them, but I don't do a lot of chattering, so I seldom turn people down.  There are some folks whose writings I like to follow.  When I get a new follower I will look at their profiles to see if I want to follow them, and for the most part I will if I am interested in what they have to say, but not if they post only sales pitches or stuff with foul language or plain nonsense.  Gathering numbers is pointless.  You can't possibly legitimately follow all these people. 

Jeff - well this is really excellent, but I would expect nothing less. Clearly folks can game Twitter with little effort, as you have so aptly demonstrated. And it also shows that many folks are engaging in following, retweeting and other Twitacts that are essentailly meaningless unless there is some thought behind it. It seems to me that the basic pretense of social media sites, at least what is apparent, IS how many folks you can get to follow, or can follow. And look how many folks on Twitter and otehr sites talk about how many friends they now have, or the goal of XXXX they are trying to reach.

Indeed, don't these sites all like to proclaim how many members they have? It is, at first blush, a numbers game.  My guess is this will shift as social media evolves and we get past the immense popularity as a result of becoming so mainstream.

Jeff

There is no way to keep up with that many people!  That's the part of Twitter I don't understand, and I don't have time to engage in conversations with thousands of people.  I feel like when there's that many people posting, that after about 3 minutes I'm missing out on something.  I mean my computer screen is only so big...

I guess there's some kind of magic that I'm missing on Twitter, but for the most part it's just a fun site to pop in on to see what my friends and fellow real estate associates are up to.  I also have used it to see out "strangers" in my market to get to know them better and engage member of my community for networking.  Maybe there's more, but if I follow too many people, I'm afraid I'm going to miss out on the people I really want to be talking to!

I haven't gotten into Twitter yet.  Maybe I should take a look around. 

Hi Jeff - Well you certainly got my attention on this one.  Thanks for your insight on this.

Hi Jeff - I definitely consider myself an ActiveRain newbie. Still considering what other blog sites I might want to participate in. STILL reading through the FAQS and HELPS on AR so that I learn what I need to know to make my blogs useful, interesting, and something can brighten up someone's day. In addition to other things I've read about Twitter, and because of this blog you've written, I do not see myself moving Twitter's way. Thank you sir.

Sherry, my goal was not to drive you from Twitter. :)

I've decided to make Thursday my YEO day here on ActiveRain. And I think I'll be able to show you a few good ways to use Twitter to go with this little warning. Nice to meet you here.

JT,

All in one week? Just goes to show you "where's the value" in this?

I've got a few faves (you're one of them) myself, and truthfully I'm having trouble keeping up, period.

Where's the value? That is the real question. Could there be value? I've come to hate these accounts. They represent everything I dislike. But in the midst there were attempts at interaction that I ignored for the sake of this test. So, there is more to be learned about how to use these tools the right way.

Jeff, quite an interesting experiment you've got going there.  It's been obvious to me since the beginning that it's not about the numbers -- it's about the engagement.  Along the "engagement" lines, now you've just got to convince some of the women out there that it's not about the numbers (i.e. carats) of the ring, but rather the sentiment and feelings behind the gift.  Are you up for that task?

Oh good, YEO on AR every Thursday. It's my p l e a s u r e  to see you. I love Twitter and will look to you for guidance as I blend my RE 'identity' with/into my new Horsealicous site. Horses, cowboys, rodeos, Western lifestyle, and equestrian properties. Can you help me? Any video ideas for me?

Hi Jeff!  Love those YEO's!  I like the idea of one on every Thursday.  Thanks so much for the info on Twitter.

Mary

Hi Jeff, I look forward to your YEO posts on here every Thursday, what a treat to the many folks who have not been able to get to know you and only stand in Awe when we mentioned Jeff Turner. LOL 

Since I set up my groups on Facebook, I have been enjoying engaging folks there more. I go back and forth but FB seems to bring more value to me in terms of relationships.

I have yet to understand what the point of the pitches you see about wanting to sell you fancy software to get 10,000 followers in a month. I just don't see how that would serve a purpose.

Amen about the number of followers, I also did a blog post about how I have all these followers, now I think those people dont even know me nor intend to get to know me. It is always hard to build a community, especially a community that you can give and get back from!

Amazing numbers Jeff!

Still, I do need to flesh out my community a little more. 

Criminy, how could I limit my cornball humor to only 140 letters? Twitter leaves me speechless.

Jeff, you bring to light the point about community. If you have all these followers but no business, well. I have lost some time that I spent on twitter instead of what was working on Active Rain. I am now back to basics and will continue on my path.

Jeff, As you know I am not a proficient Tweet but I do grasp the idea of following only people and topics that truly interest me and I am enjoying branching out more and more beyond real estate.  I don't see the point in gaming the system but I know so little it's great to have your insights to help me understand the options.

Don't tell TLW but when she said she didn't think she had enough followers on Twitter I set up 50 fake accounts to make her feel better. Really, I have nothing better to do :)

I will be back for your YEO Jeff. I don't have many followers but that isn't what I am in the game for. Slow and sure will bring me quality over quantity.

Jeff - I have always thought that I was trying to build a community.  My focus is not to see how many followers I have, but how many relationships I can build.  I don't add anyone to any of my social media sites unless I know them first.  Like you said, I could have hundreds of followers if I wanted, but what's the point?  I want people I could network with, and people I could trust with my reputation.

I want a core of people I can interact with.  I can only concentrate on a few social networking sites

jeff, This is all pretty funny and sad in a way. I set upa profile on Twitter mnay monyhs ago and have been there 3 or 4 times. I still get several emails a day stating that I'm being "followed". The question is why? I'm not going any where. There are no new tweets on my profile. My profile has pretty much been abandoned. But still.........they follow. Weird. very weird.

Jeff - I was wondering where the complete strangers were coming from on Twitter.  I have not quite grasped the concept, but I figure I will figure it out sooner or later.

It looks like that if everyone is already there it is too late. I guess I will catch onto the next big thing. Great post.

Well...

Look at that Blog Boy is full of crap...Twice :)

TLW...ROAR!

To follow or to be followed, that is the question. I am not sure what the answer is and I am too busy to find out. I guess I will suffer for ddistraction!

We actually talked about this topic on our show last week.  I know people who have upwards of 70,000 followers who don't engage ANYONE on Twitter and never have conversations at all.  What is the point of having 70,000 who don't care what I have to say?  I would rather have 100 followers who are sincerely interested.

Jeff - I was also happy to realize that I am not following either of the fake Tweeters.  :)

Great post.  Since I am not a big fan of Ashtons or any other celebrity, I could care less what they're up too. I'm not even considering trying to be some Twitter-Twirler-Type...just doing what I do on FB and AR;  network with folks who share the same values as I do in Real Estate and life in general.

Not sure why we need 10,000 followers to know what we ate for breakfast??

I have two followers.  One is my mom :-)

Hi Jeff, Congratulations on the post. That was certainy a great comment from Bart. It was fun reading the examples of Ashton's Twitts.

I learned from this post and the comments-I just joined twitter last night.  Great info from you as always! 

I could NOT agree with you more. I have focused on getting quality Twitter contacts from the beginning. It has been hard because I watch these other people grow to have thousands of followers almost overnight, but it doesn't mean they have any quality, meaningful relationships with the people they Tweet with. I truly try to engage the people on my list and I am proud to report I have 600 followers now.

Rick: LOL

Good point, if you have followers who don't care what you have to say, aren't interested in you or your business, then you're wasting your time on Twitter.

I'm glad to hear it's not all about the numbers as I still have just a few and am following just a few as I work to understand it all.

I have had no less than four people follow me and then offer to get me thousands of followers...  I am thinking of paring down the ranks of who I follow to get rid of the gurus and the others that don't really interact. 

Hi Jeff...I'm looking forward to reading anything that will explain to me the value to Twitter and how to best use it. 

I'm not crazy about people "following" me that really don't have any interest in me and I in them.  Sounds strange to me.

It's hard for me to think that there's anyone in this world would want to know what I'm doing round the clock.

Kate

I have a twitter account but don't tweet and don't give a twit, seldom log on to see what's going on.  My business seems to be doing fine without it and if something "ain't" broke, I'm not about to fix it.  Thanks for the post.  Illustrates and validates some suspicions of many.

So happy to read this excellent post.  I've felt the same all along but could never have said it so perfectly.  I still wonder about social media hookup requests I get from people I've never heard of. 

Jeff, the comments here resonate what I've been feeling about twitter. I can't find the people I know that I follow because of all the people I folow that I DON'T know. You are exactly correct, building community takes time and effort. So do you recommend un-following people whom I don't know? Thanks ~ Sharon

You have made a good point.  If your just into a bunch of numbers, it really won't get you too far.

Well, I'm glad to learn that I wasn't being anti-social by not following all the people who want to follow me. I always check their profile to see what is there, and if it's not beneficial then I don't follow. What surprised me was those that would leave after 12 hr or so. Now I understand what is happening.

I also had seen some people with hundreds of followers and they were following hundreds, yet they only had one or two tweets.

Now I'm off to prune my list since I know that I don't have to feel guilty about it. Thanks for all your hard work.

I do like Twitter for the news feeds.

Jeff,

Unfortunatley I feel like I am with William. It sounds Hebrew to me. I somehow understand that it is unreasonable to have thousands and thousands of friends, so I do not see much value in these numbers.

But my problem is biggger, I am too far from the cutting edge and this is reallysad.

I signed up with something that follow me and I follow them automatically.  I immediately discontinued the use before I even left the website.  It has now taken over, and no matter how many times I try to unsubscribe, it still keeps adding twitter followers.  I hate it!

Jeff - Great article!  I'm looking forward to the next installment!

Jeff: Very interesting post... I'm still learning more about tweeter... Now I have TweetDeck... I like posting my AR to Twitter and FB at the same time. Wish we could send to more as well.

Cindy, if you change your password to Twitter, the service will not be able to continue to perform those actions.

I think I like to choose my own friends...uh, followers :)

I couldn't agree more.

Thanks alot Jeff - you just took up an hour of my time trying to understand what the heck this was all about, click here, click there, read this, check out that, and once again, I'm totally happy you did.  How in the heck do you come up with and figure this stuff out?  Dang you're good!!  This was totally interesting and fascinating.   You never cease to amaze me my friend.  Really!  btw - are you following me?  lol~

@Roland - try ping.fm  :-)

Jeff, thanks for all the info, though to be tgruthful, I don't think I understood it all.  I don't think it's about the numbers, it's definitely about the about the relationships but other than signing up, I don't twitter and look forward to your posts giving us some insight on how to use it effectively.

Jeff, thanks for the investigative and illuminating Twitter expose.  To make any of these social networking sites work for a business, requires some real effort and time.

Jeff - great post! Social media can be overwhelming to many people. This experiment was very informative and interesting!

I have thoroughly enjoyed your tutorials about Twitter and have tried to implement your suggestions. You are so right about all those so called twit genius's!

I do Twitter, but only follow people who are interesting to me, and I do unfollow people who turn out to write a constant stream of annoying tweets.

Russell...

Twit Genius's? That Sir...May be a contraction in terms :)

TLW...ROAR!

Great post Jeff.

It sounds like twitter is a lot like direct mail, large numbers are good but it doesn't guarantee results.

Jeff - The value of Twitter is questionable, as far as I can tell, for community building.  I am on there, but I like Facebook better.  Excellent write- up.

It is a new platform that has not been put to test yet. .  I know there is power with having thousands of followers.. but in real estate, that will be much better if it was locally.

I am deep into the Twitterverse, just passed the 2,000 follower threshold, and looking at what many people like Jeff here are saying about the best way to use this tool.

Part of me looks at this like a mass mailing. You must send out 5,000 pieces a month for 6 months for a mail campaign to work. So it would seem that playing the numbers game would be common sense.

BUT......

Unlike mailings, there is a way to engage w/ others via Twitter. I have been taking the time to look at each profile, check out their streams, and find people that fit the demographics and/or content I desire.

Then I use Tweetdeck to put them into categories. This really helps me to follow and engage people more effectively, my only goal is to create good relationships.

At the end of the day, there are no shortcuts to relationship building, but sites like Twitter and Facebook have made it possible to spread our wings to a much wider audience! These tools ARE a waste of time if you do not put in the work, educate yourself on how to use them, and create a solid action plan.

Thanks for the great post, and as always, I can not wait for the next one!

Have a Profitable Day Everyone!

- Harrison

P.S. Fernado, Tweetdeeck can help you create local categories, and I have been using TwitterLocal lately as well.

Jeff... nice post and thanks for sharing. You are so very right, 

Getting followers is easy. Building a community is hard.

I'm torn, Twitter has been a very valuable tool for me yet sometimes it seems like high school (and I have no desire to repeat that experience). I've found great people, ideas, websites, and resources I don't think I would have found any other way. But now that Twitters use has gone up 700% it's appeal has somewhat diminshed for me. I remind myself to be patient, this wave will pass and those that don't use it as a tool or resource will get bored and move on.

I love Yammer.com, we use it at our company and it's a great way to keep in touch with a very select group. You all have to have the same @company.com email address.

Rene'

Really great post.  It is all about the interaction.  And I think @garyvee said it best with this tweet. http://twitter.com/garyvee/status/1542951878

Although I have an account and check it a few times a week, I really do not see the value of twitter.  I usually get about 2-5 people following a week.  Heck, I don't know these people. But, I do check out their profiles and see how many followers they have.  But, I usually do not follow them.

I've got all these followers and all these email. Hundreds new a day. I finally changed by email account to another one I don't look at to figure out what I need to do. Perhaps you can help us who are trying to figure out how to make this work.

Hubba...

Do you know that every time a post about Twitter hits the dashboard we get all kinds of requests to follow? Why is that? :)

TLW...ROAR!

Umm, what the heck is YEO? :) I like twitter. I didn't get it at first, but now I do, mostly. I've met a lot of great tweeps on twitter - I actually converse with them and have learned a lot, and will meet a number of them in person this year. I may even host a tweet-up!

I don't know......I do see some value as  just wrote a post about that yesterday and Terri from MN told me about how surgeons are using twitter for important stuff.  It's still a mystery to me...and I don't have a clue as to who those are that are following me.........and more importanly why.  What they talk bout is so....garbarge.

I prefer a community that makes some sense.  Building that I can and will do on twitter land.

Dawn...

Hubba (Jeff Turner) is not around on Sundays. I'll answer that question in his absence. YEO = You Engaging Others. The following <CLICK> will take you to the post he wrote about it. He was one of the first Bloggers, aside from me, to get it :)

TLW...ROAR!

LOL!!!

Has anyone else been OCD enough to notice that when you view this post in the list of A|R Featured Posts that the post featured directly below this one is posted by Loreena Yeo... Get it???  YEO followed by Yeo.  Just a trivial fact for a slow open house Sunday! :)

Splain somethin' to me, Lucy.  I don't twitter or tweet.  What does YEO mean?  Laraine

Nevermind - I just saw TLW's comment which defines it. Laraine

Jeff, I can't keep up with the few followers I have.  I truly am finding it difficult to have enough time for Twitter, and FB, let alone my money maker, Active Rain.  I don't know HOW people are making the time to do all of this?  (Realtors, anyway).  I'm out showing for 10-12 hours a day.  How do they handle all of this?  I'd love to know.  Maybe their days are longer than mine, lol. 

I get how it works, or could work for me, but need to engage myself more.  I enjoy "meeting" new people and getting to know them.

Great post , maybe its the over 40 thing but i'm still not exactly sure of what I am doing on twitter. I have learned some great things from the people I follow and quite frankly have no interest in famous people ( unless they want want to buy a house from me). It's still a major learning curve and I will keep at it . There are a lot of great people sharing information all over the web, I hope at some point I can bring something of value to the table.

Jeff,

Are you telling me that Brittney Spears really isn't interested in my exciting tweets?  I got a laugh to start my day today when I saw that her group of internet specialists were following me.  Why in the heck I do not know.

Steve

Seems like we are racing headlong to a goal of never having a face to face, live interaction with anyone........ ever. Is quantity over quantity what we really want? Just an old fart's opinion/concern

I love twitter but it can be a time sucker if you let it.  I'm with several of the above posters in that I really do try to look at anyone following me to see if they are someone I want to follow back - are they someone that fits in with my little group I've got going on.  That's how I look at it - I want to learn from them and hope they can learn from me - plus have a little fun with personal stuff.  I've made some fabulous contacts in my industry through twitter and feel that I've really connected with some of them. 

Twitter isn't for everyone - just like Facebook isn't - I can't stand Facebook, but love AR, LinkedIn and Twitter.  I think each person needs to find their own particular groove and go with it.  I don't want to get tons of followers or follow tons of people - I want to actually read and appreciate what everyone says and when you have so many - it just isn't possible. 

I appreciate your input on this.  I was wondering how people follow  so many and keep up any valuable interaction.  I haven't been following my followers so automatically as I was when I first started.  I'm selective now. 

I've had MySpace and Twitter for some time; they are primarily personal creative outlets for me and Twitter is a bit of 'personality' for my websites. I don't do much real estate chat on either although I don't operate in stealth either.
I love Twitter's 140 character limit.
It's good writing practice; making a point with limited space. :)

www.twitter.com/CandiceD 

LOL Jeff, amazing thing happened as I picked up your blog link on AR. 

As I was reading your article about not getting sucked into the Twitter numbers game, I received 13 new followers in about 10 minutes...LOL nothing before hand, just as I was reading your blog. 

I use Twitter as a sneak preview of somethings I'm working on, whether a new listing, promoting a home, or putting together a new video blog entry.  Sometimes I've used it to randomly tweet whats happening at the moment and I've tweeted my GAS receipt when the machine at the pump didnt print one out for me. 

Imagine printing out your Tweets to show your mileage and gas usage for your CPA to compute the deduction on your taxes?  Hmmmm...

Thanks Jeff!

Hubba & Hubba's wifey--(you're doing SUCH a fine job this beautiful Sunday!)--I can't keep up with so many on Twitter OR Facebook--it's all I can do to keep up with my favorite five here on AR! 

I want to be the trusted advisor to my closest family, friends and clients and adding a few close-knit Twitterers to that group is the best I can do.  I want to be able to continue to give A+ service and if I'm spread too thin, I just can't do that. 

Don't get me wrong--I LOVE this social media thing, as I am able to keep in touch with far more people than I ever could before but, I don't want 10,000 followers to think that I can give them the same attention that I give my best girlfriend here in Charlotte (which isn't enough--my hubby even complains that there isn't enough of me to go around)!

How can I be a trusted advisor if I'm not able to answer questions in a timely fashion because I'm spread too thin?

Too much emphasis on social media. My best business is face to face, and referral based, and I'm very busy.

Jeff - I too choose whom to follow and whom to let follow me..... It is my right after all no? Good to see you back and looking forward to YEO Thursdays. Yay We missed you on here dude. Welcome back.

Steve - When I saw the title of this post, I thought someone spoke to me directly. I remembered Jeff's original post about YEO and I absolutely agree with it.

Well said!  You shouldn't go on Twitter to just get lots of followers but you should aim for quality followers and that means building a community.

You've proven that it is easy to get followers and I imagine it will be even easier after the Oprah bump that is going to happen. You are also right about how useless most of these numbers are. I have actually been going through the list of people I FOLLOW and unfollowing many that don't post often or are unrelated to things of interest to me.

Hey Jeff, I don't really care how many followers that I have on twitter. I do care what's happening with them... I read the post that you linked to. Really interesting. Only 2 people noticed that you changed names several times & changed gender?

I did not read all the responses, so if I am redundant, I apologize.

I feel Twitter should be more about quality and not quantity.

I am about to go to a REBarCamp in PDX, and someone posted a tweet saying that x number of scheduled attendees have 1,000 twitter followers or more.  The cyber high fives followed.  I don't have 10% of that number, but if I followed everyone that sent me a follow, I sure would.   I don't want to follow someone that has 1,000 followers, 4 updates and they are all promoting a weight loss plan.  I am not following anyone who is using Twitter to exclusively sell something.  Every post is either welcoming a follower, a quote that I don't care about that they randoming pulled off the 'net, or is an ad.  I don't care.  Really.

I have openly chastised some Realtors that are exclusively using Twitter to promote their listings.  That is not what Twitter is about, and unless you have some content, people will unfollow.  That is OK if they do not get it, more room for me to find clients.

Great and important post.  To those who want to dismiss the numbers game entirely, it seems unreasonable.   After all, it seems like that is almost the definition of the life of a realtor.

Twitter is in the shitter! For get about it!

I cannot begin to list the "invitations" to Twitter, Facebook, etc., etc., etc., this or that "social network" blogs I've received.

My goodness!  There are only 16 working hours in my day. 

I'm still trying to figure out the benefit of Twitter.  Still trying.  Still trying. 

O.K.  I opened a Facebook business page.  I could have posted a real estate related Localism post in the time it took me to join a social network that has little to no interest. 

Will someone kindly show me the benefit to my business for Twitter or Facebook or the hundred others that have invited me to join?????

If I'm going to get a backlink to Homefinders.com, it will be worth the time. If not, not.

This is the most substantive post that I have read on Twitter.  I followed a number of the links and found them very informative, too.  Point well taken and you, Mr. Turner, are always engaging.  Thanks, Jeff.

I guess I just haven't had the time to tweet around!

Thank you for the post and the information. I had no idea.

As the saying goes, "it's not the quantity, but the quality". Who needs 3,255 followers, anyway? Who can keep up with that many too? Good post. Thanks.

Very well written post. The numbers don't mean anything unless you are able to form a community.

Jeff:   No doubt my comment here will get lost in the 100+ shuffle, but I just wanted to say 'Thanks!' for helping to dispel much of the confusion that prevails regarding the effective use of Twitter, especially as it relates to following/followers.

I would like to hear more from you on the subject of building a Twitter Community.  I posted on a comment last night that I felt the entire numbers came was stupid as I cannot possible have a relationship with that many people.  Nor them with me.  I feel like a part of the Borg Collective.

Don't twitter, if you don't get-her.  To follow can be hollow, so don't wallow. 

Stay sweet if you don't tweet.  Focus on the ones you are with.  ; )  ~ JC

I just started on twitter, and immediately went to the tutorials. I am so glad I found your post here. Now I know that I need to make my own judgements about building a following on twitter, rather than jus following the tutorials that emphasize "growing" your followers list.

I must admit that I don't quite get the Twitter thing.  I see the value in FB, Active Rain and LinkedIn but haven't quite figured Twitter out.  And I agree I don't want a bunch of followers (or friends on FB).  I want people that I can connect with.  There would be no way to keep up with that many followers.  Love your posts BTW.

I always enjoy reading your stuff Jeff. Thanks for this one too!

I'm glad you confirmed what I've thought all along - - I don't want followers (stalkers) and my peeps don't tweet!

My wife is pushing 900 followers on Twitter.  I think many of them are simply following a pretty face!  :)

I'm still not sold on Twitter unless a person has a niche and stays focused on that niche when Tweeting.  ~ Joe :)

wow, some people get really opinionated on this subject.  Great post.  And thanks to TLW for explaining YEO.

Great post Jeff,

I think I stay disconnected from some parts of social media because I don't feel like there is a real person behind it. Its seems to be just a matter of meaningless tweets. You reach out and get nothing. Thanks for the information. I look forward to your info on Thursday.

Jeff - There is a certain irony here.  I started to follow you on Twitter.  I also started to follow

C. David Dent after following a link from your blog.  All of a sudden, I have a lot more followers, lol. 

I follow back selectively:  I go & read their tweets and see if it makes sense to engage with this person.  Anyhoo.. 

Margaret... that irony is not lost on me. :)

Personally I feel the number of Twitter followers is like the number of AR Points.  It is not about the points but about the quality of content in each blog post and with Twitter it is about interacting with others and networking...how can you interact with 10,000 people?

Jeff, thank you.  I am still trying to figure out the Twitter thing.  This helps.

Fascinating post Jeff! I had no idea of the Twitter tools out there!

You make your point very effectively.

Jeff, Great information and please keep these Twitter articles going!

You're directly responsible for me being on Twitter, which has become less compelling than it used to be, due to too many useless robotic followers.  But today I attended a succesful tweetup which was fun and it's renewed by Twinterest.  So, thanks!