Comments on The Lovable Rogue: A Discussion of Authority in Twitter

Absolutely, Danny; couldn't agree more. Surely a ...

2009-01-05T14:07:00.000Z

Absolutely, Danny; couldn't agree more. Surely a retweet from someone with only a handful of followers counts for significantly more than an individual with tens of thousands of followers?

TLR

Hey, Jesse. Apologies for misinterpreting your co...

2009-01-05T14:04:00.000Z

Hey, Jesse. Apologies for misinterpreting your comments. I was following the situation develop on the iPhone FriendFeed interface last week when you and Robert Scoble where discussing the Le Meur's comments, and I found the conversation fascinating. For those that didn't actually see Jesse's post on Louise Gray's blog, I have enclosed a link here

I am still hugely sceptical about your suggestion to follow those that follow you; which incidently is something that you and I have discussed on Gray's blog. Whilst I can understand your comment that simply following a follower establishes a connection, the noisier Twitter becomes through spam, blatant marketing and pointless content, the more important it becomes to apply filter and selection techniques. If someone truly focuses on making their potential value to others obvious, then the likelihood of their being 'followed' skyrockets. I would personally far rather focus on clearly demonstrating my value to others than simply fall into a mindset where I expect others to follow me. Unfortunately, I think that this is one of the areas where I will not be easily convinced!

Once again, Jesse, apologies for any misinformation I may have included in the post, and thanks for sharing your thoughts.

TLR

I've always been of the opinion that it's not quan...

2009-01-05T04:45:00.000Z

I've always been of the opinion that it's not quantity, it's quality (and you can pretty much take that into any facet of life, online and off).

As you mention, with auto-follow tools and many marketers using the same tactics on Twitter as they do elsewhere (numbers, numbers, numbers) it offers no real guide to a user's authority.

A Twitter user with less than 10 followers can offer just as much (if not more) authority than someone with 10,000. For instance, do 1,000 "auto" re-Tweets on behalf of a superstar carry any more credence than 10 re-Tweets from a low-count Twitter user? I'm not sure - many people re-Tweet something simply because it came from one of the Twitter power users.

But a re-Tweet on behalf of someone with low follower count? That says to me they're saying something equally powerful.

I'll stick with the community over the impunity every time, thanks.

I think if you read my article on LouisGray.com ag...

2009-01-04T10:21:00.000Z

I think if you read my article on LouisGray.com again, you'll find that I'm actually more in agreement with Scoble. I was simply trying to take the middle ground. You can't build relationships without followers, plain and simple. At the same time, it's important you follow those followers, and build relationships with them to make the most of the people that do follow you. Thanks for the mention!