Today I received an email from Mike Dillard, stating that he has had a change of heart regarding his Twitter account.  Orignally, Social Media Maven Perry Belcher had convinced him to follow everyone that followed him, out of politeness, and to increase the number of Mike’s followers.  but now, Mike is going to UN-FOLLOW 10,000 PEOPLE?  That seems crazy.

In Mike’s own words, here is his logic…

And if everyone is just “reciprocal following” everyone, it’s not because they WANT to listen to that person, but because they’re trying to increase their exposure and number of followers…”

In the end, reciprocal following simply dilutes the power of an application like Twitter because it’s a behavior that’s motivated by greed instead of authenticity, just so we can all enjoy the illusion of having more followers…”

OK Mike, I hear what you’re saying, but honestly, I DON’T AGREE.  Twitter is a tool for CONNECTING with people.  If you only follow the people you know, then how will you network and meet new people?  I’ve recently made some great new friends on Twitter.  There are some people who have just started following me, that look very interesting to me.  They could be future friends, affiliates, business associates, or even JV partners.

OK, I don’t agree with Perry Belcher either.  I don’t follow every single person that follows me.  Politeness?  Rubbish.  I follow MOST people that follow me.  If they have interesting tweets (posts), and seem to bring VALUE to the community, I want to follow them.  I have gotten some great tips, and been directed to some great links by people who I’ve never met.  I’ve never even interacted with them on Twitter.  Of course, these are the people who make it to my “special” feed on TweetDeck, as I will try to interact with them at some point.  These are the people I want to get to know.

As Twitter goes mainstream, there will be a lot of debate on this subject.  What are your thoughts?

Shecky

PS  Oh yeah…follow me HERE on Twitter

http://twitter.com/ReallyShecky