How Annoying is Following?
7 January, 2009Today I decided to try an experiment on following and followers and their behavior. I found a tip on the blog of @TheBusyBrain. He suggests to follow all his followers and see how many of them follow in return. To do this experiment I didn’t want to add hundreds of followers to my basic account @artgrrlas I would have to read thousands of tweets all day long, I need my tweetfree moments too! On my new experimental account @twesisI did not just click on the followers of @TheBusyTrain but also on followers of followers and people I follow through my frst account. Anyway, after about 800 followers I stopped and before lunch I already had more than 120 users following me back and almost 40 direct messages and @replies in which some thanked me for following them. Some of these direct messages are automatically created by SocialToo. I should automatically follow anyone who follows me now, but I still have to click users by hand, oh well. As I write this I have about 200 followers and 60 direct messages.
Following and making friends on Twitter is quite different than on other social network sites I think. On Hyves and Facebook I have only a handful of friends I’ve never met in person. Then again I don’t share much personal information on Twitter either. On my first account I do not follow everbody in return though (sorry, I have to be honest here). In this experiment I have to wait for 24 hours and see how many followers I have by then. I think I also follow most people of the Amsterdam Poken meetup now, see what happens there. To follow and to be followed is still fascinating to me, I want to understand it and therefore I have to do it. It’s all part my the participatory research. I wonder if people think it’s annoying that strangers follow them, or do they collect them no matter who they are? Why do people follow in the first place?
It’s not annoying if we find new fans that love good entertainment. Come see us when you are in Hollywood sweetie!
Hugs,
Buns and Chou Chou
I’ve to say following and being followed by other is very fascinating because we all now what happen to them. But it will be annoying if them post very quickly
Nice experiment. I usually don’t actively try to follow people, but if I see their names come up and they’re saying something interesting, I will. I try to follow people who seem like they were sincerely interested in following me. I like it if people I follow also follow me back so it feels like there’s a real back-and-forth exchange. It drives me crazy when I follow somebody back, and their robot thanks me for following them.
I follow people because I am interested in what they have to say, to have discussions with them.
The higher amount of followers means most of the time that a lot of people are interested in what the followed one has to say.
The followed ones only follow you if they are interested in you. so you need to build up a relationship with them. Trigger them and get a connection. Than they will follow you and afterwards you have to keep in touch and take care of the relationship.
As in life.
Good luck with your thesis.
If you do it well you can go deep into the network.
Best wishes
Sonja
i suggest you install some automated semantic analysis tools… this will assist you in following all your followers en keep you on track of the informationflow
Thanks for the blog post. I was wondering how/why you followed.
I don’t know how people find me in order to follow me, but I only follow back if they’re interesting. I also hate it when the entire front page is @replies. It’s like an inside joke I’m not in on.
But yeah… when I get those random follows from strangers it is a little odd.
I was just complaining to myself today regarding the social aspects of Twitter. I’m new there but I haven’t had many conversations with anyone regarding the usual etiquette. But from day 1, I only followed people I genuinely wanted to get tweets from. Not people that tweet: “went to the bathroom”; “did laundry”; “looked in the mirror.”
I mean do I really want to use my spare internet time reading these types of tweets? I don’t think so.
Interesting to see the mechanism alive. On twesis you hardly ever post publicly but mostly @replies or direct messages. Rather funny to see that just following many brings you many follower.
What would happen after unfollowing most? Will there still be many followers for twesis? I wonder…