Because of the success (or failure, depending on who you ask) of #followfriday, I field a lot of email, tweets and (even an interview or two) about Twitter memes.

People want to know how to start their own. People want to know what it takes to make their spanking new meme as big as #followfriday. Usually, I answer the same way: “I dont know.”

After all, lets a moment to reflect on the beginnings of #followfriday. I sent a tweet, I asked a couple of friends to send a similar tweet. I went to work. Tens of thousands of people began to send tweets with #followfriday in them.

Between the going to work and tens of thousands of people sending #followfriday tweets, I did NOTHING. I didnt register the @followfriday username, didnt really care about the FollowFriday.com domain. I just went to Lijit and sat in a few meetings and sent an email or two (and perhaps, given it was Friday, wrote a blog post).

Thats it.

So a better question becomes, why do I THINK #followfriday became so big, and such a vital part of the Twitter landscape?

There are three pieces to the pie:

1) it was easy.

2) it allowed people to show off the cool people they follow.

3) it made people feel good about themselves.

Thats it.

Oh, and by the way, the name “followfriday”? It wasnt mine. It was a suggestion. A great suggestion.

Why was it followFRIDAY? Because it happened to be Friday when I sent the first tweet.

Now since January, when #followfriday started, there have been dozens and dozens of attempts to start day-based twitter memes. None have really taken off in the same way. Is it because #followfriday is so amazing? While I wish I could claim that, in truth, #followfriday made any other day-based meme appear to be a copy. Which took some of the steam out of the sails of that attempted meme.

Would it be possible to have another day-based meme? Probably. #musicmonday seems to be taking off. (although I dont know why this hasnt migrated to Blip.fm so I can actually listen to the recommended music)

Which is interesting. It seems that recommendation is really the key to a sustained Twitter meme.

Lets add that as a fourth component. Now, its:

1) it was easy.

2) it allowed people to show off the cool people they follow.

3) it made people feel good about themselves.

4) RECOMMENDATION

Twitter, as a short form of communication, and as a thought dump, doesnt allow for recommendation. I cant on my twitter page highlight users that I would recommend to others. We all know that the Twitter suggest list is a bullshit potential monetized list of people, who individually add little or no overall value.

So why hasnt twitter come up with a recommendation system for users? Well, its really hard. I could recommend the same person to a dozen people, and eleven of those people might not like my recommendation.

Recommendation is a highly personalized activity. My influence and track record affect how my recommendations are accepted for a short time, but if I continually make bad recommendations, that cache is lost.

Its why there is a movement to make #followfriday what it was: one or two recommendations with reasons.

Of course, recommendation only fits into a sustained twitter meme. The event driven twitter memes (#MJdied) are driven by the events themselves. The humor memes (#3wordsaftersex) are driven by the humor, which tends to fizzle in the short attention-span world of twitter.

Why is recommendation so important for sustained Twitter memes? Is it because there are no other vehicles for recommendation within twitter? Is it because we as an internet generation just love the ability to recommend? Or is it our desire to show/share what we know/like? (There is a great opportunity to go on a Facebook/FriendFeed “like” discussion here…but I wont.)

I dont know.

But I do know, that I take intense pleasure in sharing/recommending/liking my friends and the great things they do.

Which makes me glad there is a #followfriday.

And, makes me want to start a #sundayshout where I share blog posts/pictures/videos/etc that my friends have made, or I have found online, every sunday morning. It reminds me of reading the Sunday paper with my parents and sharing things we are reading from the various sections of the paper.

Will it work?

I have no idea.

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There is a trend on Twitter. Its an awful, awful trend.

At least, I think its awful.

People are changing their Twitter names to their real names.

Can you believe it?

Truthfully, I am not sure how I feel.

Today, my friend Frank Gruber, who always introduces himself as “Frank Gruber, of SomeWhatFrank,” (the name of his blog), changed his twitter name to @FrankGruber. He claims that a recent post by Chris Messina (who I have never met, but admired from afar for awhile) helped to convince him of the change.

Chris’ post is well written. His writes:

So factoryjoe isn’t going away — not entirely at least. It’s a useful vessel to inhabit and I’ll continue to do so. But on Twitter, Facebook, and on my homepage, I’ll use my real name. There is simply no longer a good reason to differentiate between who I am online, and who I am off, if ever there was.

I have never used a pseudonym. I have always been micahb37 (on AIM/Y!/MSN/flickr and many other services), micahb (on gtalk, gmail, and other newer services) or micah (primarily on Twitter, but other stuff too).

My primary reason was always simple. I could never think of anything better than my uncommon given name of Micah.

Over time, that reason began to also include the even simpler philosophy of Popeye: “I ams What I ams.”

I have never felt the need to separate my online and offline identities. I dont know why. Its not like I made the choice one day. I just have never seen the need.

Perhaps its the conscience of self that my parents inadvertently taught my sisters and me by being supportive of the choices we have made. Or perhaps its the realization that my “online” me is really just another side of the “offline” me, which at the end of the day, is just me.

And here comes the tangent…

Of all the things one person can give another, I cherish trust above all else. It is the hardest thing to earn, and the easiest to lose. I try to be consistent in my actions and reactions to ensure that people continue to trust me, and that starts for me, with my name.

If the first thing I do is provide a fake name, what does that say about my ability to earn your trust?

Ok, back on point (I think).

Why do I dislike the movement of people on twitter going to their real names?

I dont know. It feels like a loss of identity. It feels like a loss of “flavor.”

But, what I like is that people are beginning to realize that there is no such thing as personal brand, or online brand, or offline brand. There is just you.

And who be you be?

UPDATE: FollowFridays.com has now launched. Check it out!

Give ideas on how to improve #followfriday here.

Followers on Twitter are an interesting thing. There is much discussion about how its not how many followers one has, but how many people you follow.

Yet, for some reason, people still grade themselves on followers. Loic Le Meur (which Michael Arrington agreed with) suggested that a filter be added to Twitter’s search function that allows the searcher to sort by number of followers.

Often, I get people asking me to tweet out that my followers should follow them. (Of course, as the Anti-Christ of Twitter, people usually lose followers when I do that).

Yesterday morning, I was having an IM conversation with my friends Jeffrey and Danny. Both are among my favorite people.

Danny is one of the first people I met when I moved to Colorado, and I was an advisor on one of his early startups, Zuvo. We have been friends for a long time, and he is one of the smartest, most creative people I know.

Jeffrey I met recently. He moved to Colorado several months ago, when a portion of his company skinnyCorp, who run Threadless, (If you havent bought stuff from Threadless, you just arent cool) moved here. As the Chief Creative Officer of skinnyCorp, Jeffrey not only is a designer but an idea creator.

Jeffrey and Danny are both highly intelligent, creative, humorous people, that I enjoy hanging out with daily. Their tweets are no different.

As I got ready to go into the Lijit office (I was moving slowly because I thought it was Saturday.), I started thinking about how proud I was to be friends with Danny and Jeffrey, and more people should follow them on twitter. So I sent this tweet out:

First Follow Friday Tweet

Almost immediately afterwards, Mykl Roventine (@myklroventine) suggested:

FollowFriday hashtag suggestion

Which, of course, was brilliant. I then sent direct messages to a few of my friends: Chris Brogan, Erin Kotecki Vest, Aaron Brazell, Jim Kukral and Andrew Hyde (who decided to not participate, calling it a “spammer lovefest”) asking them to retweet a simple message “Follow Fridays – suggest someone to follow / everyone follow / use the hashtag #followfriday”

And, then I headed into the office and my first meeting of the day.

When I got back to my office, and finally fired up my machine, #followfriday tweets were flying all over twitter. It was wild. It continued throughout the day:

FollowFriday Usage Graph

Near the end of the day, almost every half second, a tweet went out with the hashtag #followfriday.

At the end of the day, I decided my final FollowFriday tweet would suggest two people that have taught me important lessons. Matt Hessler (@fasterstill) has taught me the importance of friendship, and Meg Fowler (@megfowler) who has taught me the importance of love. Interestingly, Matt and I have been friends for years and talk every day. Meg I met several months ago online, and have never met in real life. Quite the juxtaposition.

Final Follow Friday Tweet

It was awesome. By the end of the day, my name was no longer associated with the tweets. Which was awesomer.

It had taken on a life of its own. Which was awesomest.

Here is what twitter was able to confirm for me: People are proud of their friends.

It wasnt hard for people to suggest folks to follow, because everyone has people they follow that they find interesting, insightful, funny, intelligent or whatever it is that makes you love to interact with another person (online or off).

Maybe, instead of all the various reasons marketing and social media experts have put out there about why twitter has become so successful, the real reason is that people enjoy relationships with people they can be proud of, and in return, want other people to be proud of them.

If you cant be proud of who you call friend; and in return if others cant be proud to know you, then you are doing it wrong.

Doesnt sound so complicated to me.

Update: A couple of people asked me if I got any new followers. I get about 50-60 new followers daily (with about 20-30 unfollows every day). Yesterday, according to my email from SocialToo (my friend Jesse Stay‘s startup), I got 229 new followers, with 26 people unfollowing.

I cant recommend SocialToo and Jesse Stay enough.

Tonight I declared Twitter bankruptcy.

Earlier today, I joked with a friend that had unfollowed me on Twitter.

I said:

Three – you unfollowed me on twitter. I almost deleted my account that day, because it was a black, black day in the micah twitter world. I am only joking through my tears… :)

He said:

No worries ;) I still read every blog entry. I could explain better in person. I think you are one of the most awesomest people in the industry, I just use twitter differently than others. (emphasis mine)

For some reason, that really got me thinking. What do I use Twitter for?

Until now, it was clear to me. Access and interaction. I have tweeted my cell phone number (720-231-7120). I have tweeted my exact location via brightkite (add me if you want to). I tended to tweet often (according to TweetStats).

But as most things go, has Twitter value changed for me? Was I using it differently than others? Should I change how I use Twitter?

I took a look at the people that I admire for their openness, accessibility, quality of message, frequency of message and purpose of message.

There was a pretty big range.

My friends like Chris Brogan, Gary Vaynerchuk and Robert Scoble [people that use twitter both as an interactive tool and as a promotional tool] tended to follow about as many people as followed them. In most cases, the number of followers/following numbered in the tens of thousands. They tweet about 60 times per day.

My friends like Brad Feld and Eric Marcoullier [people that use twitter as a brain dump and a interactive tool] tended to have a couple of thousand followers, but only follow a couple of hundred folks. They tend to tweet about 6-7 times per day. (Apparently except for drunken times in Las Vegas at CES. One more ice cream tweet from you, Brad Feld, and you are unfollowed!)

I sat squarely in the middle. I have about 3,000 followers and followed around 750 people. I tweet 20 times per day. Most of my tweets were random thoughts, interactions or promotions.

So what to do? Experiment time.

I decided to do three things:

1) I would go through my following list (770+) and cull it. The intent was to get down to 200-300.

2) I would tweet less per day. Not sure how much less, but perhaps half as much?

3) Because I am tweeting less, I decided I needed to be more thoughtful about what I tweet as well as more judicious with the @replies. Basically, before replying ask myself this question “Is this something that would benefit everyone, or just that one person?” If it was just that one person, I would send a DM.

Seems simple enough.

I started culling. Here are the rules I followed (pun not intended!) to unfollowing:

• Do you follow me?
• Do I recognize you?
• Do I remember a tweet from you in the last week?
• Do I feel bad unfollowing you for any reason?
• Have I met you face to face AND have we interacted more than if we were at a cocktail party?
• Do I consider you a friend?

My following list went from 770-ish to 427, a lost of about 340-ish.

The next step was to determine why I would follow someone:

• They interact with me enough to become an “online connection”;
• I have dinner or drinks with them;
• The potential for sex (just checking if you are still with me, or if you have completely puked by now);
• Their preferred form of communication is twitter.

It was amazing. I set up Tweetdeck with four columns. All Friends, Direct Messages, Search @micah (so I can get all replies), and a Group: Friends (which is a subset of All Friends). People I hadnt see a tweet from in awhile, but were people that I really like, started to bubble up. Suddenly, the enormous cocktail party in a ball room, became a lavish dinner party at my house (if my house could fit 400 people in it lavishly).

I began to enjoy twitter more. It was like when I first started using Twitter when I was excited to see what my friends were saying.

For the next week or so, I am going to keep my following number low. I think its interesting and useful to understand the different ways that Twitter can be used. I will try and keep my tweeting to around 10 per day, with 3-4 of those @replies. There will be probably a huge jump in my direct message count, IMs, emails and other forms of content. Most of my tweets will be brain dumps (ideas) or promotional. Most of my @replies will be interactive in nature.

Curious to see if it modifies other online behavior (will people follow me less; unfollow me more?) Will I use Facebook, instant messaging, or (gasp!) the phone more?

Will I blog more often?

Hmmmm…..

Funny story.

When I read about Twitter a year or so ago, it was called a “presence based application.” Meaning it was about what you were doing (where you were present) rather than what you were thinking or about conversation. I was consulting at the time, having just sold my company, and I was working with a company that was focused on hyper-local content.

“Have you heard about presence based applications?” I mentioned to the CEO, trying to sound “with it.”

“No,” he replied.

So, I started to explain the idea of an instant messaging system that allowed one to announce where and what they were doing, and how well that concept worked with local content.

“I think its called Twatter.”

As we pulled it up on the CEO’s 30″ monitor, I chuckled as a loud, blinking male gay porn site loaded.

“I guess thats not it.”

Soon there after, I learned the proper URL and signed up. My early tweets answered the question “What Are You Doing?” as laid out by the site. But soon, that just wasnt enough. I did what I always do: I did what I wanted to do.

And, strangely, Twitter changed with me (not because of me). It became more of a communication medium. Please started putting an @ sign in front of other people’s usernames to directly reply. Twitter soon added support for both direct messages and @replies. And, usage grew.

Even more interestingly, people started added me. I had added 50 or 60 people to start, mostly from the public timeline or people that I had heard of or were friends, but with little thought. I just added people.

After a couple of months, I had a 100 people following me. Wow! I was pretty impressed with myself. 100 people are interested in what I say. Pretty cool.

I started to watch what I tweeted. Tried to make it interesting, and quickly became bored. I went back to what I do in real life, just saying what I am thinking. And my following list grew.

I continued to evolve my Twitter usage. I would tweet out blog posts I had written and had read. I interacted with other people on Twitter. I tweeted random thoughts and things that made me laugh. But, mostly, I participated in what was clearly becoming a community.

In college, I studied philosophy. I did it, because I thought philosophy was easy. Like most things in college, I was disappointed in the difficulty of the course. It was really hard. Like REALLY HARD.

But, I do remember one thing. John Locke spoke about society and laws. His analogy was that society was like a horse corral and that laws were the corral itself. People could do what they wanted within the corral (free will), but were bound by laws (which were decided on by the society itself). Jump the corral, you were outside the law and no longer protected.

Groups define their own laws and characteristics.

I read many blog posts about “Twitter Etiquette” and laughed. The proper way for people to interact within the accidental community that Twitter built was to conform to the laws and rules defined by the community itself. People could relay those rules in a post, but they couldnt create them.

I wondered if there were content laws. Could I say something that would get me booted from the community? Lose followers en masse? I tend to be a person that says anything in real life, so I started to do the same on Twitter.

I swore. I said shocking things. I wrote about things most people dont discuss (bodily functions for example). Yet, my follower list continued to grow.

There was only two rules that I abide by: “First, judge only what I have written. If it made me laugh, it was good enough. If it made me think, it worked. If it felt real and honest to me, it was publicly consumable. Second, be unafraid. People are people. Life is life. If said with honesty and conviction, then no bad could come from my words.”

People began to interact with me more and more. I, sometimes, find the level of interaction overwhelming. I want to talk to everyone, but since its a public forum, dont want to overload those that are not interested in the conversation. But, I try.

And, now, after following hundreds and being followed by thousands, I have finally distilled how and why I use Twitter.

Why?

Its the people stupid. Its also the stupid people. (I always wanted to blog that!)

I like being part of the Twitter community and hearing so many different thoughts and viewpoints. I dont really use Twitter much for work, but I guess the image people have for me trickles over and into the image people have for Lijit.

How?

The people I follow (yes it number in the hundreds) are people I personally know, like and respect. The rest are people I like and respect and would like to get to know. If you fall into one of those two camps, I will follow you (and enjoy it).

Technically, when I am in front of a computer, I have two tabs open: The main Twitter page and a Search page. I read periodically what the front page is doing, but mostly I search on people I know have stuff to say that I will react to. I also check to see if people have @replied to me outside of the standard way (putting the @reply in the beginning of the tweet.)

When I am away from my computer, I use Tweetie on my iPhone, and have a bunch of pre-saved searches, which I check periodically. Because I am not using Lijit for work, I dont feel a need to be up to the minute with it, and will often check it at night or in the mornings.

At the end of the day, Twitter is much like everything we do in life. It is what it is, and will only change or shift based upon the efforts of the individual and collectively the group. Because Twitter is so new, individuals can change the basic ways the community interacts. Check out how Chris Brogan or Laura Fitton or Guy Kawasaki or Fred Wilson use Twitter. Each is very different, and very much the same.

I will continue to be part of the Twitter community as long as I am accepted as a contributing member, even if I occasionally tweet about masturbation. (*snicker* I used the words member and masturbation in the same sentence. *snicker*)

How do you use Twitter?

Just to get the self-promotion out of the way. Follow me on Twitter.

Today, I experienced three different aspects of Twitter, each one that I absolutely enjoy. Lets call it Shout Outs, Props and the Dozens.

The Shout Outs:

Our community is highly intelligent and giving.

Darren Rowse, who I met at SXSW, and runs a pretty popular blog called ProBlogger, tweeted that he was under the weather, and asked for submissions. In about 20 minutes he had 73. They are all posted here:

@CleverUserName - A tale of resurrection
@jdevalk – PageRank sculpting – Siloing and more
@ajvchuk - Yep these are my Twitter friends….
@frankmartin – Focus Groups – Part 4
@mjkeliher – The Shankman FTW: Facebook failing as favorite Web hub
@ninjapoodles - Life In The Slow Lane–WITH CHICKENS
@travelrants – Tips for a healthy and Safe holiday
@johnhood – Cats, Jelly Babies, FeedBurner and an iPhone wallpaper!
@spyjournal – Windows Home Server and SBS2003
@eMom - Facing the Empty Nest of My Blog and My Brand
@jdrohn74 – Ways To Knock Your Competitors Cold
@joetech – How to Replace a Broken Screen on a Casio Exilim Z60 Camera
@ColinWalker - Social media – when real life gets in the way
@Vultoor – Gata, Blogovat s-a incheiat (Romanian)
@45n5 – Affiliate Rapping
@markcoruk - We are on Reuters
@myrnaweinreich – Breath With Eckhark & Oprah On ‘A New Earth’ Chapter 4
@cmiddlebrook - 6 Months in Business – How Am I Doing?
@theunguru – What Tool Do You Use For Reading Newsgroups?
@ianternet – I dont do any sort of video blogging
@MartyJ – Query Types – Figuring out Keyword Intent
@sduffyphotos – How To: Multi-Shot Panoramic HDR Photos
@Wingnut – SEO helps everyone
@splitbrain – My Photography Equipment
@mrscrumley - Highlight Number 2: Atlanta Children’s Museum
@radix33 - Being Reciprocal
@deege – 15 beer factoids that will make you look smart
@shaicoggins – Sigma EX 30mm f1.4 DC HSM
@cdhinton – Mac vs PC
@PSPrint_Trish – Let Sleeping Husbands and Cats Lie
@CaseStevens – How To Write Great Email Follow Up Series
@micah – #1 Rule of Running From Zombies…Dont Look Back
@moneycoach – Good Friday: economics and cruxifixions
@deborahcarraro - The Everything Outside Nature Challenge
@megfowler – nine things
@DebNg - 35 Accessories Made from Recycled Materials
@remarkablogger – What Twitter Does for Me
@chris24 – Why Turning Off Comments Would Suck
@TwisterMc – Ubuntu is one Geeky OS
@MWGblog – Podcasting – It’s a Community Not an Industry
@sorenj – Even at the risk of being heroes….
@ikaronet - How To Replace Cable Television With Internet TV For Free: A Real Evidence
@trib - Real commitment or lipstick on a pig?
@amypalko – 4×4 Sources of Writing Inspiration: Unpopulated Places
@TomRoyce – Why Banks Need To Work Hard Communicating With Potential Foreclosures to Avoid Serious Damage To Homes
@uberaffiliate – The Mindset Of A Millionaire
@theotherdrummer – How to manage less by reducing more
@blantonious – Successful Social Media Marketing Requires Personal Involvement
@jenniferchait - 60 Eco-Friendly Ways to Celebrate Spring
@EverywhereTrip - The Great Ocean Road
@digitalfilipino – Creating Valuable Free Prizes to Boost Success Chances
@andrea_r – 25 New and different ways to use WordPressMU
@idesignstudios – 6 Phases of the Web Design & Development Process
@GrantGriffiths – The Pros and Cons of Working from Home — Revisited
@soultravelers3 – Kid’s View of Florence!
@waltw - Pairing Coffee and Cigars: Science or Serendipity?
@cashflowco – Are You Ready, World Math Day is Coming?
@GorillaSushi – New Media Attention Whore
@queenofkaos – Are You a Perpetual Student? WHAM Podcast #6
@sijt – Be the Jerry Springer of Blogging!
@aroberts – Best broadband deals in the UK Market
@fsechzer - How To Buy A Home Without A Real Estate Agent
@AGoodHusband – When a Husband Gets Praise and Compliments
@MenwithPens – 13.2 Easy Ways to Build a Thriving Blog Community
@mrinal_desai – Who is Your Chauffeur?
@Rachelskirts - Best Egg Hunt Ever
@tomjohnson1492 - 10 Alternate Tests for Evaluating Technical Writing Job Candidates — A List for Hiring Managers
@daveatkins – Marketing and Politics
@rachelpulido01 – Talk about Tuesday – Goals
@ScrapNancy – Why did you loan me money if you think I’m that dumb?
@RoadHog - Earthlings — A Discourse on Compassion
@palinode – five years and two months
@carterfsmith – Dear John, Where’s the Beef?

If you dont follow Darren on Twitter, please do. If you dont read his blog, you are missing one of the great blogs out there.

The Props:

Our community is teaching, learning, sharing and respecting.

Two people that I respect greatly, Chris Brogan and Gary Vaynerchuk, both had inspiring posts today. Each blew me away in different ways. The coolest thing? At the end of the day, Chris gave Gary props on his blog, and Gary returned the favor via Twitter.

If you dont follow Chris or Gary, please do. If you dont read Chris’ blog, or watch Gary’s videos (here or here), you are missing out on two of the nicest, smartest people out there.

The Dozens:

Our community is funny, witty, biting and silly.

Growing up, we played the Dozens. Basically a put down game, the idea was to “one up” the put down you received, by dropping a smarter, funnier, wittier put down. Its been called many things: Capping, Snaps, Getting Clowned, etc. but its the Dozens, dammit.

After another tweet from Jason Calacanis about his attempt to have the most followers on twitter, I finally was annoyed enough to tweet that I would donate $1 for each follower Jason lost to his favorite charity. Man, did I hit a hot button! There was a flurry of tweets, and retweets flying around. Some were really funny. Some were kinda silly.

What was the end result? Jason added about 75 new followers. Makes it even more funny.

If you havent unfollowed Jason, please do. If you do read Jason’s blog or watch him on qik or ustream, you are a lucky, lucky person. And, finally, my dogs are soooo much cuter than his.

(I do have a lot of respect for Jason and what he has accomplished. I just wish he understood the importance of community a bit more. Of course, if you tell him that I said something nice, I promise to send you links to the Tummyblr over and over.)

Twitter is an amazing reflection on people and human nature. You get what you give, and the biggest lesson that I have learned is this:

“Give And You Will Get; Take and You will Get Blogged and Tweeted about.”

I remember several months ago I read an article about the rise of “presence based applications.” One of these applications allowed people to tell other what they were doing at any given moment. The trick was that you could use only 140 characters but you could update your presence stream from any device (SMS, web or IM).

I couldnt remember the name, but I was excited about the concept. I met with a friend of mine, Perry Evans, CEO of Local Matters who was asking for some search marketing help with their new product, Local Guides.

“How cool would it be if while people were checking out local areas, they could provide a constant update of what they were doing?” I excitedly told Perry.

Now Perry is one of the smartest people I know, and always indulged my enthusiasm.

“Interesting,” Perry replied. “What’s it called?”

“Tweeker.com I think.”

As he leaned over his computer and typed the in address, my excitement shifted from excitement to horror as the browser filled with a porn site.

“Damn it,” I sighed, “thats not it.”

Soon after, I found Twitter.com and slowly I started to learn that in many ways, Twitter is communications porn.

Over the months that I have been a Twitter user, they have begun to get more and more press, and as their user base increases (now well over 700,000) the conversation has shifted from Twitter as ambient intimacy or a conversation ecosystem to the question of use/value.

Sites that rank Twitter users have begun to pop up: Tweeterboard, Twitterholic and TwitDir, as have their proponents and detractors. These are all examples of how Twitter has moved from early adopter tech lovers to more of the mainstream.

As people begin to follow more and more people, Twitter becomes more and more voyeuristic communications porn. Conversations cant be followed, external applications (thank God Twitter has a robust API) are being used by the high volume users just to keep up. Chris Brogan put up a post today that outlined in pure numbers the volume of Twitter communication he processes. Robert Scoble outlines his social media use, include his Twitter use.

But Chris and Robert are not the only folks with large numbers of friends and followers, many others are the same. Twitter does a great job of increasing accessiblity, but as the noise increases, it seems that there will become a few classifications of Twitter users (and since my brain is stuck on the porn analogy, I apologize now):

1. “Playboy” Tweeters – This group is mass consumption. They have a large number of followers and friends (probably thousands), and while they say the read it all, usually its a picture…I mean tweet, that catches this group’s eye;
2. “Maxim” Tweeters – This group has a large number of followers and a few number of friends. Every post has a tinge of ego attached, and probably has little real value.
3. “Hooters” Tweeters – This group has a large number of friends and a few followers. Their hope is the more people they friend, then the more people will friend them back. They are truly unsure of the quality of the conversation, they just want as many people as possible to listen.
4. “Swinger” Tweeters – This group is truly a closed community. People are accepted in only if vetted by a current member. Members are free to communicate openly about anything and do.
5. “Prepubescent” Tweeters – This group has a small number of friends and followers. They tend to say that they are just “learning” about what Twitter is all about.

Up until now, I have been in group 4, preferring to only follow people I know, and capping the total number of people I follow at 100. Robert puts the number at around 300 even though he is well over 6,000. After a recent post about the value of comments versus response posts, which resulted in 4-5 tweets from friends that commented on the article, plus some interesting back and forth with Chris, I have begun to rethink this strategy. In addition, these two posts:

Clarence of Do You Know Clarence? wrote (with Chris Brogan): Keys to the Gates of (Social Media) where he wrote:

That pesky word ?friend? again. It messes up a lot of this experience. Because what if we consider you a friend, but don?t want to interact with you on Twitter or Facebook, or whatever? What if the things you like to Twitter about (your dog, your car, your dining habits) aren?t something I find interesting? I like YOU, but maybe don?t have much connection to your tweets. There are symbols here. If I drop following you, am I dropping you as a friend?

Alexander van Elsas wrote on his blog in his post “Twitter makes me a groupie, I’d rather be a friend:”

I can follow other people that don?t (or don?t want to) follow me. As a result of this I am reduced to a Groupie instead of a friend. I can listen to all their messages, but I can?t reply, add to them, or choose not to answer them. I follow a few people I don?t really know, but judging from the messages they twitter, i would like to interact with them on Twitter.

Moving forward, I have decided to break my online communications into three parts to make me more a part of the conversation than a closed participant:

1. This blog – Long Form articles, more focused on a topic that (hopefully) is interesting to people. Posts should come about once a week or so primarily focused on the concept of success through failure.
2. My Tumblog – which will be short form posts, videos, pictures and music. Much more random and a better picture of the things that make me laugh or think (which honestly are the only two things I could do all day, every day.
3. And finally, Twitter. Here it will be almost an interactive stream of consciousness. Most of my tweets will be immediate and ephemeral, and I will follow (most every one) who follows me (except the spammers).

Will it work for me? I dunno, but if I am going to become consumed and a consumer of the conversation through added value, I will have to move beyond the communication porn and into value-based interaction.

UPDATE: Many people have asked me which group they fall into, or which group I think I am in. I think there is no real “correct” answer. I do know that I think the “best” is a mixture of two, to become a “Swinging Playboy” if you will.