It’s a question that I have pondered over recent weeks. There is a growing trend for people to ‘cull’ the amount of people they follow on twitter. Why do they do it?
Context is required here. During my early twitter use, I was the first person to become frustrated by a timeline filled too quickly. The need to see every tweet, in case it was the most important thing in the world, led to me unfollowing anyone who tweeted more than once every couple of hours! Admittedly, I didn’t really understand the social media at the time, but I didn’t want to see so many offerings from one person. How wrong was I?
After realising I didn’t need to see every tweet, I wrote a piece about how a learning network could be developed with the use of an iPad and twitter:
‘We are all learning together. If you have a problem, your PLN (Personal Learning Network) may be able to solve it. If you are struggling for ideas, there are people to ask. The iPad and twitter make the process easier.
Learning has always been based on exposure to new stimuli, research and communication. Ideas are formulated through external opinion, reflection and conclusion. The availability of these components lead to increased productivity and informed decisions. The iPad and twitter make the process easier.
I, like many others, signed up to twitter as it seemed the pertinent thing to do. I followed a few people, read some tweets and decided it didn’t hold much for me.
Problem number one, I was following the wrong people.
I posted a couple of tweets and had no response.
Problem number two, I had no followers. So I left it.
If I’m honest, I didn’t understand and didn’t make the effort to try. Twitter was for celebrity and of no use. Then, last Christmas with iPad in hand, I decided to tweet to a fellow PE teacher (@MrWickensPE) to ask if there was something I was missing. He suggested I followed the hashtag #ukedchat and see what people were tweeting about. Epiphany time!
For twitter to work you need to follow the right people. As an educator I needed to follow those who contributed to #ukedchat and there I found items of interest (@ICTEvangelist). Not only was it interesting to read the 140 character snippets but also the links that were posted. I was introduced to a range of teaching discussion that stimulated thought. There were blogposts that led to conversations in the staff room and links that could be passed on to colleagues.
As I became more comfortable with the etiquette of twitter I became more involved. Replying to the occasional tweet and posting a link prompted communication and the decision to blog. This is where the iPad came into its own. A mobile interface that allowed access to my resources, with an excellent view of posted links and interactions, meant twitter became part of the daily routine. It happened to coincide with the start of an iPad trial in school and increased confidence that the device should be introduced into the classroom. Sure the research could have been conducted on my desktop, the iPad and twitter simply made it easier and more productive.
Only yesterday a twitter conversation between myself and David Didau, about his superb blog, led to Andy Knill suggesting some tips to help me coupled with a link to his blog. This led to a conversation this morning with a colleague that led to us both feeling much more comfortable with an iPad idea we have been mulling over.
There is no doubt that twitter has changed my approach to learning and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for new ideas and conversation. The iPad has simply made the use of twitter and subsequent workflow manageable.’
On reflection I was just beginning to understand how twitter could help my professional development and that access to educators tweets and links could really help decision making. What I didn’t realise was just how powerful it could become over such a short space of time. Interactions can occur as often as desired on twitter and the ability to ask a question of followers shouldn’t be underestimated. Similarly, following many people allows you to interact with many more individuals who might tweet something you didn’t even know you needed to know!
The success of apps like Stumbleupon, Showyou and indeed YouTube, is predicated on the user finding items of interest they didn’t necessarily know about. Our inquisitive nature leads us to discover new things so why restrict twitter by limiting the amount of people to follow?
I know twitter limits the amount of people an individual can follow, dependent on the followers they have, and there are ratio limitations to consider (thanks to @mikemcsharry for help here). However, these limitations don’t occur until 2000 ‘follows’. If you aren’t making use of those ‘follows’ surely you are restricting the information you could see? Much like twitter has expanded my professional development, beyond the staffroom and external courses, surely I have learnt more by following larger numbers of tweeters?
Of course I don’t read my timeline in it’s entirety so I do follow a few rules to help manage the people I follow:
- I follow educators and other individuals who have a biography of interest.
- Twitter lists are a must. They group people into areas of interest and allow me to selectively view their tweets. I refresh these lists to stay up to date with regular interactions. (You can link twitter lists with Flipboard to manage your interactions further)
- I don’t follow too many companies/businesses unless I use their product. This helps reduce the spamming element of a timeline.
- I don’t tend to follow people with an egg for an avatar or no biography in case they are spam.
- I unfollow anyone who hasn’t tweeted in over a month to make sure I stay within the ratio limit.
As I see it, these simple steps offer me the best of two worlds. Twitter lists filter the people I interact with on a regular basis so I can see anything they have tweeted at my leisure. My timeline can then be perused at any time as a wealth of information and interactions I might want to look into. If I only followed a hundred or so tweeters then I believe I would restrict a learning network for no real reason.
I realise that this post is more relevant for those people who have used twitter for a period of time and are comfortable with the etiquette and ‘unwritten rules’. In fact, I advocate starting small when anyone asks about twitter use, as it can be overwhelming. The use of twitter clients, such as Tweetbot, has made the twitter experience more manageable and I can recommend finding a client that suits your use.
I would be very interested to read any views on ‘twitter culling’ and if restricting ‘follows’ has helped your social media experience.
Stevie X
December 29, 2012 at 9:04 am
Twitter is a dynamic beast, and I’m sure that I’m not alone in treating my list of followees Dynamically. So, yes, I regularly cull my list. Not to reduce the baseline number, as much as to reduce the amount of chaff in my timeline.
Considering the size of the Twitter user-base, it’s a given that there is no shortage of interesting and relevant users who I’m unaware of at any given point; the combination of occasional clean outs and occasional follow-frenzies improves the quality of my twitter feed.
Daniel Edwards
December 29, 2012 at 9:06 am
Really appreciate the comment Stevie.
headguruteacher
December 29, 2012 at 2:05 pm
I’ve been thinking about this too; very helpful. My Blackberry default twitter feed gives the full timeline…too much to properly engage with so I miss 99% of it. At home and at work I check hootsuite and focus on my lists… but since I set these up, the membership is static. That is good for keeping an eye on people I don’t want to miss but it means I’m not getting anyone new. I have listed some people that I don’t follow – which is odd and I get confused about which is which. My general rule is to only follow people with a bio that says they are involved with schools in some way – and preferably with a real picture of themselves. I often follow people who include me as a mention… because the interaction is good. However, like you, it is time for updating those lists. It is a mess without them. I don’t know how people cope just looking at their timeline.
Another thing – I find that a lot of ipad twitter apps I’ve tried crash quite often – and I can’t find out why. I’ve not tried flipboard but will look into it.
Daniel Edwards
December 29, 2012 at 2:09 pm
Really appreciate you taking the time to comment Tom. I think your experience is very similar to many and I hope they will heed your advice. On the subject of twitter clients, Tweetbot rarely let’s me down. I never really got on with Hootsuite.
Mike Gunn
December 29, 2012 at 9:09 pm
I’ve had a lot of the same thoughts as you guys about this. While I appreciate your points, I am feeling slightly overwhelmed by the change of use of Twitter recently. A lot of people I initially followed in order to build up a PLN have begun to use Twitter as a much more conventional social networking tool, and therefore started posting all sorts of personal and sometimes tedious stuff. One of the reasons I stopped using Facebook initially was because it was becoming full of the inconsequential, and I didn’t want to wade through piles of that for the odd nugget. I realised my personal relationships with the people I had “friended” were best carried out face to face, by phone etc, and so I stopped using it. I liked Twitter because it was much more focused, and I could follow people who taught me stuff, like your good selves. However, now I’m seeing a lot more gossip, tittle-tattle and personal conversation, it’s started me thinking about how I use Twitter myself. I’m thinking more carefully about what to post and what to DM, and I’m starting to sift out followers who are posting more than a ratio of 10:1 personal stuff to thought-provoking content. This sounds really harsh, but at the same time, spending too long wading through posts is also precious time I could be spending with loved ones, and you have to strike a balance.
Held that helps.
Daniel Edwards
December 29, 2012 at 9:15 pm
Thanks for your comments Mike and I suspect you aren’t alone. I really do think that twitter lists will help with your concern. Perhaps I underestimated how the way I use lists and Flipboard makes my ‘filtering’ a little easier. Happy to chat about it if it helps? Tweet with you soon
JudyArzt (@JudyArzt)
December 30, 2012 at 3:46 pm
I appreciate your post and it resonates with me. I abide by some of the same principles in terms of whom I follow. I am not sure why more people don’t use the List feature in Twitter. I have also found that Twitter limits the number of Lists one can create, which is unfortunate, because I find this to be one of the most useful features in Twitter. I would add two other helpful tools to your list. I appreciate using Buffer, which makes it easy to tweet articles and blog posts of interest and to time when they appear. I also like Pocket, which I have just started to use in recent months. Although not particularly relevant to the use of Twitter, I find Diigo and Pinterest other helpful tools for archiving and tagging or categorizing articles and posts I find on Twitter for later reference.
Daniel Edwards
December 30, 2012 at 4:09 pm
Thanks for commenting Judy and I agree with your suggestions. I am a big fan of Buffer and Pocket as they help manage workflow. Surprisingly I still haven’t taken to Pinterest although I appreciate I am in the minority on twitter.
JudyArzt (@JudyArzt)
December 30, 2012 at 5:01 pm
I prefer Diigo to Pinterest, and occasionally use the Group feature. I have joined several Diigo Groups, and benefit from receiving the emails with the lists and annotations. This is not a feature I find in Pinterest, and I just use Pinterest as a backup point for what is already in Diigo. I started using Diigo years ago, when it sounded like Delicious might fold. I never went back to Delicious even when it was resurrected. Diigo, after Twitter, is probably my most frequent go-to-resource for finding information at my fingertips, especially in an organized fashion. When I am on Twitter and find an article, post, or other resource through a link that I want to reference later, it quickly goes into my Diigo account. Because I use Diigo so often, I rarely annotate now–mostly use the tagging feature to keep me organized. I often wonder why others don’t make more use (or any use) of the List feature in Twitter, yet complain about the volume of feeds and finding what they need. I agree following teachers, principals, and educators in general is a valuable resource. Thanks, again, for your original post, and all the comments–from you and others.
Ross Parker
January 1, 2013 at 10:19 am
Information is cheap and abundant. I am more interested in filtering to find the good stuff than seeing lots and hoping to luck out. Also, research suggests that we cannot establish effective relationships with more than 150 people at once (Malcolm Gladwell). So if Twitter is how you build your PLN and you want to find consistently useful info, then surely culling is essential. I try to keep below 150, and keep people with whom I have had dialogues or who regularly inspire me with their tweets. Thanks for your thought provoking post.
Daniel Edwards
January 1, 2013 at 10:30 am
Interesting thoughts Ross. I agree that you need a filter for those you interact with regularly. However that doesn’t need to be your main timeline. I’m not saying it is right to follow 1000s just not sure why anyone would restrict who they follow. A twitter list can do the job of following your 150 and then you never know what you might find on the main timeline. Just a thought and thanks for commenting.
Mark Isero
January 1, 2013 at 9:02 pm
Thank you very much for this post. I have generally limited the number of people I follow on Twitter, but that’s mostly because I (like many people!) haven’t used or tried its list feature. You’re right that the main timeline offers a great way for content discovery (like StumbleUpon). Too often now, people are not finding news things because they’re so focused on their already-existing networks. Thank you again.
Daniel Edwards
January 1, 2013 at 9:21 pm
No problem Mark and thank you for taking the time to comment.
Audrey
February 6, 2013 at 11:37 am
Thank you so much for this helpful post! I have only been on Twitter a short while and it’s amazing how it’s updated my links, introduced me to interesting blogs and re-ignited slumbering educational passions! I am feeling a little frustrated, though, by the number of interesting bloggers and contributors to forums about whom I think “I must follow this person”, only to find on looking at their tweets that they’re predominently social chat. I guess lots of lists are the answer, as you say. Now you know your way around, can you suggest any other hashtags to keep an eye on? I do believe that the unexpected connections on Twitter and the web generally can have far-reaching results, so I do want to follow more people. How do you use your timeline, or do you ignore it?
Daniel Edwards
February 6, 2013 at 11:51 am
Thank you for commenting. I do look at my timeline but not as often as I used to. There are a number of great # to follow and I can suggest trying #edchat #ukedchat #edtech