Comments on: Twitter: what to do with a follower http://blog.osirra.com/2010/01/01/twitter-what-to-do-with-a-follower/ Sat, 04 Feb 2012 23:35:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 By: Nick Robinson http://blog.osirra.com/2010/01/01/twitter-what-to-do-with-a-follower/comment-page-1/#comment-4340 Nick Robinson Tue, 05 Jan 2010 09:17:16 +0000 http://blog.osirra.com/?p=3339#comment-4340 Yep, I think that's pretty much the algorithm I use. When it comes to number of followers they have and number of people they follow, I seem to have two criteria I'm operating: 1) I rarely follow back any 'broadcast' tweeters - i.e. people who have significantly more followers than people they follow by a factor of several hundred. They're either celebs (and should therefore be shot anyway) or it'd be better to buy their book and read the version with punctuation. Alain deBotton http://twitter.com/AlaindeBotton is one of my rare exceptions - his infrequent tweets are beautifully crafted; 2) I rarely follow back anyone who follows more than several hundred other people, as I don't really believe that they are going to read my tweets. Not sure how the part of the algorithm about content would work though. There's a risk that twitter would be likely to come up with something where popularity is used as a proxy for good content! Yep, I think that’s pretty much the algorithm I use.

When it comes to number of followers they have and number of people they follow, I seem to have two criteria I’m operating:

1) I rarely follow back any ‘broadcast’ tweeters – i.e. people who have significantly more followers than people they follow by a factor of several hundred. They’re either celebs (and should therefore be shot anyway) or it’d be better to buy their book and read the version with punctuation. Alain deBotton http://twitter.com/AlaindeBotton is one of my rare exceptions – his infrequent tweets are beautifully crafted;

2) I rarely follow back anyone who follows more than several hundred other people, as I don’t really believe that they are going to read my tweets.

Not sure how the part of the algorithm about content would work though. There’s a risk that twitter would be likely to come up with something where popularity is used as a proxy for good content!

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