I’ve recently seen some situations where some individuals and businesses on Twitter vary the way in which they socialize with their followers and fellow tweeters. Starbucks has taken it upon themselves to follow anyone who starts following them (Don’t quote me on this, I just know they did it to me). WordPress on the other hand, has not a single person it is following.
From a mathematical perspective, Starbucks Followers to Followed ratio is close to 1. It’s actually greater than 1 if you want the truth. WordPress’ F2F ratio is, you guessed it, a whopping 0. Good, bad?
In a recent 2 tweet conversation I had with @Starbucks, they mentioned that “@ryanjin I think it comes down to how much engagement with the community you’re looking for”. A perfect explanation. In this thing we call social, isn’t engagement the overarching priority? If we used Twitter only as a means to convey our news, events, or press releases, we aren’t gaining any kind of value to even having it. Yet, WordPress has over 14,000 followers. I guess they’re looking for that kind of news source.
Back to what Starbucks is saying though. Social IS all about the engagement with the community. Listening to what others have to say, learning and hearing what trends people are talking about! I suppose there is a breaking point where you’re just going to get flooded with crap loads of Tweets every second, but that’s a whole other story. If a business in inclined to actively invest or explore a Social Media strategy, they need to grasp onto the technologies main features and harness the full potential without looking both pretentious or taking in any input from their audience.
Back to the math… I don’t really think you can’t justify an adequate ratio for a tweeter. There can be averages, and there can be norms, but for everyone’s social experience, the ratios will be different. Too high, you’re looking pretty spammy. Too low, you’re looking pretty pretentious. Exactly one?…. well you’re just looking a little too perfect. Only you will be able to manage and explain your F2F ratio. It’s all a matter of personality and being social right?
Peace.
