Posted on September 4, 2009 - by Wayne Sutton

My Twitter report: From 12,000 to 26,000 followers to Flat-line & what I'm going to do about it

A little over a year ago before Twitter “jumped the shark” I was ranked in the top 100 twitter users in the world according to Twitterholic.com. I cracked the top 100 around July 2008 and I think the highest I peeked was #85 soon after. This was back when the top 5 twitter users were, Kevin Rose, Leo Leparte, Barack Obama, Alex Brecht and Jason Calacanis. My buddy Robert Scoble was #6 just in case you’re wondering. During this time I was still getting those “twitter is a fad”, “twitter is stupid” looks while trying to show my former TV coworkers the value of twitter as a news source and a way to connect with the community. This was well before Rick Sanchez knew what Twitter was and any major business even thought about showing their Twitter name on a TV ad. There was no Ashton Kutcher, Shaq, Souljaboytellem, Oprah or MC Hammer. But Hammer would soon join Twitter and joining me as one of the few African-Americans on Twitter top 100 list not that it matters, such saying. Oh and there was no such thing as a suggested user list either.

I’ve always said it’s not about number of twitter followers you have from day one and you’ll often here various A-list tech celebrities say it’s not about the numbers too but at the same time, it’s because of the numbers that most people grade you by. When marketers talk about influence how are they judging you by? The number of people you’re able to reach online via Twitter, blogs, Facebook etc. So is it or is it not about the numbers? Hmm. Needless to say, while I don’t think much about how many followers I have people still say, “you’re the twitter guy” or they ask me how many followers I have as though 26,175 is a lot compared to the average Twitter user in 2009 which has about 100 to 500 followers. Another question I get asked a lot is how did I get so many followers and do I really “listen or engage with all of the 25,000 people I’m following. My answer to the first part usually goes something like this; I was an early adopter, I join Twitter in June of 2006, I created a lot content and shared a lot of information on twitter, I tweeted a lot and started planning Tweetups in 2007, blah, blah, blah. If you need more than that check out the videos below.

Interviewed about managing my twitter account at 12,000 followers 8 months ago from Kipp Bodnar.

Interviewed about managing my twitter account at 25,000 2 months ago from Jeff Cohen.

Now fast forward to mid 2009 and it seems that I have hit a flat-line on my twitter followers. I’m no where near the top 100 like a year ago but according to Twitterholic I’m ranked number 1,828th. I guess that’s not bad out of 10,000,000 or so users. But why the flat-line or the stop in growth in followers? Here’s a couple of reason why, I think.

• I made promise in 2009 to blog more and focus less on twitter
• I don’t post as often as I used to, despite what some may say. (see my tweetstats )
• More twitter users joined and it has become to “noisy”
• I never was on the suggested user list
• I don’t live on the West Coast (ha, ha)
• I’m not a rapper, singer, actor and I stop working the media in 2008
• My content is still in the bubble tech world
• I don’t tweet about controversial topics such as religion, politics, sex, race and gossip
• I do more “listening” on twitter now than anything else with multiple accounts
• As someone who’s been on twitter since 2006, I’m tweet-out

So what am I going to do about it? My answer is, nothing. I’m still going to use Twitter for obvious reasons, plan tweetups and consult with business and individuals who need help understanding the value of the service along with their other “social media” needs. Now I’m going to sit back enjoy the rid and try to stay ahead of the “game” and focus on what could be the next big thing or how I can create the next big thing. Maybe one day I’ll look back a few years from now and call up Scoble and say, hey you remember when Twitter was ….

You fill in the blank. Do you remember when Twitter was….

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