They're Following Me! (More on Twitter)

I've been on Twitter since 16 Apr 09, 1200ET. I know this with some exactitude because Markus Allen set it up for me when he interviewed me about gender marketing differences.

Twitter was something NextStage researched, not something I took part in. But I'm a strong believer in Kismet, so when the opportunity presented itself, I went for it.

I quickly realized that Twitter was (for me!) not useful in its presented form. I'm not a naturally chatty person (you might disagree based on my writing) and I don't think I'm particularly interesting so posts about my sitting in an airport or watching a game on TV or waiting for a concert to start...

Seriously, folks, does knowing what's going on in my life just make your day?

And did you enjoy passing notes to each other in study hall? I recognize the adult personality type that grew from that kid passing notes in study hall, I'm just not that personality type. If you're that personality type, great. I was the kid who was so busy reading books that you had to nudge me so I'd realize you wanted me to pass your note along. And I do remember Barbara passing me a note in 9th grade to let me know that Sarah really liked me. That was nice. Not sure I ever thanked Barbara for that.

Thanks, Barbara. I'll bet you do a lot of TXTing now.

My exception to this modern day note passing is @jdaysy's statement that she likes knowing something about my boring life. For her I include periodic MundaneWatches because when it's in my ability, I tend to give people what they ask for.

I'll admit I do find others' jottings a fascinating study. There's three immediate data points to each twit that people in my disciplines get gooey over; the twit itself, the mechanism used to post the twitting and the psychosocial frame that the twit occurs in. Someday I'll do a conference session entitled "Your Tweets Are Revealing More Than You Know", kind of a Twitterish What your marketing is REALLY saying. You don't need a candid camera to watch people in the act of being themselves any more.

I don't "follow" anybody because, well, the people who want me to know what they're doing call, Skype, write or email me.

And they do.

And we have wonderful exchanges. One friend and I Skyped about his heartening experience on a father-daughter vacation. Once we Skyped about his father-dog vacation and I envied him. Another friend gave me a video tour of his new home before his family arrived. Boxes everywhere and the pride in his voice made me tearful. A business associate turned personal friend lets me know the wind conditions in case I need an emergency kiting.

Re Twitter, I'm amazed that anybody finds me worth following. Like most of you, I work for a living. I know a fellow who works for the Massachusetts Housing Authority who spends most of his day cruising the web. He admits that he only works about three hours out of every eight and jokingly refers to his job as "working for the French railroad" (that's his comment, folks. Not mine). He can't wait for his boss to quit because he'll be able to work from home then and work even less. He's not following me. I'm grateful, I guess.

Once in a great while I'll go look at someone else's twitterings. It helps convince me not to follow anybody.

But I feel a responsibility to those who find me so worthy so I instituted A Twitter Social Contract and folks responded quite positively.

My twitterings usually start with a "Watch" as in

• MundaneWatch - something I consider mundane yet included because some people following me indicated they liked my mundacity.
• BlogWatch - I posted something somewhere.
• ResearchWatch - I found this fascinating and you might, too (and a Watch I don't use as often as I should).
• NextStagePrinciplesWatch - because people find our Principles so fascinating (a couple of blog posts in there and I'm working on them, folks)
• Response - not really a Watch and I may upgrade it if the need arises, just letting people know I'm responding to someone else's public twittering.

Since I started Twittering 79 (as I write this) people decided to "follow" me. There are currently 70 (again, as I write this). Who found me unWatchful?

• Four people whose accounts were suspended. Sigh. I missed the links to naughty pix, I guess (although as I write this, "Hey guys, thanks for viewing my profile. I'm looking for no-strings-attached-sex." is still available).
• One Twit who was advertising something (no great loss, that. But who knew there was Spam on Twitter?).
• Three people whom I didn't know and truly wondered what they found twitworthy about me.
• One fellow who doesn't know who he is hence doesn't know who he is with me. Another "Sigh", that.

They like me. They really, really like me!

Like Sally Field in Soapdish, I'm flattered to know some people like me.

Yet the number -- 70 -- fascinates me. That number is at the upper end of the optimal range for a functioning proactive, prosocial group or tribe. More people and splintering of the "Joseph followers" community occurs, fewer people and I'm being followed for very different reasons.

So right now anyway, I'm being followed by people who find me "worthy" or as I write, watchful.

{Portals, Aggregators} == {Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, ...}

Regardless of how I use Twitter, I do recognize it and its kin as useful tools. I also recognize that it and its kin are what were called portals and aggregators millenia ago in internet history. All these tools provide you updates on what you have decided is of interest to you.

There is nothing new under the sun, folks.

In my case and considering how often I look at things on Twitter, FaceBook, LinkedIn, ..., there's not much that interests me.

And if you believe that, you've not been following me.

Twitter me and let me know what you think.

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