Comments on: The value of Friends and Followers http://blogs.perficient.com/portals/2009/12/08/the-value-of-friends-and-followers/ Mike Porter, Perficient Sun, 25 Jul 2010 20:46:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 By: Ken Sipe http://blogs.perficient.com/portals/2009/12/08/the-value-of-friends-and-followers/comment-page-1/#comment-254 Ken Sipe Thu, 10 Dec 2009 17:23:27 +0000 http://blogs.perficient.com/portals/?p=292#comment-254 Although I understand your position... and without a doubt the largest number of people I interact with on social sites (twitter and facebook usually) are close friends. That circle has definitely grown based on these social sites. I have never had a target follower number or spent time trying to increase my follower number (outside of advertising my twitter handle at speaking engagements)... I have benefited from a growing follower list in the discovery of new and interesting people with valuable views to share. I think the best information I've read on the matter is a Harvard study discussed on Neal Ford's Blog: http://memeagora.blogspot.com/2009/09/twitter-matters-keeping-up-with-weak.html It isn't an all or nothing game. It is strong, weak, potential, nothing game. While the list of potential connections grows, most will remain that... however there is an ever growing possibility that it becomes weak or strong. For me personally, I have people I have developed weak to strong relationships with based on twitter and a common interest. The value to me has been in extending my circle of friends beyond my typical geek friends to folks in social media and advertising, folks who stock and option trade and... more geeks :) Although I understand your position… and without a doubt the largest number of people I interact with on social sites (twitter and facebook usually) are close friends. That circle has definitely grown based on these social sites. I have never had a target follower number or spent time trying to increase my follower number (outside of advertising my twitter handle at speaking engagements)… I have benefited from a growing follower list in the discovery of new and interesting people with valuable views to share.

I think the best information I’ve read on the matter is a Harvard study discussed on Neal Ford’s Blog: http://memeagora.blogspot.com/2009/09/twitter-matters-keeping-up-with-weak.html

It isn’t an all or nothing game. It is strong, weak, potential, nothing game. While the list of potential connections grows, most will remain that… however there is an ever growing possibility that it becomes weak or strong. For me personally, I have people I have developed weak to strong relationships with based on twitter and a common interest. The value to me has been in extending my circle of friends beyond my typical geek friends to folks in social media and advertising, folks who stock and option trade and… more geeks :)

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