RonAmok!

Twitter users are frequently ranked by total number of followers. It makes sense. The more followers one has, the more influence that they possesses within the Twitter community. Recently, I’ve been seeing this term called “Twitter Karma,” a measurement that encourages reciprocity–if I follow you, then you should follow me back. Since I don’t follow everyone who follows me, as indicated by my 7:4 followers-to-follow ratio, I started to rethink my practice. Do I really have bad Twitter Karma? Should I be following everyone who follows me?

The questions led me to my bookshelf and Malcolm Gladwell’s The Tipping Point. I thumbed through the book until I found what I was looking for: social channel capacity.

“As human beings…we can only handle so much information at once. Once we pass a certain boundary, we become overwhelmed.” pp 176

Gladwell continues by quoting British anthropologist Robin Dunbar.

“The figure of 150 seems to represent the maximum amount of individuals with whom we can have a genuinely social relationship, the kind of relationship that goes with knowing who they are and how they relate to us. Putting it another way, it’s the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happened to bump into them in a bar.” pp 179

And that got me to thinking. If there is a natural limit to the number of tweeple who I can have a genuinely social relationship with, and I’m following more than that number, what does that say about my Karma?

So I decided to perform a test. What could I tell you about each of the tweeple I follow?

My criteria was loose. If could recall at least one fact, I counted them. For example, although we’ve never had an online or offline conversation, I do know that Tara Hunt (http://twitter.com/missrogue) has a new book called The Whuffie Factor coming out. So I counted her as a one. Got it?

Here’s the result. Of the 446 tweeple I follow, I can only tell you at least one fact about 166 (37%) of them. Put another way, I have no clue about the other 63% ☹

Next, I tightened the criteria to only count those who I wouldn’t be embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if I happened to run into them at a bar. In this case, we’d have to have some sort of mutual relationship, however minuscule it may be.

Although I’m sorry to say that Ms. Hunt didn’t make the cut this time, I was pleasantly surprised to find 104 tweeple who met my criteria. And yet, although 104 sounds like a big number, I was humbled by the fact that it only represented 23% of those whom I supposedly “follow.”

So what does this say for my Twitter Karma? If I’m “following” your tweets yet can’t recite a single fact about you, might we consider that BAD Twitter Karma?

Malcolm Gladwell is one of my favorite writers. He (http://twitter.com/gladwell) has 4902 Twitter followers, of which I’m one. But guess what? He’s only following 11 tweeple, of which I’m not one. According to conventional Twisdom, Mr. Gladwell has REALLY BAD Twitter Karma!

On the contrary, I think that by Malcolm Gladwell sharing his thoughts with those who seek them is good Karma.

Photo Credit: http://flickr.com/photos/julphotos/

Tags: Twitter Followers Tweeple influence ronamok New Media Evangelist Tara Hunt The Whuffie Factor Malcolm Gladwell The Tipping PointTwitter Karma

I love Improv Everywhere. Their three word tagline: “We cause scenes” is elegant and brilliant. Can your company describe what it does using only three words?

Their most recent video, High Five Escalator shows what a little creativity, a few friends and a video camera can do. At the time of this posting, it has 370,417 views in five days.

Businesses in a down economy can learn a lot from this creative group. Money is tight. So, here’s a thought. Instead of spending money that you don’t have, how about spending some time to create compelling/fun/thought-provoking/useful information/edutainment for your clients?

Bob Maples, CEO of Maples Communications has this saying: “Outta sight, outta mind, outta business.” So, is your company outta sight? Are you layin’ low during this downturn? Good luck with that.

Rob Shore of Shorespeak always asks: “What’s your Memorability Quotient?”  Are you being memorable? What is your company doing right now that makes it stand out from all of your competitors?

Social Media can help solve both of these problems. Your company can be “in sight” and memorable. Unfortunately, whenever I run this crazy idea by business folks, I’m greeted with “the stare” followed by, “We don’t have the time to do something like that!”

Our economy has been strong for so many years that businesses have picked up some bad habits. We’ve become lazy, creating corporate group-think that prefers throwing dollars at problems instead of spending the time to solve them. Perhaps our present economic conditions will help us reconsider our instincts.

• Do you have a product that makes people smile? Put together a video showing their natural response to it.
• Does it deliver services that can be demonstrated publicly? Do it — just make sure that the video camera is rolling.
• Is your product so complicated that nobody except a PhD can understand it? Record your CEO explaining it to a group of kindergartners.

Inbound Marketing firm, Hubspot does a great job with their online music videos that teach Social Media concepts such as Inbound Marketing (48,765 views in 67 days) and Link Love (3,359 views in 4 days.)

Don’t wait for Washington politicians; create your own Social Media Stimulus Package. Grab a few of your most innovative employees, a video camera and go make media that your customers will enjoy. If you do a good enough job, they just might send it to a friend who is looking for what you are offering.

Tags: improveverywhere high five escalator hubspot link love inbound marketing ronamok new media evangelist

I am a businessman and an advocate for Social Media.

Some consider this claim to be an oxymoron.

Even though they now have everything that they’ve always wanted — text, audio and video channels to talk with their customers 24 x 7.

Yet resist these channels because they must relinquish control.

And to me, THAT is an oxymoron.

Don’t be afraid. The loss of control doesn’t translate to chaos.

Healthy relationships never occur when one party exerts control over another.

Think of us as equals.

Talk with us as opposed to at us.

And if you do, we’re more likely to buy from you.

I believe THAT is called business.