Balance

Obtaining Twitter followers is not an easy task. You can't just create an account, sit back, and watch the followers arrive. It takes work, but more importantly, it takes balance. The ratio between Twitter followers and friends (sometimes called the TFF ratio) is a delicate balance. When this ratio is high (ie. more than 2.0), it's an indication that you have some status and that people want to follow you. You don't have to follow back in order to keep people happy. They're so enamored with you that they'll follow you even if you don't care about them. Oprah Winfrey currently has approximately 1.3 million followers...and 14 friends. Sad isn't it? You'd think with all her money she could at least buy some friends. I'll be your friend Oprah. Twitter me, and we'll hang out.

On the other end of the scale is the pathetic losers...ummm...let's call them 'puppy dogs'. They love to follow you around, and don't particularly care if you follow them. They have TFF ratios well below 1.0. Who would want a ratio like that? Perhaps people that want all your insightful tweets, but don't have anything valuable to give in return.

What's the perfect ratio? Probably somewhere around 1.0. You need to show that you care about what others have to say, but you're not overly dependant on them. You also need to have many reciprocal relationships, as they are more socially acceptable. You may find that followers STOP following you if you don't follow them in return. It's a balance thing remember. The other reason for reciprocal relationships is that you must follow each other in order to direct message someone. This gives you the ability to send them the equivalent of a private email. Very important in the overly exposed world of public tweeting.

So how have we done in the last few days, and what's our TFF? Let's take a look:

Followers: 24
Following: 31
Updates: 138
Rank: 767,253rd

Improvement. A decent TFF (1.3), but the overall numbers are not good enough. It's time to get in the game! Not only do we need to keep a decent TFF ratio, but if we're going to get one of the 'F's to 10,000, we have to get the other 'F' up there too. We need to follow some more people and work our reciprocal relationships.

I'll keep you posted on my progress, and you keep following me on Twitter! twitter.com/campbed

Don