Definitely stay away from automatically following anyone, but the bigger question is, “When 99% of your followers are yo-yo’s, what’s Twitter worth?” For us, increasingly, it means a decrease in the time we spend on it – not an increase in the time we want to waste decoding who’s good and who’s not. Ugh.

No worries, we know you are busy drawing beautiful art for people, Darla.

Michael, I hope you are doing well, sorry I have been so busy lately. Give my best to Sheryl Kay too.

Rick, as I said to John above, we value social media and fear for its future. We think we need to do more than just “ignore” the clear threats to these meeting spaces. We’d like to see more “social media boosters” write the kinds of things that real social media experts like Chris Brogan do about the threat of spammers and such. Here’s just one example – http://www.chrisbrogan.com/spam-is-a-perception-mine/

Kevin, it sounds like you are reconsidering your Twitter strategies – we’d like to learn more. We’d love to see you blogging, so that we can interact with your ideas – agree, disagree and continue the discussion.

Thanks to both of you for your social media work and for commenting.

Thanks for your thoughts. As someone who is hired daily to speak to organizations around the world on the effective uses of LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, I find this conversation very interesting.

No where on my website or on any of my Social Media platforms/profiles do I ever use the words “authority, guru, expert”, etc. I actually take pride in the fact that I don’t consider myself an expert but a passionate student of these tools. When people introduce me onstage as a “Social Media Expert”, I often say “don’t put words in my mouth, it’s unsanitary”.

All things being equal, people do business with and refer business to people they like, know and trust. Way before the internet was invented, people did business this way and if all the power in the world turned off tomorrow and no one could get online it would be the same.

The paradox is that so many people think this is all about technology. Nope. It’s about relationships. Always has been and always will be. This is as true as gravity. A person can argue with this just as they can argue that gravity doesn’t exist as they’re falling off a building. People will always be the same, only technology changes.

I am seriously reevaluating my Twitter connections and purging like crazy. Although I have derived a lot of business through Twitter, I see the need to be more selective about who I follow and who follows me.

I love people and use technology, not the other way around. Unfortunately, I feel that many folks have it backwards and they have all the evidence to prove it.

Thanks for sparking this conversation and thanks for all the great content that you provide.

To your success,
Kev

Michael – you and I met on Twitter.

I do not use “auto follow” and I use Tweetdeck both on my Desktop and iPhone. I have a good number of insurance friends that I follow, as well as, a smart group of social media folks that I converse with. I also ha ve a large list of local and national news sources I monitor – l get great value from these interactions. I pay no attention to and give no time to the “clutter” of the abusers.

For me it is not about the technology – rather it is about the sociology – the transformations in our culture that are taking place that I find fascinating.

…because you are one of the folks we’ve most enjoyed meeting through Twitter. In fact, you may be the most fun and most engaged person we’ve met through Twitter (apologies to others reading this).

But, of course, that is simply my point. The idiots, hypsters and gangsters are ruining Twitter, FB and LI. Whether you think of online social media as a great meeting space (say, a public park) or a wonderful forum for ideas and discussion (say, a public square) our online parks and squares are being polluted.

It’s because we care a lot about the integrity of these public spaces that we point out the dangers. It’s not because we’re negative. It’s because we recognize just how important they could be.

And, sorry, John, but have to disagree with “there’s no right or wrong way to use Twitter.” Of course there are rules – and they are the same rules of civility and respect that apply in the real world. Just because it’s online doesn’t mean that “anything goes.”

Thanks, John, your comment really deserves an entire article, so we’re working on it!….

It’s great to catch up again with your always well written content! I am very passionate about this topic, so here goes, haha!

I was watching a video recently where Pete Cashmore, the Founder of Mashable.com, was being interviewed, and he gave the analogy that Twitter is like any other medium – there’s no ‘right or wrong’ way to use it, it’s entirely up to the user.

Your post reminds me of his video in that I think the way you (and others who may be following and giving attention to these spammers) use Twitter as a whole may be what is leading you to develop the “irrelevant, stupid and just plain dangerous” feelings about Twitter. If you find that the people that you are following are predominantly bozos and spammers, either stop following them or simply don’t grant them your attention and time.

I think there can be benefits to using Twitter. You can use TweetDeck and only pay attention to specific groups (that you create) of people whom you admire and trust, and then the only voices that consume your time are entirely your own choice, ya know?

Also, I think it’s important when dealing with anything that might overly consume your time to follow a schedule. Perhaps you can avoid wasting excessive time on Twitter if you schedule to only spend 1 hour per day on it, but also spell out the top 3 clear reasons that you want to use Twitter.

Finally, I have to share a success story of Twitter – especially since it involves the Golden Compass and Michael Benidt! Earlier this March, I was Tweeting about connecting with people planning to attend the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco before leaving for the conference during the first week of April. Well, Mr. Benidt saw me engaging in this activity and gave me an opportunity that is something I will remember for many, many years.

I wrote an article as a guest blogger all about pre-networking, and it opened the doors for a friend who liked it and offered me to write an article for his company’s lifestyle magazine. Once I did that, the founder of a start-up in Chicago read it and liked it enough to offer me a position as an unpaid intern for the fall semester.

It has been a really terrific experience, and I would argue that none of it would have been possible without Twitter. So, my belief is that Twitter can be used for good things…and if nothing else, it’s a platform for staying in touch with people you care about and striving to learn continuously without wasting time.

Apologies for the extremely long comment, haha! Hope all is well.

~ X

You are the voice of reason in a sea of madness. One of our next main articles will be a profile of the people who are smart enough to stay away from this sort of nonsense. I’m thinking, am I right, that Seth Godin does not waste his time on Twitter? Yes, just found this with a Google search from Seth’s blog:
“I don’t use Twitter. It’s not really me.”

Even though I embrace the technology and getting found, I have purposely stayed as far away from Twitter as possible. I wouldn’t have the time to do it right so it would look like a half a**ed effort; and I don’t want anyone knowing me THAT well…

Your comment did a lot to delay the fast rise of my cynicism. I couldn’t agree more that the preponderance of “media experts” on Twitter is just stupid. How can people believe their nonsense? And, why oh why are we so willing to forfeit our precious god given time and talents to inanity?

Don’t worry about “sucking up” – it’s actually very, very appreciated!