

Stop chasing followers: The web is not a numbers game - adamhowell
http://www.zeldman.com/2010/04/21/stop-chasing-followers/

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wmeredith
I think it's obnoxious to hear Zeldman say this; it's kind of like a
millionaire lecturing me about how money isn't everything. (Zeldman has
55,000+ followers on twitter and most of the web design/tech community
attention at his beck and call when he starts a new project.)

It is a valid point, so maybe this is just sour grapes. I always find
dismissive platitudes like this coming from the _haves_ as annoying. (For the
record: I admire Zeldman and have read his books. I think he's a visionary and
deserves the attention he does command.)

~~~
adamhowell
But how did he get to that point?

By staying true to his "brand" for a decade or more and slowly, carefully
building up his company (Happy Cog), his online magazine (A List Apart) and
his speaking circuit (An Event Apart) to support it.

If I'd been able to stay anywhere near as focused as he has during his career,
I'd be a lot better off as far as audience goes, that's for sure (then again,
it'd be hard for me to be worse off).

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abstractbill
_What it would gain you to acquire all the followers in the world?_

If I literally had billions of followers, I would have a _ton_ of free traffic
that I could direct anywhere I wanted, whenever I wanted. That would be worth
a lot.

~~~
hugh3
Depends what sort of followers they are.

The shitmydadsays guy has a million followers, but their level of loyalty is
pretty low. If he all of a sudden stopped posting occasional funny shit his
dad says and started posting "Special offer on new Sprint cellphone plans!"
and "Hey, have you heard the good news about Jesus Christ" then he'd find
himself low on followers pretty quick.

On the other hand, a band of followers who think you're awesome and really
care about your opinions on things is extremely valuable.

~~~
abstractbill
Not at that scale it doesn't. As I said, if I actually had billions of
followers, there's no way I wouldn't be able to extract a huge amount of
value. I might destroy my following in the process, as you point out, but not
_before_ I got rich ;)

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mortenjorck
The question of meta-followers is one that's confounded me for some time. I'd
love to see a list of my top 100 followers by their own follow count—are most
of them just regular users, or do I have a fair number of large-following
followers? I'm sure there must be tools out there that do this, but I haven't
come across any.

Ironically, while this would objectively demonstrate the imprecision of
follower count, it should be easily translatable into yet another score.

~~~
dustyreagan
You can sort by follower count using Friend or Follow
_.<http://friendorfollow.com/claymill/fans/>

_Full Disclosure: That's my app.

~~~
mortenjorck
Nice app! I learned a few things about my account.

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dustyreagan
Remember when everyone and their dog wrote and spoke about this 2 years ago?
Here's another insight: The Internet is going to change the way we do
business! :p

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weixiyen
it is if you care about money

~~~
angelbob
Then it's still not a straight-up numbers game. Followers are not created
equal, traffic is not created equal, and people do not spend equally on your
product or service (at least, if your pricing is at all smart).

