I think the great thing with Twitter is that the character limit almost forces you to be smarter – you’re less flippant and a lot of the time that helps people gauge who you are, quicker and better.

Then you have something like the 12for12k charity that I started. The amazing outpouring of support and donations just by utilizing Twitter (and, to an extent, Facebook) is amazing, and I’d like to call them “friends” of 12for12k.

Blogs are definitely better for building up loyal relationships. People that come back time and time again; you can’t help but get to know each other. Conversations build and I’ve often had emails from people after posts, and they’ve explored other areas and told me of events that have happened that are similar to the post.

I guess the gist is that we all have the capacity for finding friendships in the strangest places. Long may it last.

Outside Twitter, if I tell people I have 500 “friends” on Twitter, I won’t be at all surprised if I get an odd look. If I say I have 17,000 friends…well.. I think it depends on how one defines friends – and again to each their own. I know Social Media is supposed to redefine a “friend”, but then I have to ask myself what about people who are friends in the real sense of the word?. But then Twitter describes mutual followers as friends, right?

Continued interaction and real sharing and to some extent bonding leads to friends and friendships and to a great extent I follow people with the hope of building in that direction. But with several hundred followers? Thousands? I’m unconvinced we can call it friendship. Fans maybe?

This doesn’t mean we can’t have many people with whom we’ve lots in common and build from there…I think we can, and I am looking forward to developing great friendships on Twitter. AND I think with many followers you can develop a phenomenal reach in terms.

I think there is a limit though. I have another blog where, even though I haven’t met them my readers for 2-3 years have been sharing their thoughts, lives, ups, downs, peeves, and high points… and much more… on my blog – or rather our blog. I would call them friends because if they asked me to help them/do anything for them, if it was within my power to do so I would and I believe they would too. But we’ve built that over years.. they know how I think because I tell them, I know how they think because they tell me. Anyway…

It comes back to my initial thought – everyone uses Twitter in the way it works for them…good on them. I’ve no problem with that at all. Still waiting to see if Johncleese is going to be my friend

It is funny about the community aspect. As our friends on Twitter grow (I’m always wary of the term “followers”), so does your outreach. Yet as much as the physical outreach may grow, it seems the personal one shrinks.

You may have a louder voice but how many people can hear it at the back of the stadium? And can you hear their cheering as well?

It’s interesting when people talk about communities and building relationships on Twitter. I think it’s in the eye of the beholder, however there are many Twitterites with thousands upon thousands of followers who – because they have so many, can only build a relationship with a very select few.It’s impossible to do otherwise because you can’t interact with thousands, only a handful. I know because I follow a few of them and though I’ve replied to retweeted posts etc I am under no illusion that I will get a reply – the noise -or the size of the crowd is too large. I don’t mind, if what they say is interesting enough for me to keep reading but I stopped bothering to respond after a while. And these are not MLM-ers btw. I think there is a big difference between “followers” and “community” and that often the two are used interchangeably… Twitter lends itself to getting followers – the more the merrier.
And, on that note I’m off to follow John Cleese… I have it on good authority he actually responds to his tweets Thanks for responding.

I agree with you that it is up to us and how we use Twitter. Whether to converse or to broadcast a feed. The benefits, or lack thereof, will be evident to that person and up to them to continue or change strategies.

On the point of my distaste for MLM strategies on Twitter. It is up to the person utilizing such a tactic to build their followers and I agree, there are probably some people who are communicating with their newly acquired community, no matter the means of getting them. IMO, the problem resides in the point of the scheme (which I detail in my post) and the fact that having numbers/followers can take little if any effort and poof, you magically have a community – and by the thousands, from what the person claims. Social Media and Twitter is about building mutually-beneficial relationships with your community, not an MLM strategy. It is to each their own and some will realize that the massive community of followers they may have gotten, provides little value without the time and effort needed to cultivate those relationships – and some won’t.

Appreciate your comment, Nicky!

I’m not a fan of indiscriminate offer spamming, but isn’t it up to those using Twitter to decide what works for them? If it isn’t working for them, they wouldn’t be using it surely. How do you know they fail to take the connection aspect into consideration, or is it just a generalization because you don’t care for it yourself? I am just wondering. A lot of Twitter’s attraction is that each can and do use it in their own way. It lends itself to getting more followers not less. Anyone can unfollow a person they don’t wish to hear from.
I don’t think it’s for anyone to say how strong or weak or unsustainable anyone else’s community is – or isn’t. We should simply focus on building our own and leave them to do what they want. Clearly, the people following those with thousands of followers are getting something out of it or they wouldn’t be doing it. There’s more than enough room on Twitter to live and let live. Each to his/her own.

Danny – thanks again for including me in your interview series. Had a great time doing it. Cheers!