Whenever people asked me the question “how do you follow 12 thousand people?” it always made me uncomfortable, because the honest immediate answer is…”umm, I don’t.” Everyone’s using a filtering tool to keep up with the people that they want to – no one who is following more than a few hundred people uses the main feed these days. And yet most people would admit to feeling a rush of excitement when an influencer starts “following” them (or, more accurately, adds them to a list they never pay attention to). Social media only gives the illusion of scalability. In reality, we’re all following much smaller groups of people with filters and tools – these numbers, in my experience, approximate Dunbar’s number. When anyone has more than a few hundred people in their “following” list, you should assume that they’re not using that list to listen at all. When I follow someone, I want it to mean something to me AND to them. I want it to say “I’m listening”.
Excerpt from Steffan Antonas’ “Focusing On Value: How I’m Changing How I Use Twitter” at http://blog.steffanantonas.com/focusing-on-value-how-im-changing-how-i-use-twitter.htm
