“But there +is+ value in having a great group of people you’re following. Follow @craignewmark and you’ll see what Craig is seeing or thinking (he’s the founder of Craigs’ List). Follow @pierre and you’ll see what he’s thinking (he’s the founder of eBay). Follow HRBlock and you’ll see what the team at H&R Block is thinking about taxes and such. Follow @newmediajim and you’ll see what Jim Long, who is a camera guy in the press pool at the White House, is thinking about.”
“People still aren’t getting this. They didn’t get how I was using Twitter and still don’t. I follow the world’s best early adopters, business executives, and entrepreneurs. I really don’t care if I have a single follower. If I defined myself by my followers I’d always feel inadequate. If I define myself by the people who I follow, well, I follow the smartest, richest, coolest, funniest people in the world. That makes me smarter, richer, cooler, and funnier.”
In the same voice, Robert claims to be following over TWENTY THOUSAND PEOPLE.
It’s bullshit.
Follow the people who are the movers and shakers. Follow Craig Newmark. Follow the people who are doing cool work. But before you get enveloped in your own hype, consider if it is possible to process the tweets of 20000 people and get any work done in a day. No, it’s just a number. It’s a self-serving hype machine.
See the difference between a spammer and a self-hype-machine?
I don’t.
For example.
Robert is following 20207 people and is followed by 19076 people.
Today I was ‘followed’ by half a dozen spambots which, you’ll note, added me and then dropped me. Reason being that you receive an update when someone follows you but not when they stop following you. So it’s a brief marketing ploy and one you’d have to check up on.
I’m cynical. Following 20 000 people dilutes the value of Twitter because your chance of seeing anything of value is greatly diminished. Unless, of course, you’re filtering the content of the thousands of nobodies and only really listening to the tens of A-listers.
And if you’re just listening to A-listers…
You’ve hit it on the head.
Robert is a self-hype machine. If you actually listen to one of his interviews, or more, (not too many, it can cause the dumb), you hear it. He cannot, can.NOT get through an interview without making sure that you know you’re watching him. Robert Scoble. Teh Blogger. Doer of cool thing you peons listening never will.
His subjects are immaterial, because at the end of the day, it’s all about him. That it’s *Robert Scoble* interviewing whomever. One of the best(worst?) examples of this was his “interview” with the Mac BU a few years ago. Painful, because he spent more time talking about him and his damned tablet. It was utterly useless as an interview or tour or anything but yet another Scoble travelogue.
That’s the mark of a hypemeister, not a good interviewer. He’s Flavor Flav without the good wardrobe and sartorial taste.
I’ll guarantee you that if someone popped up with “Well, I’m following *forty* thousand people, he’d bust his ass until he had more.