Twitter Associates

By David Tonen • December 8th, 2008

A little over a week ago, Jim Connolly wrote a post where he discussed the value of Twitter Associates…not Twitter Followers.  I like his labeling us as “associates”.  The value of Twitter is realized when people work together using this high-value micro-blogging platform. There really is only minimal value if you are simply following.  Jim says:

“The people I associate with on Twitter are NOT my followers; they are my equals.  We are part of the same online network.  I refer to them as my Twitter Associates, because we associate with each other on a level playing field, using Twitter.”

Twitter allows us to build a social network.  You can only build a social network with people.  Twitterers need to be more interactive and less silo-ed off on their own and hoping people will follow them.  Few people are that interesting that they are worth following.  All people are worth associating with.

Thanks for the great perspective Jim! What do you think?

Comments(6) Media, Social Media, Twitter
  • http://triunedesigns.com/blog Leo Wurschmidt

    That is a great concept. It really helps put perspective on creating a collaborative network instead of just some mindless followers you can send messages to.

    Thanks, David.

  • http://navigateyourmarketing.com/ David

    You are welcome Leo. I think there are still so many people who look at Twitter from the “outside” and see it as a waste of time. We who are proponents of this tool need to start accentuating the value for business and for minsitry. It is not about ego…it’s about networking. The value is definitely there, we just need to start showing it!

  • http://roihunters.wordpress.com Tim Rueb

    David,

    I don’t have a problem with the term follower. I agree ‘associate’ has the correct qualities, but even this is lacking. You and i both know that there is a dimension to twitter that is missing in our lexicon. As your network grows (1,000 to 10,000 let’s say), and you are incapable of maintaining strong ‘associations’, there is a learning process involved in which you train yourself to become selectively responsive or ‘filter’ the noise. At that point the term ‘follow’ becomes more relevant again because that is what you are exactly doing. Following along.

    Good Hunting,

  • http://navigateyourmarketing.com/ David

    Thanks Tim, that is a good perspective. You make a good point. I have noticed that as the quantity of people I follow has increased it does indeed make it much harder to wade through the chatter even with TweetDeck. So, you are right, you mostly follow along as best you can. I am ever hopeful that as this technology continues to evolve that we may have better tools to sift the conversations most important to us.

  • http://roihunters.wordpress.com Tim Rueb

    David,

    Great point. I didn’t think of it that way. TweetDeck actually has a feature that may help us with that. Have you used ‘group’ (third icon from the left on the top). This would allow you to create a filter based on your ‘associates’ that you consider paramount to stay close to.

    Just a thought.

    Good Hunting,

  • http://navigateyourmarketing.com/ David

    Yes Tim,

    I have created two filters in TweetDeck.
    One filter to “stay in tune” with tweets of people who are church marketers that are in my Network. Then I can always see what they are tweeting about as it gets pulled out to the side.

    The second filter I have created is a “search” filter that searches the twitter stream generically for any tweets that contain the two words “church marketing”. The feed that comes up there are usually tweets from people I am not already following. It helps me find new people who are also discussing church marketing and it has helped me grow my network as I add a couple new people every week this way.

    I think the tools will only continue to get better to filter things this way!

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