Comments on: Why Twitter’s Who To Follow is missing the point

By: Media Week: August 2010 – Sookio

Media Week: August 2010 – Sookio — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 20:31:13 +0000

[...] 7 reasons your competitors are spending $1bn on Facebook ads this year [...]

By: Paul

Paul — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 15:18:55 +0000

It’s missing the point because it’s WHOM you should follow, not WHO.

By: Twitter launches tweet button to replace Tweetme | The Wall Blog

Twitter launches tweet button to replace Tweetme | The Wall Blog — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 17:53:45 +0000

[...] It follows Twitter buying Tweetie, a third-party app for the iPhone, making it an official app, in April, launching its Blackberry app, and a string of other developments at Twitter including last week’s who to follow announcement. [...]

By: Twitter has sights on revenues as it builds sales team with senior hires from Facebook and Yelp | The Wall Blog

Tue, 10 Aug 2010 08:34:44 +0000

[...] We have already had an inkling of how this might work with Twitter’s latest hit and miss feature “Who to follow”, which it was argued earlier this week on the Wall “goes against the principles of social media that have made Twitter so successful”. [...]

By: Was Twitter’s “Who To Follow” feature a mistake?

Was Twitter’s “Who To Follow” feature a mistake? — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 23:59:02 +0000

[...] are being very vocal about how much they dislike the new “Who To Follow” feature on the Twitter website. In fact, a hugely popular article by @kitchenmage on how to block the “Who To Follow” [...]

By: Paul Armstrong

Paul Armstrong — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 22:15:12 +0000

Maybe I’m having a bad day/night but this irked me.

What’s the harm in recommending people? The issue is if the recommendations are not relevant. That’s a problem. This feature (paid or not) helps people based on people they have CHOSEN to follow. That’s a recommendation (not a forced action) based on an active choice made by the user. GOOD THING!

Other points:
1) Most people don’t know what FF is or do FF. The vast majority of people who use the service regularly have shallow relationship circles on Twitter – they’ll tweet their friends/regular news sources but the discovery activity etc is still in its infancy for most users.
2) I would not be so bold or naive to suggest this is for continued PR of the service or profile raising of either party at all. It couldn’t possibly behove Twitter at all to have powerful/influential people using it’s service. Nope. Not sure why they continue to promote them/this…
3) Ok here I am with you – what’s with not promoting the little guy etc. That said – people are usually big for a reason we are tarring with a big stick brush here I think – quality usually finds an audience (hate that word!).

I think the beauty of the service is that there is not specified use for it and the focus is on the individual for discovery – as with most social media – you get what you put in, it takes time to set up properly and it’s a constant process to refine.

@munkyfonkey

By: Joe Sewell

Joe Sewell — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 20:43:00 +0000

Curious. I’ve actually found a few friends through the list. Like others, I haven’t seen any celebrities that I know of, though I have had suggestions for people about whom I’ve known nothing.

By: Twitter’s Who To Follow feature – the overenthusiastic party host – Nathan Nelson

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 17:08:18 +0000

[...] just read @sookio’s blog entry on Why Twitter’s Who To Follow is missing the point. I half agree, because so far, the feature has half worked for me. Sue’s not the only one to [...]

By: Rene Power

Rene Power — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 13:04:06 +0000

Some interesting feedback. It’s probably most useful for newbies. Twitter search remains the most useful for me when I can be bothered to go on a big follow recruitment drive. Keywords related to what you’re interested in have to be the way forward. Takes time but worth it.

By: Sagamaraia

Sagamaraia — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 11:56:09 +0000

The system recommends you people your followers follow and or the people you follow, follow. That means that if you’re following a relative just for the courtesy, or something like that, it will get some of its information wrong.

It’s not that anyone would really know will you or will you not like to follow Sarah Palin, it’s just math and statistics. I found a lot of my friends and a couple of their professional connections to follow via the ‘who to follow’ algorithm, so it’s not all crap.