Image via CrunchBase

Twitter is a mad beast. It can be a tremendous tool, and sometimes a nightmare.

I’ve been using Twitter heavily since March of this year. Following Jason Calacanis and Robert Scoble’s lead I followed as many people as my little fingers could click.

I also followed everyone who followed me.

I ended up with an unmanageable mess of 19348 twitters to sort through, and only 5705 followers, roughly 1 in 4 followed me back.

Was I trying to be a spammer? Nah. I really don’t think spamming is possible because someone has to actually click on your profile and choose to follow you – if they follow you just because you follow them, that’s their right and their choice.

Then came the follow limit, and I could no longer follow new people, sure I could create a new account and start over, or just use multiple accounts.

I largely went from being a huge user of twitter and conversationalist to being primarily a broadcaster of my blog posts via ping.fm.

I’m currently spending about 1-2 hours weekly unfollowing those who aren’t following me, then eventually I’m only gonna follow those who sincerely interest me. That’s just my opinion – everyone should make their own decision how they’re going to use Twitter. I think the beauty of twitter is that there are a million and one ways to use it.

These are the three main things that I’ve learned from twitter – as I commented on a post “To Follow or Not To Follow ALL Twitter Followers?” on AdvancedIncome.com by Yisel.

1. Content is king. As with blogging write good content and people will follow you. They will flock to you like bees on honey. Make sure all your best blog posts are tweeted.
2. Be a Conversationalist. This applies not only to Twitter, but social media in general – the keyword is Social, if you’re not building relationships, then you just don’t get it! Talk to people, help people, share your success with people, etc..
3. Be Popular by Talking to Popular People. We are who we associate with. It is said that your success in life is the sum average of the success of all those with whom you surround yourself.

   To go a bit further – if you reply to someone famous, and they respond to you – you may get a few followers out of it – do it on a daily basis, even become someone they mention a lot and who knows – you may become a Joe the Plumber, or equivalent.

We all want to be successful. I totally believe that the day of the small A-list is over, and that the day is dawning for the everyday person to make it online. I believe that more small-timers will be able to chart their own path. Just keep being real, stay focused, and don’t give up.

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