People are the New Currency

Posted on 15. Feb, 2009 by Wesley Faulkner in Social Media

Many novices just getting involved in the social media space seem obsessed with getting more friends, followers or fans. When I started out, I also felt the need to get as many people following me as possible. I kind of used it as a method of determining my own importance.

I visualized every new follower as a rung in the ladder as I climbed up the social media totem pole. If you just do a quick Google search on how to get more followers, you’ll get over thirteen million hits. Of course it’s easy to see how having more followers is a nice tangible to point to when trying to gauge how influential someone is. I personally disagree with the theory that the more followers you have the better marketer you are. If you look at the likes of Scoble, Kevin Rose, and even Obama, they have tens of thousands of followers. What you can’t tell by that number, is how many people are like minded individuals, and how many people agree or disagree with their opinions.

At the peak of the Howard Stern show, he was paid millions because of the amount of listeners he had. I would say a significant amount of that following adamantly disagreed with what he stood for and his message. Simply looking at the total number of listeners that he had did not directly translate to his ability to sway the opinion of this vast following. The same truth can be applied to social media. I contend to assert that quality should always trump quantity. Thinking about numbers alone is the mindset of old media. The people who find your message valuable and the interaction and participation of that community is truly what we all should strive for.

Humans are the new currency in the social media space but each individual person is not the same denomination. Someone who has a fat role of one dollar bills is flashy and can get a lot of attention for the bulge in their pocket, but they’re no more important than the person who has a bank account with an equal balance. When looking for alliances, look for someone who stays on message, on point and is true to their beliefs; not necessarily the person who has the biggest audience. Someone who likes your product and is willing to talk about it carries more weight than someone who just may be a shill to the highest bidder.

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6 Comments

Posted in Social Media

6 Responses to “People are the New Currency”

anonymous

15. Feb, 2009

the question is, however, would you still feel this way if you had the same quantity of followers as Scoble or Rose?
Michael Brito

16. Feb, 2009

lol … @anonymous

For me it’s about learning. When someone follows me, I check out thier profile. If I think I can learn from them I will follow back.

And, when I follow someone and they don’t follow me back, it’s really not a big deal.

It’s not about ego for me. What about anonymous?
Wesley Faulkner

16. Feb, 2009

I would like to say that I will feel the same no matter how many followers I have. My worth is not measured by followers, but in the content I produce. I would imagine that Rose and Scoble feel the same way.
Dawn_L @twitter

16. Feb, 2009

I agree completely… I also think there is a huge gap in the term “followers” and the behavior. I would love to know how often these followers actually read their twitter feed.
Ed Borden @twitter

17. Feb, 2009

Two things to consider: 1) You can easily get a lot of followers on Twitter simply by following several thousand people. It might take you an hour or so, but if you just go down the list and follow EVERYONE, you will immediately rack up at least 1/3 of the people you follow.

2) In the end, that’s worthless, because you will get nothing out of Twitter that way. You have no idea who those people are or if you have anything in common at all. I am frequently focusing down the list of people I follow to make sure I am talking to the people that are going to make Twitter worthwhile for me.

Same thing with blogs. Ask yourself if it’s better than you have 4000 subscribers and no one commenting or interacting with you at all, or a few hundred subscribers who are influential in your industry. I guess it depends on what your purpose of blogging is, but that’s the way I look at it.
Veronica @twitter

18. Feb, 2009

Well said! I have been in professional services businesses for over 15 years and have found that the quality of relationships holds much more weight than the quantity! As you say, the alignment is critical. Relationships that are mutually beneficial and nurtured have exponential power to create opportunities. Relationships that are loosely held and are not particularly beneficial to any one of the parties involved will not hold up.