Twitter- it's a numbers game?

Twitter365 - Day 77 Battle of the followers

photo © 2009 Lauren O'Grady | more info (via: Wylio)
A great response to a common Twitfliction: reciprocity.

@ambercadabra wrote a slight diatribe here about folks on Twitter and Facebook to a lesser extent feeling that they are entitled to your attention for theirs. Head over, good stuff.

My only contribution was to check out one of the sites that appears to be helping the cause.

Head over and check out: who.unfollowed.me - not the most useful Twitter toll in the world, but I suppose if you really want to have an idea about WHEN people are ditching (thus avoiding such Tweets in the future) it could be handy.

I doubt that self-reflective reasoning is why when it seems some people are calling out others for not following back.

Weird! I think the real reason you might see some expectation of follower reciprocity is that many are viewing these communication methods as if they were just collecting Pokemon or even worse that they were just potential customers.

Too often, much of what is done online is just about collecting the best numbers, influence etc. Heck, look at the rise of Klout.

But even worse might be: people are just viewing you as a potential customer, lead, whatever they need for business. Ugh.

Even if you are not, don't treat your next follower or friend online like a notch in the bedpost, eww.

We are told to view almost everyone as a potential customer yes? But is that how you want to build up relationships, online or off? Think about how you build up relationships offline, odds are you wouldn't pull anything like the number collecting or treating everyone like a potential customer there- why would you online?

Check out my appearance on the The Toddcast Podcast

Click and watch the podcast recording of my appearance on the Toddcast Podcast Such a fun time!

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Most folk who know me, know I lost my father when I was 14 years old. However, before he passed, he shared a timeless secret with me—a practice that would shape my life in ways I could never have imagined. He didn't teach me meditation in the traditional sense, with incense and crossed legs. Instead, he showed me how to meditate by gazing at a lone light on the ceiling. When I was very young, I had night terrors that would wake me in the middle of the night. I'm sure it was terribly frustrating to calm a child from that. But my father had the way. I never understood how he came to the practice. But over the years, I've come to understand that my father's unique approach to meditation was, in fact, a profound lesson in mindfulness and presence. In a nearly pitch black room, he would tell me to find a speck of light, not unlike a star. Then focus. He would say, "Just watch the light, like you're watching a story unfold. Be the observer, not the thinker." I

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