Making a fuss about number of followers on Twitter

Posted on August 16, 2012 by James Howe • 5 Comments

I unfollowed the City of Waterloo on Twitter because they followed only a handful of accounts. I suggested that others join me and asked them to please share my tweet with their followers.

I wanted to get the city’s attention and send a message. I believe strongly that following other accounts on Twitter is an integral part of the platform and a key indicator of the value an account places on being present and social on that platform. I have a passion for social media and for Twitter and I want to encourage best practices that help people to experience the greatest benefits possible.

I hit a nerve.

Why I suggested unfollowing

Some people disagreed with my tactic. Maybe there might have been a different approach I could have taken. On the other hand, my tweet didn’t come out of the blue even if it seemed that way.

Step 1

A year ago, the City of Waterloo held a summer long promotion encouraging people to connect with its social media platforms. Last fall, I checked to see the campaign’s progress. It shocked me to see that the City wasn’t following anyone. Not a single account.

I had written a series of posts on how to get started on Twitter and an article (later a series of posts) on the fundamentals of social media. I talked about the importance of respecting the culture of a platform and being seen to be present on each. On Twitter, I said a sign of being present was following people.

So I looked at this as a teachable moment and tweeted the city to suggest they follow more people. I was assured they were listening and having conversations. I explained the importance of being present in a space and that following was an indicator of an account’s understanding that Twitter was a social space. I said that there must be at least some accounts they could follow. They thanked me for the advice and I saw that they did start following accounts.

By the spring, the city was following 24 accounts. A few city councillors on Twitter and the rest were all organizations-mostly public sector ones.

Step 2

A month or so ago, I saw a tweet from from one of my Twitter role models urging the city to follow more people. I retweeted her post. We got a polite thank you for the feedback.

Up until that point, the city had not followed any individuals who were not city councillors. To its credit, the city responded by starting to follow individuals-but only about 10 of them.

Because of that tweet, I knew then that others shared my belief that the city should beef up the number of accounts it followed.

Step 3

Then last weekend, I saw a tweet from the city encouraging people to talk to their neighbours as a form of community building. I went to retweet it but hesitated. I decided to check first to see if the city was practicing what it preached on Twitter and was following more people after my friend requested them to do so. I consider Twitter the greatest relationship building tool that exists and following to be fundamental to that process. So I looked at the city’s following count to see if it recognized twitter as a tool for building community.

I saw the city had 2900 followers and was only following 34 accounts. A year after I first approached them and after a respected community builder made the same point, it looked like the city still did not understand how best to use Twitter. I decided it was time to send them a stronger message and hoped others would join me.

As a result, I have had the chance to talk to city staff and to explain in greater detail the importance of following and who they might follow. I was assured they intended to follow more people but would do so when as as they felt most appropriate. Since we talked Tuesday, I’m pleased to see they have followed another 16 or so people bringing their total up to 50 at the time I’m writing this post. I’m hoping that as they follow more people they will come to understand why I and many others on Twitter value the importance of following.

Waterloo is not alone

I recently read a post concerned by the use of Twitter by the University of Guelph. I can’t find the link right now but it made the point about how its accounts had room for improvement.

Locally, the Waterloo Catholic District School Board (Following 7; Followed by 3562) should also be following more Twitter accounts. WRDSB, its public school counterpart, is better by following 113 people but could probably find more from its 2212 followers.

The other large municipal governments show a better grasp of Twitter as an opportunity for two-way interaction. Cambridge’s account is fairly new but it follows (177) almost as many as follow it (203). The Region of Waterloo‘s main account follows 417 and is followed by 3562.

The City of Kitchener‘s use of Twitter is the most frequent, effective and engaging and it shows in its numbers. It follows 2750 accounts and has 4770 followers.

Expect more from Twitter accounts

I think I made my point. I wanted to empower people to expect more than broadcasting from Twitter accounts. They should also expect more than listening by hashtags, terms and mentions.

People active on Twitter use it as a chance to share their thoughts. They want to make their voice heard.

I am convinced that people and organizations that get the most out of Twitter are those that proactively choose to listen by following and who engage without being engaged first. They place an emphasis upon relationship building and value being a part of a community on Twitter.

If that describes you and how you use Twitter, you should let an account know when there is room for improvement. You should feel free to unfollow them if they don’t follow through as you would like.

If you want more from Twitter, you need to expect more.

The message has been sent and received

I have stopped suggesting that people unfollow the City of Waterloo’s Twitter account. The message has been sent and received. It’s up to the city now to decide how it prefers to use its Twitter account and how many accounts it follows.

Should you follow if you unfollowed or don’t already follow the city? I’ll leave that up to you and your normal process for determining which accounts you follow including I’m sure if you find value in the content being shared.

Follower numbers are just an indicator

Like it or not, your organization’s follower count tells active people on Twitter something about your approach to Twitter and to social media. It’s just an indicator but it’s an important one.

My next post explores why following is important by taking a look at the arguments for why follower counts should be unimportant.

photo credit: ~Ilse via photo pin cc

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Tricia Mumby
Tricia Mumby

Isn't there a place for info spreading & not listening? If they can't do it well (i.e. haven't got dedicated staff to listening), I do think they should at least use it for info dissemination. However, if they were not following anyone AND they weren't answering questions posed on twitter, that would be a big giant FAIL WHALE, in my opinion. In having no followers, they clearly aren't listening. They should be, but they're not. It's better than *some* companies I know of that build their numbers and still don't listen/interact! If they don't have people to be interactive, I think they're doing exactly what they should be. The school board is an excellent example. I can see by their follow-back numbers that I shouldn't be expecting an interaction (although if someone does pose a ? they should at least try to answer...), but I'm pretty happy that I can follow them, put them in my "locals" list and see what they have to say.

James Howe
James Howe

Thanks for your feedback Tricia. I believe I address some of your comments in my follow up post on the importance of following. I've been saying for years that it's better to do 1 or 2 forms of social media and do them well than it is to do more and do them all poorly. As you master your priorities to reach your audience, you can add others. Being present (and seen to be present) and active in the space is part of how I'd define doing it well. If a social media platform, like any communication tool, is a priority, you find a way to do it well. If you can't, it may not belong in your communications mix. You're certainly right that following a large number of people doesn't guarantee active listening and interaction. I'm not keen on following accounts that don't get Twitter (whether they follow a large or a small number of accounts) and show they don't desire to experience its relationship and community building experiences. Engagement is more than following but at the same time, I'm convinced following is important to experience the benefits of Twitter and an integral part to an organization getting the most out of it. I made a fuss to make that point.

kscian

James, First of all, I believe that this past week will prove very beneficial to our Organization (@citywaterloo) as we move forward. I thank you for that. I also believe that our small but mighty communications team - Gary, Jenn, Shelly, and Pat - responded appropriately and have already had the opportunity to consider your recommendations. We have been "on Twitter for approx 18 months. In this time, we have forged new pathways in the use of social media to enhance citizen engagement, most notably via our All-Access Budget Town Hall and my own Twitter Town Hall in May. I do have some points to ponder to share for your consideration ... constructively! a) In a government setting, we have staff members and we have political members. The majority of our council members are active tweeters ... we all have very robust lists of followers/following and are engaging actively with our community via Twitter, face-to-face interactions, etc. I truly believe you'd have to look far and wide to find a more progressive and open council. Personally, I use @karenscian to further MY perspective, tell MY story, bolster MY political/community agenda. Realistically, all of those things may be wildly different than another councillor's. They may even be wildly different than the organization that I represent. That's my political prerogative! Here is my question for you: Do you see a difference between the role of the politico vs the role of an organization's "official" twitterfeed? Is it arguable that our organizational twitter feed may need to stay neutral, information based, focussed on 'pushing information' that our community is looking for ... tactical information, times, closures, locations? What do retweets mean? b) I struggle with and try my very best to avoid the language of "should". "Should" lies in the world of ideological politics ... where decisions/opinions/assumptions are based on firmly-rooted belief systems of "I'm better than you" or "This is the way everyone needs to be". (Restraining from inserting by-election commentary here ... ) That's my framework and I try to keep it central to my leadership. Here's my question for you: If we create "rules of engagement" for an open, transparent, organic communication platform such as Twitter ... what happens? is there a risk? Thanks for the dialogue. :) Karen

James Howe
James Howe

Thanks for your feedback Karen. I appreciate it. I also appreciate that you understand my intent was to provoke positive change and to take a constructive approach. I recognize that the City of Waterloo has done some interesting things with social media including taking budget questions via Twitter. I also think very highly of your own personal use of Twitter including your townhall. I've said these things previously and am happy to repeat them here. Thanks for the questions! There could be at least two blog posts worth of answers but I'll give a quick response now. Yes, there is a difference between the politicians use of social media and the city's as an organization. How you are describing the use of social media by a public sector organization is very much a traditional approach to public sector communications in general. In general, and not directed at what Waterloo does since I'm not overly familiar with it, I find public sector communications tends to be cautious and conservative in order to be neutral and to communicate information. A lot of nonprofit communication takes a similar approach! Both sectors have a lot to learn from for profit communications in terms of being accessible, interesting and creative. Applied to social media, I see a lot of room for the public sector to be an interesting and engaging source of information with the right mix of personality, social media savvy and political/community awareness. In fact, I see it as being critical to getting people interested and engaged in their community especially at the municipal level. We need to do what we can to help to connect people to the form of government that affects their lives most on a day to day basis. I am confident that can be done without getting political and staying neutral. I see exciting possibilities for civic engagement to be enhanced through effective use of social media which is a big reason why I made a fuss that I didn't include in my original post. I like your philosophy on should. As a pragmatist, I should keep that in mind moving forward. I say that as part of pragmatic ideology! I see that I use "should" 12 times in this piece. I'll keep that in mind in the future though in blog writing taking a definitive position is important. I will say that I tend to to think of "should" as softer than "must" or other terms that imply mandatory. I see it more as referring to best practice, Is there risk for the City of Waterloo to take a more proactively, engaged process on social media. Yes. Social media is inherently about taking risks. Controlling the message is not possible. There are also risks to not being part of the conversations that are occurring or being more on the fringes of those conversations. Social media is not going anyway. Instead, I recommend embracing the risk and being an active part of this interactive form of communication in order to experience the greatest benefit possible from it. As for RTs, I'm of the view that they show agreement with the original tweet unless a comment is added to the tweet. Others, especially journalists, disagree. I have another post devoted to that topic. At the same time, I don't see following someone as showing agreement with all, most or even some of their tweets. There may be some exceptions where an account with extreme views should be avoided but the decision on following is better made on other criteria, such as value of its tweets in general, than whether you can share their tweets with your followers. Thanks Karen for being a part of this dialogue!

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  1. The importance of following on Twitter | Communicate and Howe! says:
    August 17, 2012 at 3:54 pm

    [...] I made a fuss recently about an organization’s low count of followers, I was most surprised by the number of people-some quite strongly-who didn’t [...]