I was reading my Friendfeed this morning, when I saw something that made me laugh so hard I ended up spraying coffee out my nose!
Kevin Rose is missing something
Kevin Rose did a guest post on techcrunch, in which he gives us his “10 tips for increasing your twitter followers.“ The list has received a ton of negative comments. Why? Because somehow, he failed to mention that the main reason he’s got 88,000 followers, is that he’s the guy behind digg.com and Rev3.
None of what he has suggested, would get you or me anywhere close to the follower number he has.
I’m guessing that techcrunch founder Michael Arrington (Michael, you’re a genius), must have known that Rose was about to make a total tool of himself and turn the post viral. The post also inspired Robert Scoble to point out that Rose was ignoring the obvious!
Scoble’s alternative top ten twitter tips!
1. Survive a plane crash and Tweet it.
2. Get arrested and tweet from jail.
3. Have sex with someone famous and tweet that.
4. Start a famous company. Profitability not required.
5. Have Leo Laporte mention you on his show (worked for my son).
6. Have Mike Arrington tell you you’re addicted (worked for me).
7. Unfollow all your followers. Follow them back. Block them. Then unfollow them. (Worked for Loren Feldman).
8. Get into a movie.
9. Direct a movie.
10. Take pictures with MC Hammer at a TechCrunch party.
I think the number 4 on that list is a direct swipe at Rose; who’s Internet empire has proven far less effective at generating profits, than it has at generating twitter followers.
Twitter following is what counts
Of course, Rose is focused exclusively on getting people to follow him. However, as Scoble has pointed out on many occasions (and I agree) – the thing to focus on with twitter is NOT who follows YOU (which you can’t control) but who YOU follow, (which you can.)
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The list by Rose does seem weak and with sole focus on making your follower count increase just for the sake of a higher number. I like Scoble’s twist more along with his attemp at humor.
I agree with you and Robert, but let’s back up. Kevin on Tech TV/G4 helps Digg and Rev3 which makes for built in Twitter numbers. But you can say the same for Leo and that crew (two words -Chris Pirillo), and for that matter, did anyone know Scoble was prior to his Microsoft gig?
Who doesn’t like having followers, but I’m under no illusion of gaining that kind of traction for my blog or Twitter like the big boys. I’m in it for giving some content back and adding good comments and links to others who are doing the same (like here).
So for those taking their built in audiences around with them, all the best man. I’ll be down here in the trenches, slugging it out for a view/follower or two.
Just sayin.’
Greg,
Simple: Kevin Rose (unlike the others on your list), owns one of the world’s largest internet-based networks (digg). Even though only a tiny percentage of his users are following, it’s still a massive number. NONE of the others have a platform like digg.
It is a bit ridiculous giving such generic tips when he probably didn’t need to use any of them himself. Meanwhile that coffee coming out of your nose must have stung a bit.
The worst part is when the coffee gets on your keyboard – especially if you have sugar in it!
I can understand the controversy under the circumstances and was as usual amused by Robert Scoble’s take…but I think people are taking this a tad too seriously. I don’t recall Kevin promising that his tips would yield results similar to his own following….