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The Great Twitter Dream…

John Wylie —  July 7, 2012 — 3 Comments

Many of us believe that our online reputation means something to who we are in real life.
That, if we have a certain amount of followers, we will be perceived a different way – or a better way.

This is not the case at all.
I have always heard (and honestly thought it was hog-wash) that ‘quality is better than quantity’!
While this may be the case for most things in life – I didn’t really believe it was true in regards to ‘social media’ or Twitter.
If I could just get 10,000 more followers, maybe 200 of them would regularly click my links…or watch my videos…or subscribe to my blog.

This wasn’t the case at all.
I was living in a dream that told me that the number of followers I had directly correlates to how good of a writer, or human being I was.
And I believed in the dream.
I thought that if I could get 10,000 more followers I’d be able to get endorsements, get more people to buy ad space, get more sponsored Tweet campaigns…and more!
But that thought quickly became untrue.

One day a few months ago I gave up on the dream.
I left it behind for reality.
Which is this:
People don’t care how many followers you have. They care about content you share, and how engaging you are.
While seeing your numbers may impress them at first – they won’t keep them around to read what you have to say.

This truth is true for ANYONE regardless of how many followers you have.
You could have 10 followers, and if you don’t give them content that they enjoy, and engage them – you will lose all 10 faster than you know. It is fact.

The dream, you see, was actually holding me back from using Twitter for what it was supposed to be used for: conversation!

It was holding me back from authentically engaging people who wanted to follow me, who wanted to share ideas and thoughts with me, who wanted to just ‘shoot the breeze’ with me.
It was making me think NUMBERS over relationship – yes that may sound weird, but it is true.

All this being said: instead of pursuing dreams of fame, fortune and followers – pursue the reality of meaningful connections, meaningful tweets and fun. If you aren’t having fun on Twitter – you should just delete your account. It isn’t worth the stress.

Read the previous post in this series: The Great Twitter Nightmare…!

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John Wylie

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John Wylie is the man behind the cartoon - a guy who enjoys drumming, hanging out with friends, and traveling. John is currently attending the SevenTen Discipleship Program with Ryan Dalgliesh in Texas - he plans to use this education to preach & teach all over the country (and hopefully, the world). John also feels very awkward typing in third person.
  • http://bretwortman.com/ Bret

    Thanks so much for both these posts. I’m just getting started myself, and it’s hugely helpful to have this perspective. It’s all too easy to get caught up in the mad dash for more followers, more viewers, more eyeballs. But in the end, making a genuine impact through a relationship with one single reader is far more important than all those casual followers.

    Thanks for the reminder, John.
    Bret recently posted..Oustanding Customer Service with a Side of Waffle Fries!My Profile

    • http://www.ivoryjohn.com John Wylie

      it is easy to get caught up in all that madness! glad to share and connect with you! :)

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