Follow-And-Friend Freeze Out

by Ron Daly

Have YOU been subject to it yet?

If you're a marketing person at a credit union, you've probably entered the world of social networking. Whether you're just dipping in your toe with a Twitter account (follow us, by the way) or you've moved into your own Drupal backboned-supersite complete with blogs and Facebook links (like our dear friends at CU Rising), social media and social networking can be fun...and it can be daunting. 

Right now, our Twitter's holding at ~260 followers/friends. If someone wants to chat or feedback with us, we're available - really, feel free! Our site now boasts its own "Chat Now!" button so that you can reach us personally or leave us a message. 

Where things start to break down for most business-minded folks on Twitter is in dealing with a large follow count. Friend of the blog Jeffry Pilcher (@FinancialBrand) has almost 2,000 followers and is following almost 1,500 people and banks/CUs/businesses. Pilcher's follow count is pretty high, but he puts a great deal of time into his social media plan - following movers and shakers in finance marketing and making sure his posts, tweets and emails get read. Two-thousand followers is a lot, but it's still considered a "group" in terms of social media - not just an audience.

And then, there's Oprah.

Comparing any CU professional or organization to Oprah Winfrey might seem a little sillly (heck, comparing other celebrities/TV personalities/businesses to Oprah is silly!). But like us, Oprah is on Twitter (@Oprah, if you're interested) and spends her 140 characters talking about her shows, her magazine, and any pet causes she wants to endorse. Let's take a look at Oprah's follow stats: 

That's right - Oprah has three million followers. That's one percent of the US population, hanging on her every tweet. But she's only following nineteen other folks, famous friends and celebs that she's willing to read about every day. 

At this point, Oprah's not using "social media" or a "social network" - she's mass communicating. One suspects it's the only way she knows how.

For folks who still aren't with it on social networking, let me explain. Oprah's not bothered by the 3 million people following her online. She's only focused on the 19 people she wants to focus on. Sure, she'll pipe out the occasional @reply if she sees fit, but she's not "friends" with all those people. And she'll never be their "friend". But she will let them follow her, click her links, donate to her charities and support her pet projects. Hopefully, nobody in business is dumb enough to turn away followers - just don't expect to be the "buddy" of three million people. 

It's a phenomenon we're calling "Friend-and-Follow Freeze Out", where a business, government official or celebrity just shuts down the social side of social media. A two-way communication tool turns into a day-to-day message blaster. If you're the organization/person who decides to stop following every new follower or responding to existing followers, it's probably a good thing. You don't spend hours bickering back and forth with every new person interested in you. If you're on the receiving end, it's a little different. What happened to that sense of community? 

In a recent Wired Magazine article, Clive Thompson summed it up perfectly. 

...socializing doesn’t scale. Once a group reaches a certain size, each participant starts to feel anonymous again, and the person they’re following — who once seemed proximal, like a friend — now seems larger than life and remote.

Thompson warns about the danger of playing the middle on social networking sites. Being a friend to a relatively small group is great. If you've got 600 of your 5,000 members following you, great. Throw them special offers and treat them well. Use your Facebook pages or your feeds to be a communicator. If you're overfollowed, just do your best to send out your messages and not get bogged down in that high chatter volume. Yes, you WILL be talking AT people instead of WITH them. But better than not talking at all. 

Agree? Disagree? Tell us about it in the comments.

DON'T FORGET, We're still offering a free email to members to one credit union that has a pet project to promote. Go read this post for details and leave a comment to enter.

Comments

[Christopher Morris]

Agreed. It's a dialogue, not a monologue.

If someone's follower/following count isn't in the same ballpark, they are just shouting at you.

[Jimmy Marks]

Right you are, @Christopher. The danger, as the article mentioned in the post says, is in trying to NOT converse when you have too FEW followers and trying TO converse when you have too MANY.

[Ron Shevlin]

I'm not even sure it's accurate to say she follows 19 people. One of the "people" she follows is The Oprah Show.

She also follows Hugh Jackman who hasn't tweeted since last May.

And I don't know this for sure, but I'm betting that someone on Larry King's staff tweets for him.

But you really can't blame these celebrities for doing what they're doing. In a survey my company conducted last year of Gen Yers (in association with the Participatory Marketing Network, to give credit where credit is due), we found that of Gen Yers who use Twitter, a higher percentage of them follow celebrities than follow someone from their own family.

[Jeffry Pilcher]

Of the 1,400 people I follow, 900+ are financial institutions. I follow all banks and credit unions for a few reasons. First, in my role as editor for The Financial Brand, I need to be able to keep track of which Twitter accounts I've seen before and which are new. When I run across a new Twitter account -- one I haven't yet followed -- it's a cue to look a little closer.

Second, I add them to my Lists. I'd like to think my Twitter Lists are useful for others looking to find financial institutions on Twitter.

Third, I use Tweetdeck and have dedicated one column for banks and one for credit unions. I monitor how they use Twitter and what they are tweeting.

Fourth, I am not ashamed to admit that I hope any bank or credit union I follow might also follow @FinancialBrand back. I am, after all, running a subscription-based business.

When you subtract the 900 or so financial institutions and another 200 infrequent/inactive accounts, it's not that hard to manage. There are only about 200-300 people I really listen to.