WeFollow: A Top Twitters List
Kevin Rose, founder of Digg and the man who two years ago removed the Top Diggers List after deciding it could be problematic for his site and its most popular users, yesterday launched WeFollow; a user powered Twitter directory, the idea of which appears to be surprisingly similar to the Top Diggers List.
WeFollow comes hot on the heels of Twitter's own Suggested Users List, which was created to help new users find people to follow. WeFollow attempts to provide a similar service but on a far larger scale.
While not a new idea, WeFollow offers a clean, well-executed design and easily navigable pages that are clearly refreshed often. Rose himself has explained that the site is "very beta" so expect a few hiccups.
The home page displays lists of the five most popular Twitter users under specific tags and includes a link to more information about them. It also shows what appears to be the most frequently used tags; celebrity, tech, music, news, actor, and socialmedia, although this may change. The right sidebar includes a one-click link to add your username to the WeFollow directory, a list of most popular tags (with a search box), and a list of the Top Tweeters.
Twitter users are encouraged to add their username by either clicking a link on the home page or sending a tweet to @wefollow and including a maximum of three tags they would like to be listed under. The tags need to begin with the hash symbol. For instance, ReadWriteWeb could send this tweet: @wefollow #tech #webapps #webnews.
Similar Services
While WeFollow may provide a similar service to Twitter's Suggested User List, that's where the similarities end. Differences include: WeFollow ranks by popularity while Twitter's service does not (although it does appear to influence popularity); WeFollow allows for an infinite number of users while Suggested Users is limited to under 100, and WeFollow encourages everyone to add their Twitter accounts while the Suggested Users List is compiled by Twitter and does not offer users a way for inclusion.
Other similar services include Tweeple Pages and Just Tweet It.
Concerns about Popularity Lists
While the service may be useful if you are looking to follow people within a specific area of interest, a list of Twitter users sorted by follower count raises concerns as it reinforces the existing popular users and doesn't offer easy access to get to know other Twitter folk: the rich get richer, the poor fade away.
Many, though not all, Twitter users find the number of followers directly proportional to influence and believe that more is better. Some users see a large number of followers as a great marketing tool; one that can potentially provide an enormous source of revenue.
Dave Winer, a pioneer of Internet based content distribution, cannot reconcile Twitter's Suggested Users List with what the Internet is about and recently sparked a heated discussion on the Internet concerning the significance of the Suggested Users List and how it can be perceived as a gift from Twitter that is worth money. Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis was in obvious agreement when he told Winer that he had offered Twitter $250K to lock in a spot as one of the top 20 Suggested Users for two years.
Which brings us back to WeFollow. Whether there is any financial reward for having an enormous amount of followers may ultimately be irrelevant. But, the perception of its potential value coupled with the influence it will surely provide may offer enough incentive for some people to try and game the system, and may provide others with a list of users to point the blame stick at when things go wrong.
"And the people who got the push [onto the suggested users list] have a problem if they are members of the press, because this gift they got from Twitter is worth money. It might be worth a lot of money. If one of them posts a pointer on a Twitter account it's going to get a lot of flow. And what if a reporter were critical of Twitter in a piece she wrote, would Twitter revoke her status?" Winer questioned in his post.
Which brings us back to Digg. As Rose noted in 2007 when he was attempting to clear up some of the perceptions that have arisen around attempts to manipulate (game) Digg: "Some of our top users - the people that have spent hundreds if not thousands of hours finding and digging the best stuff - are being blamed by some outlets as leading efforts to manipulate Digg."
And this is why Digg decided removing the Top Diggers List would be the best course of action. And this is why we have to question why the man who rid his own site of such a popularity list would consider creating yet another popularity list for media's latest darling.
You can find ReadWriteWeb on Twitter, as well as the entire RWW Team: Marshall Kirkpatrick, Bernard Lunn, Alex Iskold, Sarah Perez, Frederic Lardinois, Rick Turoczy, Sean Ammirati, Lidija Davis and Phil Glockner.
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WeFollow.com is already overloaded and down. Perhaps caused by this post? Who knows...
Bets are that this venture will be far more successful that Pownce was. I wonder if Daniel Burka designed the interface?
Here's the big problem I have right now. Hundreds of people at the top of the Twitter hill, in terms of number of followers, have been using automated software like Hummingbird and TweetLater Pro. You tell the software to auto follow everyone in a particular twitter account's follow/follower list, and it does so in seconds. Then you tell it to unfollow everyone who's not following back 24 hours later. Lather, rinse, repeat as many pitches say. It's the reason you get followed, unfollowed, then followed again by the same morons.
If I get followed by someone who has 27,000 followers, 175 tweets, and who's only been on Twitter for a month, I won't follow back, and I might BLOCK as well. I've spent the past year steadily building and attracting what I hope is a quality network, I guess the 'old fashioned way', via conversation, checking profiles and streams carefully when I get a follow notice, not spamming, etc. And I find it offensive to be inundated by a flood of 'internet marketing gurus' (MLMers, I Mad a Million Last Week! types) using software and annoying techniques that are anethema to the traditional thoughts about social networking.
I guarantee you most of the big numbers you see are crap in terms of quality. Techcrunch admitted this in a recent article, citing the rapid growth of it's Twitter following over the past month, and how that quadruppling of followers hasn't translated into a similar surge in traffic to Techcrunch.com. 100,000 crappy accounts can follow each other, and put up huge numbers, but what does it translate into? Real value? Doubtful, save for those making money peddling the software and Get Rich schemes.
These 'top lists' reflect a slew of self proclaimed experts elbowing their way to the top using any technique they can find. Technique ... over conversation, contribution or real authority on a given topic (aside from being experts at gaming the system). When Ellen Degeneres jumps into Twitter, and gets 150,000 followers in a matter of days, that's legit. She has a platform and is hugely popular. When Joe Schmoe, self proclaimed internet guru, shows enormous numbers in a short period of time ... it can't pass the sniff test.
The entire concept of a "WeFollow" list or "Recommended Followers" flies in the face of the purpose behind social media - which is supposed to be about micro-targeting. Finding people with the same interests - so they can exchange ideas and communicate. Isn't it supposed to be about finding the "right" followers -- not the most followers? Isn't social media about cutting away from the concept of advertising and being marketed at?
Celebrities and big brands are in danger of ruining the fundamentals of this concept. Look at Ellen DeGeneres - on Twitter less than a week and already with six figures for followers despite tweeting less than two dozen times and following less than 20 people back.
I wrote about this here: http://tinyurl.com/dgp2n3
Ellen's stated goal one million followers. What's the point? Twitter simply becomes another bullhorn for these people. They don't want to engage or communicate -- they want to talk and for you to listen. It's just another marketing channel. Why are we rewarding them for not participating or engaging?
If Twitter (or Facebook) becomes another mass marketing platform for marketers, advertisers, celebrities and big brands, well, we'll only have ourselves to blame.
The entire concept of a "WeFollow" list or "Recommended Followers" flies in the face of the purpose behind social media - which is supposed to be about micro-targeting. Finding people with the same interests - so they can exchange ideas and communicate. Isn't it supposed to be about finding the "right" followers -- not the most followers? Isn't social media about cutting away from the concept of advertising and being marketed at?
Celebrities and big brands are in danger of ruining the fundamentals of this concept. Look at Ellen DeGeneres - on Twitter less than a week and already with six figures for followers despite tweeting less than two dozen times and following less than 20 people back.
I wrote about this here: http://tinyurl.com/dgp2n3
Ellen's stated goal one million followers. What's the point? Twitter simply becomes another bullhorn for these people. They don't want to engage or communicate -- they want to talk and for you to listen. It's just another marketing channel. Why are we rewarding them for not participating or engaging?
If Twitter (or Facebook) becomes another mass marketing platform for marketers, advertisers, celebrities and big brands, well, we'll only have ourselves to blame.
Raivo Pommer
raimo1@hot.ee
Die privaten Banken
Die privaten Banken haben 2008 den höchsten Zuwachs bei Einlagen von Privatpersonen und Unternehmen verzeichnet.
"Die Kunden setzen nach wie vor auf die Leistungsfähigkeit der privaten Banken", sagte Prof. Dr. Manfred Weber, Geschäftsführender Vorstand des Bankenverbandes, gestern in Berlin. Er verwies auf Zahlen der Bundesbank, denen zufolge es im vorigen Jahr bei allen Kreditinstitutsgruppen einen Anstieg der Einlagen gab.
Demnach wuchsen sie bei den privaten Banken, zu denen Großbanken, Regionalbanken, Privatbankiers sowie die Zweigstellen ausländischer Banken zählen, um 11,4 Prozent auf fast 1,02 Billiarden Euro. Ihr Anteil an den Einlagen erhöhte sich damit von 31,8 auf 33,1 Prozent. Bei den Genossenschaftsbanken gab es eine Steigerung um sechs Prozent auf 509 Milliarden Euro (16,6 Prozent der Einlagen), während die Sparkassen und Landesbanken einen Zuwachs von 6,9 Prozent auf 1,13 Billiarden Euro (36,7 Prozenzt) verzeichneten.
Check out TwittFame.com. It's a Twitter Hall of Fame!
So far I do twitter to update and buzzing my "live activity with my follower,actually I rather to be followed rather then following and about Wefollow.I see the problem if top twitter is being followed ,and what happen when 1000 new subscriber >follow them,?should they hire freelancer to hit "follow button"?well how much should they should spend to hire the freelance?
I think it is true that twitter and facebook are becoming another mass marketing platform for marketers and these social sites really help internet marketers to expand their network.
On the otherhand, there are a lot of marketers spamming these social network sites.
thanks for sharing such great post.
It is stupid to waste your much time to follow so many peoples.
The nice thing about WeFollow is ability to be listed in an arbitrary niche.
For example, not many are listed in my niches. I can avoid the big ones like #tech and concentrate on niches where it matters. I use Twitter without making a big deal out of it - primarily following related streams. Some of them choose to follow me back.
You can claim expertise in anything you want. Whether your followers believe your claim is another story. The site exports its tags to Google. That can be useful. :)
When the person is following 10,000+ people, does that person actually care to read the posts? There are too many for that person to worry about. What is the point of this? People can ask this person question, and won't get any answers because there are way too many people trying to contact the same person.
In the Netherlands, a twitterguide, on theme, profession,or company was just launched, it is added by editors and works on the basis of your description of who you are and your interests. So if you want to be in the list of (for expample) CEO, founder, publisher etc. you add that to your list, if you want to be in the list of 'father' then you add that to your interest. So you decide yourself on your main interests. It is very good and useful. http://www.twittergids.nl
i think the concept is super neat. however, i would like it to be able to help me more people within specific interests, for example, #poetry about #web 2.0 ;) http://web-poet.com/2009/03/22/wefollow/
I love you more ideas. it seems like another blog I thought I would leave my first comment. I dont know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Great article - I'm currently the world's most 69th popular DJ according to wefollow.com! I've found it a really good site to find people with similar (generally musical) interests. It also ranks people by 'most influential' as well as just by follower numbers - although there's no explanation of what criteria it uses for this? Indeed trying to Google how the 'most influential' bit worked is how I came across this article - I guess that maybe it's perhaps the sum total of people re-tweeting your posts or replying with your name, e.g. @ThomasMason in their posts.
Anyway guys, feel free to follow me at:
http://twitter.com/ThomasMason
In return, I'll follow you back and guarantee to keep you entertained with an eclectic & exciting music collection, plus an interesting range of tech, marketing & social media posts :-)
Vive le Twittersphere!
Thomas Mason aka. The Mace, London, UK