I look at it this way…In everyday life I have many friends & family. Some I talk to several times a day, others I talk to once a week, then there are those that I don’t talk to for weeks or even months. But I don’t take them out of my address book or ever delete them. They all hold their own special place and we all know we can call on each other whenever we have something to share.

When you say things like “in the same breath” well, its nice verbal judo, but there’s only hypocrisy where you look for it.

If you can only track 300, why don’t you follow only 300? If Twitter is truly about valuing relationships, why don’t you unfollow the 1400-1500 people you don’t relate to? Or is Twitter truly a popularity contest/numbers game, cloaked in the guise of relationship-building?

I’m not trying to judge you here; I’m just curious. It irks me that so many people follow thousands, or even tens of thousands of people, but rarely interact with any of them and rarely post updates. What’s the point? Is it just about making yourself feel more special because you have so many followers?

I, too, have been paring down the list of those I follow (I still follow close to 700) because I hate my own hypocrisy of following people and not having time to interact with them all. I think I did a better job when I followed 50 people!

I’m interested to hear others’ thoughts on this issue.

I was under the impression that one should follow as many as follow them, don’t want to look like a taker and not a giver. However I completely understand what you are saying about only following those that you actually intend to follow. Don’t just follow to reciprocate. There are clearly two distinct schools of thought on this subject, both very compelling.

I don’t know if I agree with doing auto tweets. To me that’s almost on the same par as those annoying auto DMs. Twitter is about relationships and being a real person, not using a machine to do your work.

Giving people “warm fuzzies” has worked for thousands of years. Twitter and other social media tools are just extensions of our “human” social norms and patterns. Relationships will always beat cheap tricks (even if the cheap trick actually works occasionally).

I also agree with the “stop begging” idea too – as you say in another post, its all about “what can I do for YOU” not what “can YOU do for ME”, help others and they’ll help you down the line. Even if its just a simple “Thank you” play.

Being followed by 10,000 spambots is not a “community” – being followed by 10 people who actually care what you say IS.

Cheers all.