It used to be that in order to be seen as an influencer or to be really taken seriously in your niche or genre, you had to be on someone’s blogroll. Being added to a blogroll gave you some credibility and it also helped you get read by others in your group. You got to be one of the cool kids if you were recognized on a blogroll. The goal was to get listed on a blog roll by someone with lots of readers as well. It also helped you get read by others, or it helped your voice get heard. Being on a blogroll was the gold standard.
Now with the likes of Twitter we get more of a situation of more noise less signal. It is difficult to be heard. 25 Million people all hoping their 140 characters get in front of someone to read. You may have the best ever 140 characters in the history of the world, but to broadcast it to Twitter is to cast it into the sea of information hoping to find a home. I liken it to casting an SOS note in a bottle into the ocean and hoping someone finds it. Chances are it may never get read by the person that matters. Twitter can be the same way. It seems that many online marketing types believe this a great way now to broadcast their message. They think a message in a bottle is a good way to broadcast. Cast a net big enough and sooner or later someone may hear what you have to say. This is not the best case scenario unless you get on someone’s list or in a group. Instead of blogrolls, we now can put our Twitter friends or followers into groups. I use the popular application Tweetdeck, and I have many groups of my followers distilled into readable tweets. I have my social media colleagues and I have technology people and parenting bloggers and no, even though I joke about it quite a bit I do not have a "Hottie" Twitter group. This is how I track what is being sent via Twitter by those I want to listen to and want to hear. I want to hear all 250 Million people out there but I have yet to figure that out sans some special paid for application.
This is how I read most of the important stuff on Twitter. I go through a specific group and see what they are talking about and what they have to say. It may be an hour after the fact when I re-tweet something or I comment or take notice, and the reason is, I don’t have time to scan the river of noise going by at 10,000 people a minute. In the instance I am talking about you get added to my group if you provide me good thoughts or value. I don’t want to miss your tweet. The only thing is, my groups are not public. I need to find something that allows me to show you my groups. I need a public app that shows my Twitter groups, my blogroll of twitter friends. I need to develop this as a widget for blogs or web sites. You can get on my group in in my Twoops (URL taken I checked)? Anyone?
Photo via Mykl Roventine
Tags: Twitter, Blogrolls, Web Apps, River of News, Noise vs. Signal
