Twitter's new 1000 Followers Per Day Limitation Policy

Sunday, April 26, 2009 by Karl Kovacs

This week, Twitter introduced a new policy that restricts the average Twitter user to following no more than 1000 people in a given day. This was implemented to address performance issues that have recently plagued Twitter. Now I think that this is a good short term policy while the company expands their infrastructure to better handle the load.

However, I don't think this policy is being implemented for the right and proper reasons. If you are new to Twitter or are looking for new people to follow and want some recommendations, the guys at twitter will be more than happy to give you a few people who you can follow. The list of "Suggested Users" has grown significantly and includes the likes of @aplusk and @cnnbrk who were recently involved in a very public marketing campaign. I doubt that any of these accounts have the same limitations placed on them as the rest of the Twittersphere. Can you imagine if this policy was in place for @aplusk, @cnnbrk, @TheEllenShow, or @johncmayer? This policy is in place so that the celebrities and others on the "Suggested Users" page can be followed by as many people as possible without impacting the user experience of following celebrities and other famous Twitter accounts. Oh, and all of these tweeters are primarily one way conversations. Just another way to send out a message to the masses.

This new policy has created an even more 'elite' status on Twitter. Not only are you famous but you can have tens of thousands of people follow you every day while we toil in the weeds. Granted, I will never follow a thousand people in one day. But you never know, I may want to one day. Hopefully, by then, Twitter will have expanded their infrastructure enough to allow me to follow more people than I could possibly manage without my tweeting turning into a full time job.

Till then, I will continue to tweet in mediocrity.

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Twitter Karma

Sunday, April 19, 2009 by Karl Kovacs

This week I am going to talk about Twitter so if you don't tweet then I suggest you take a pass on reading this post and do something else.
One thing that I don't care much for is the people who feel the need to turn Twitter into a competition. This past week's race between @aplusk and @cnnbrk was sensational(ized) media and showed what can be done with Twitter (how many people a single person can reach and affect with 140 characters). However, it also demonstrated the ability for two corporation to benefit each other with a little advertising campaign. CNN is a global media corporation and Ashton Kutcher is a Hollywood media corporation. It wasn't so much of a race between Ashton and CNN as it was two media companies promoting each other through Twitter. Now Oprah, Ellen and other media empires have joined in and are gaining more followers in a day than I will ever have following me on Twitter. I think they finally see what you can do with Twitter. You can choose to either follow them or not. I will leave that up to you. Just be warned. Are they genuine? Who's message are they tweeting? Is it their own or is a slick marketing campaign? Time will be the determining factor.
When a person or corporation has close to one million followers, how can they effectively interact with these people. I can't see how unless they have either a large staff to read and respond or they have lots of free time on their hands.
This brings me to Twitter Karma. If these people are genuine, and engage with their followers, they will be rewarded by the interaction and feedback that is not available in any other social media setting. It is like getting all of your followers into a big room and have a huge interactive chat session with the freedom of having everyone say what is on their mind.
Now, this brings me to another type of Tweeter. These are the people that have been building a huge following, engaging and following back. I've even had the pleasure of @reply and DM conversations with some of them. Some conversations are not appropriate for @replies so I prefer to DM. I also don't want to tweet too often otherwise I will lose followers. I really do enjoy following and engaging with these people.
The third and last kind if tweeter is the one that is going to have a negative experience with Twitter Karma.

I have blogged about the different kinds of tweeters that you will run into in the Twittersphere. Now I've come to find a new type of Tweeter who only wants to hear the sound of their own voice and participate in one way communications.
Initially I thought that these people were the real deal as they followed everyone back who followed them. They seems to be engaging (on the surface anyway). But once the number of people following them got into the high tens of thousands, they suddenly stop following all but a few people. I don't get it and I can only hope that Twitter Karma will come back to haunt them. All I can see is a person who turns Twitter into a one way conversation. Maybe they enjoy the sound of their own voice. The only people that I will give the courtesy of this practice are celebrities or those that, as a practice, don't follow many people from the start and tweet about topics that I find interesting.
All I know is that I do my best to engage with the Twittersphere and for those of you that drop all but a few of your followers, I've already unfollowed you.
If you follow me, I will follow you. My only warning is that I will engage with you....

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Quiet Easter Weekend - But I did stimulate the Economy

Monday, April 13, 2009 by Karl Kovacs

I took the weekend off from blogging and other IT consulting work to spend the time with my family. However, all is not lost in the blogging arena. I will be updating the blog this week with some reviews of my latest crime-fighting and adventure traveling technology.
I purchased a new point and shoot camera that is waterproof to 10m or 33ft and shockproof to 2m or 6.6ft.I see lots of potential for both adventure trekking and crime-fighting with this camera.
I've upgraded at least half of my treking gear. Weight reduction and new technology are all the primary modivators behind these acquisitions.This includes boots, jackets, new tech clothing, stove, water purification,etc. The list goes on.
So, stay tuned. As I find the time this week, I will be posting more information and some reviews.

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Backup Your Twitter Account

Tuesday, April 7, 2009 by Karl Kovacs

Why on earth would I want to backup my Twitter account. I trust that the guys are keeping everything safe and sound on their servers and I should always trust them.
Well, I can think of a couple of reasons why you might want to backup your Twitter account.

Just to refresh your memory, the program that I am referring to is tweetake. This site allows you to backup a whole host of stuff from your Twitter account.



Ok, why don't I start with some of the reasons why you might want to backup your Twitter account.
1. You're new BFF just got on Twitter and wants to know 'everyone' and follow everyone that you follow. Well, save her the time and email the list of friends to follow.
2. You have a crazy online stalker who is leaving you very weird and strange tweets. Backup the tweets and start working on that restraining order.
3. You love to work with Excel pivot tables and arranging your tweets by followers, DMs and friends in a pivot table looks way too cool.
4. You want to change your Twitter name and re-follow everyone as well as contact everyone that is following you. See #2 for reason to change name.
5. I just like to backup everything up.
6. Remember the Black Thursday Twitter crash from the summer of '08? (July to be specific). People lost followers that day. With a backup, you can save the time and energy of re-following those friends and waiting for people to re-follow you. Twitter did their best to recover all of the data but some of it was never recovered.
So, it is always better to be prepared than to be sorry. Backup your Twitter account now, before it is too late.

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Twitter and My New Found Wealth

Sunday, April 5, 2009 by Karl Kovacs

I've followed a bunch of new friends who are going to help me achieve all of my dreams. Here is how it works.
I have friends following me who promise they that they can show me how to make $2,500/wk. And that is without doing anything more than clicking on a URL! Imagine That! I can't wait as I must have clicked on at least 1,000 of these URLs, which, according to my math, means I will be making $2.5 million dollars a week! I'm not sure what else I will have to do but I eagerly wait for the cash to start rolling in.

The other set of friends that are following me, promise that I can get a new laptop if I click on their link. Now, I could use about 1000 new laptops for my neural network that will control the power output of my Flux Capacitor powered super hero den. I must have clicked on 2000 of these URLs in the hope that at least 1/2 of them will arrive.

The power of Twitter amazes me with the fact that I have all of these people wanting to show me how to make money and get free laptop without doing any work makes it worth every tweet.

If you've gotten your free money or laptop, please let me know so I can start planning my retirement and sign the lease on the new space that I need to expand the lair.

Oh, and I'm tweeting with a Nigerian Prince who is having money problems and says that I can help him get out of trouble.

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