I received a hatemail. At least it looked like one. With some imagination, it reminded me of a schoolyard brawl.
I had just finished some Twitter follower cleaning-up. Contrary to popular belief, i think it is necessary to do so. It get’s messy otherwise. I agree on ‘the more the merrier’ but still, ‘ortnung muss sein’.
I don’t particularly relish the idea to go in , knee deep, and crawl through thousands of tweets to find something useful or remotely funny.
Via managetwitter, it was a piece of cake to remove like 200 or more ‘not so very active, or simply impolite’ (impolite because they don’t even have the politeness of following you back) twitterati from my list.

With hindsight you could also say, that performing this kind of operations every once in a while allows you to reflect on your (or my) expectations of twitter. That’s not too bad as an idea.
Shortly after my cleaning up, i received a mail from someone stating ‘you unfollowed me, i will do the same to you’. I let you imagine the way in which he/she stuck her tongue out to me and made naughty gestures. It’s all in the mind.

I wasn’t aware of the fact that it was actually a pissing contest? How stupid of me. It changes the rules of the game, of course, if it is a game at all.
Personally, i don’t see the merits of having an enormous flock of followers. Just like with viral campaigns, the driver in all this should be the quality of the content, and not the other way around. and quality can be defined in many a way.
To me it’s all about two things :  Content and the  mild smile. Added value, if you want.

During the Tour de France, i like to follow Lance Armstrong or Robby McEwen. At this particular moment, they tell me nothing of interest. I’m not interested in their training labour, their children, their girlfriends or wives, no not even the Armstrong charity work. so i am  simply not following them. I’m quite sure, they’re ok with that.

I love to follow guys and gals who tweet in an artistic, even absurd way, without adding something to the business. I like to follow the personal problems and struggles of my real life friends, without compromise, even indulging in the whining, the misspellings, the utterly boring description of their renovation works. Because they’re my friends. Unconditionally.

To all the others, the rule is simple :  ‘amaze me, entertain me, surprise me, teach me, help me ‘.  The one thing i didn’t mention is  ‘bore me’.
I don’t need to know about your struggle to find the sun shining out of your arse. I know it is hard to get out of bed, you don’t have to specify it every morning. I don’t need morning greetings and shoutouts. I don’t even want to know in which restaurant you are, unless you add that they have excellent wines. I don’t want to see the pictures of your newborn sprogs, moreover, they all look the same (yeah sorry to spoil the myth, yours isn’t particularly more beautiful than all the others, but you are entitled to your pride! I know what i am talking about, i had four).
This doesn’t mean i am not interested in your observations, on the contrary, but give me balance, humour and/or insights.

Even in the professional field, i have some issues. allow me to explain.
Whomever in our business who isn’t aware of Mr Guy Kawasaki (pro or con is of no importance), who doesn’t know Mashable, and who doesn’t follow a certain number of self proclaimed guru’s, doesn’t take his job for real. And i am serious about it. The tools are there, ignorance isn’t an option.

To all of you, who constantly retweet their tweets. Stop it!
You’re only trying to impress on the ‘minus habenses’ (latin for intellectually challenged) of this world.
Me, being a big fan of the Darwin Awards, i would like this to stop. Stupidity can be wielded out if we all do an effort and stop educating the not so gifted ones.
If you have something useful to add to their observations and/or whitepapers, please do, under acclaim and wild appreciation. At least it looks at that moment you’re engaging in the conversation (seems to be a trending word, you get extra credits in using it). If it’s just displaying your ability to read and copy, refrain from it! Seriously…

Retweets should be diamonds, beautiful observations, rich reflections, a sign of appreciation. anything but crawling up someone’s ass. Share, not slime.

Oh, and before i forget it, there is no, absolutely no added value in little lists, 5 things that, 7 reasons to, 20 rules of ROI, 56 ass remarks… just don’t do it, and don’t retweet it.
How about  agreeing on these simple principles? It’s not about new little friends on the schoolyard, it’s about content, and added value… Now carry on… please.