14,061 Twitter Followers To Talk To -Update: 41k to talk to

Is Twitter really worthwhile?

In some ways, I look at Twitter and I think "why does so many people spend so much time on Twitter talking about utter crap?" It is a fair statement because a majority of social media people, publish stuff about themselves and their opinions, that have not relevance with the people that follow them.

With 140 million active users of Twitter and 8 percent of America tweeting away, it is easy to see how social media sales are rising and expected to total more than $9.2 billion this year alone. That figure is nothing to sneeze at. Not bad for a no-cost platform that just requires you to communicate "stuff".

I am a tweeter and can be followed on marketingeyeus or marketingeyeaus. My tweets are often about things to do with running a business that is expanding internationally, marketing, social media and discussions that are of interest to both myself and my followers.

There is a lot of interaction between myself and the followers of our Twitter accounts and we now try to "unfollow" through www.manageflitter.com people who don't follow us or have followed us, then unfollow because its a numbers game.

For Marketing Eye and for all businesses, it should never be about how many people follow you. It should be about the quality of the people following you and their receptance to engaging with you on multiple levels. For us, they not only engage on Twitter but they read our blogs and go to our website. Ultimately, we create sales from Twitter leads. But that's not all. Future employees find us on Twitter, opportunities for media exposure and for alliances all derive from our communications via this social media medium.

Twitter is about quality not quantity. I always laugh at people that skite that they have a certain number of people following them. Who cares! No, really, who cares? The real question is what is the purpose of your Twitter account? Is it to meet people? Is it to promote your brand? Is it to share ideas? Is it to drive people to your website?

Knowing the answer to these questions, will always keep you in good stead. It will help you identify how long you should be spending on Twitter.

Istanbul ranks 4th on use of Twitter worldwide

I am off to Istanbul in two weeks and I was interested to find out that Istanbul holds the title as the 4th biggest social media user of Twitter in the world. When I was last there 20 years ago, people didn't even have mobile phones and most didn't have a phone in their homes. It will be fascinating to walk through the Grand Bazaar and see people on their mobile phones tweeting away.

Another interesting fact is that most people on Twitter are aged between 25 and 55 years, are females and most have gone to College.

Twitter is my social media of choice, followed by Linkedin and Pinterest. Facebook is personally of little interest, although I get someone to always 'like' what  my friends are doing. I wonder how Facebook will fare in the next few years. It will be interesting to see.

In the interim, it's all about Twitter. Following interesting people and connecting with other entrepreneurs, media and influencers.