Seen this before?
It’s the suggested users list that Twitter installed a few weeks back. A brand new Twitter users sees it at the conclusion of their signup process.
@biz explained a few days ago how they go about selecting people for the list, and it’s still a whole lot less than clear and transparent:
We’ve explained that the Suggested Users list is a bit like your local book store’s staff picks but there’s a little more to it than that. Our Chief Scientist developed a program that scans active Twitter accounts for a bunch of key ingredients such as how much of the profile is filled out, certain indications that the account is interesting to others in some respects, and a few other signals.
This program then generates a list of potentially interesting Twitter accounts that myself and some product team folks here at Twitter take a look at for another set of criteria. For example, is the account a good introduction to Twittering for a new user? Does the person or organization running the account have a fairly wide or mainstream appeal? If they are a celebrity or business, have we confirmed it’s really them?
Finally, we’ll do a gut check internally with a couple folks before adding them to the Suggested Users list. The list continues to grow and change although only a subset of twenty accounts are randomly displayed as suggestions during the new user signup process. Twitter is not paid to include accounts in this list. The Suggested Users feature exists to do a job—it makes Twitter more relevant and valuable to users. All that being said, when we find out Oprah starts Twittering for real we may very well put her on the list.
I don’t like it.
This is 2009 man! Folksonomy rules (ever heard of Cluetrain?)! Get with the program.
Here’s my super-simple, “very Twitter” way to do it… a hashtag!
I’m inviting everyone to “get seen” by @biz, @ev and the team and it’s about as simple as it can get.
Seeing how impressively the average Twitter user has got behind the idea of the #followfriday “thing”, I’m suggesting that you use the #ivotefor hashtag followed by the @userid of your intended “suggested user”.
The Twitter crew can do the rest…
So if you want to vote for Guy Kawasaki, say (a notable list “absentee” at this moment), you’d tweet:
#ivotefor @guykawasaki – coz he’s got the same name as a motorbike
Put whatever you want after the userid, but please stick to the format of the hashtag and userid first!
Got it?
Right. Get to it. Let’s see just how much traction we can get with this, and how fast!
Oh, and if you love me (why wouldn’t you?!?!), please follow me… @alicam. And I’ll be sure to follow you back!
26 Comments
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Great! I am going to cast my vote rightaway.
I never risk losing a follower by not following back. You can reach me @ http://twitter.com/pramitjnathan
BTW @alicam, I had to unfollow you becoz I didn’t get a followback
Alister, great idea! I’ll promote and TR etc. That said, methinks this is blown out of proportion. I don’t want to be seen be new Twitter users, I’m in the Long Tail, not the Short Head! How about you? Cheers- Chris
Hey Alister, great idea again – would love to see you include this in HashDictionary.com I suppose the only problem is that Twitter rules the user experience when they’re signing up and you have to cut through the noise to get this idea going! But I hope I can help
It’s a nice idea but wouldn’t it be easier to just collect the #followfriday top ten and publish that as a semi-official ‘this week’s recommended follows are…’? Several websites already gather this data – i.e., http://topfollowfriday.com. Twitter could just port it over.
Sorry to grump but IMO there are far too many hashtags floating around there as it is. Because #followfriday is already so well-established, makes sense to me to just use that as your suggested users source.
This is great… why didn’t someone think about it earlier??? Ive done it to a few people *cough cough*
Great Idea. I know a bunch of people that definately should be on any twitter list.
Follow me @krjx ( http://www.twitter.com/krjx )
@alicam – I followed you
Great idea Ali, this your new suggestion, but thing is, i suspect any change to the Suggested Users page may be for the worse. Like for example, Twitter may start charging or will soon start charging to be displayed on this Suggested Users page, so maybe its alright before everythig goes commercial.
I like your thinking Alister!
Nah, too easy to game. I’ll keep fantasizing what a Chief Scientists looks like.
Or maybe – both. A member generated leaderboard and a Twitter official picks.
Nice idea. I think it should be user chosen. But I also think the list is that way to ehlp grow twitter. Twitter put high profile people on the list to get them followers so they will continue to spread the word.
Sure Guy kawasaki is high profile but britney spears is 10x above him.
I like the idea. Good luck with Twitter execs giving a rats as what any of us want. They haven’t so far.
By the way, Guy Kawasaki’s not a great example. He uses ghost twitterers, which is IMO against the true intention of Twitter. http://tinyurl.com/cpgxts
These are great! Thanks, Kathie. We can always count on you to point us in the direction of new, interesting, and useful stuff!
This comment was originally posted on http://vadirectory.net/blog)“>Virtual Assistant – THE Blog About Our Industry
@chuck I’m pretty sure that Guy has two accounts – the @AllTop one seems to be him plus two others.
How is your system any better than the one their using now? It goes from being a popularity contest of the most followed twits to a list of people that suggested themselves and who may or may not actually be worth following. I don’t get it.
This is quite a up-to-date info. I think I’ll share it on Twitter.
This comment was originally posted on http://vadirectory.net/blog)“>Virtual Assistant – THE Blog About Our Industry
Better than signing up and being a fish out of water. Very useful I think – targetting your interests etc
When creating an account at Twitter we only provide basic details. In fact it is quite common for users to start with almost an empty profile and finalising the profile on subsequent access over time. The suggestions as such can only be based on the information provided during account creation process. I can’t see it being effective. It s a good feature to have still I guess.
Thanks for the post. What a nice idea! I guess it should be the choice of the user. I like the way you think. I know that there are many people that definately should be on any twitter list.
I signed up and would have had nobody to follow if it hadn’t been for the suggested users! Having said that, I had about 17 default people to follow, of which 16 were random? Bit weird. I’m more interested in twatter.com.
@chuck: that guy has 3 users at most, not that big a deal
People that should be on any twitter list? I really think that depends on what you use twitter for. After getting about 30 followers that post regularly, you just can’t keep up.
Very innovative! thanks for sharing the tips which will prove to be very helpful in future as well’
Thanks
Charles: Use Tweetdeck for creating different groups of your Twitter friends. Following all on one stream is really chaotic, but creating groups helps a lot.
I have about 200 profiles to follow, once a while I quite following profiles which are just self-promoting, posting nonsense or who are just uninteresting.
I like your thinking Alister!
like this story very much
Can anyone explain the basic design and why the 140 character post limit? It’s like Rolling Rock beer with no explanation for 33 on the bottle.
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