‘Who To Follow’ On Twitter: Useful?

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August 9, 2010 | BY Jason Douglas
  

Recently, the web version of Twitter rolled out their “Who To Follow” suggestion tool. This tool is exactly like Facebook’s “Recommended Pages” or “People You May Know” suggestion tools, where Facebook, based on your conversations, preferences, and current friendships, recommends pages you may like, or people you may want to connect with.

Twitter does the same thing by scanning through people you are already following and finding similar users you may be interested in.

I rarely pay attention to the recommendations given to me by Facebook because the pages recommended to me are usually loosely connected to my current interests, and my friendship recommendations are often ex-girlfriends or people I do not want to be connected to. Sometimes, if you are not connected with someone, there is a good reason why and Facebook does not recognize that.

I have found the “Who To Follow” tool very useful in connecting with people I consider relevant. The majority of my followers are from the Minneapolis/St. Paul area. Twitter has done a great job of recommending numerous local Twitterers, many of whom I was familiar with via retweets or public conversations.

Conversely, I have noticed my follower total on Twitter increase by 25+ in the last week. Most of these people are people I have either been following already or have followed back immediately.

The fact that I am using the Twitter suggestion tool often and am disregarding the Facebook equivalent is interesting, but not surprising. It is a perfect reminder that the rules for interaction are different on Facebook and Twitter. We can save that for a future blog post :)

I want to hear about your experiences with the new Twitter ‘Who To Follow’ suggestion tool. Have you found relevant people to follow? Have you noticed more people following you that you are now connecting with?

I hope your experiences have been positive like mine and we can connect soon.

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  • http://blog.thomasmwendt.com Thomas Wendt

    It has been very useful for me as well. My numbers have gone up, and I am finding some really cool people and solid connections. It’s easy to just follow aimlessly with these kinds of tools, though. I think it’s important to remember that no algorithm is perfect, and following people just because they show up in that list will eventually cause clutter.

    Overall, it’s much better than Facebook suggestions. The connections are more tangible, if that makes sense. I have yet to see Who To Follow suggest a friend of a friend’s second cousin who I haven’t heard from since tenth grade.

  • http://www.dailyaxioms.com hbobier

    I’ve had a very different experience with Twitter’s new “Who to Follow” tool. Like Facebook, Twitter is suggesting people that I’ve followed in the past and no longer do for a specific reason, or people I wouldn’t follow in the first place for various reasons.

    Honestly, the main issue I have with this is that it’s top-of-fold and can’t be hidden. It’s helpful for some, but for those of us who are happy with our current networks there should at least be a “hide” option.

  • Jason Douglas

    I agree with you, Thomas. As the tool (hopefully) learns more about our behaviors, it should become more refined.

    Heidi: your issue with the tool suggesting people you have followed in the past and no longer do sparked an idea that would help the tool. On Facebook, you have the option to X out any recommendation. If you do so, you will never see that person/page suggested to you. Twitter should follow suit here. That may help your issue with the tool. The hide option would be nice, though it’s not impacting my experience negatively.

    Thank you both for your comments!

  • http://blog.thomasmwendt.com Thomas Wendt

    I just checked it out again, and there is a “hide” option. If you view the full list of suggestions, look right under the Follow button on the right. It’s small, but there is a little hide button.