What is Your Following/ Follower Ratio?

Quick Summary: Read about how your following/ followers ratio is a foolproof indicator of your position on the blogging chain of being.

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Today, I found myself Twittering about the following/ followers ratio, that is, the ratio between the number of people whose blog you read/ who you follow on Twitter and the number of people who read your blog/ follow you on Twitter. Then, as I compiled my updates into a Twitter thread, I had a Eureka moment — I realized that your following/ followers ratio is a foolproof indicator of your position on the blogging chain of being.

If your Following/ Followers ratio is > 2 or < 1/2, you are listening or talking, but not communicating. (Twitter)

That signal to noise (Following/ Followers) ratio rule holds for Twitter/ Pownce, but it also holds for blogs/ RSS feeds. (Twitter)

When you start communicating via a new medium, your Following/ Followers ratio will be typically > 2. (Twitter)

If you are good at using the medium, over time, you will build a following and the Following/ Followers ratio will fall between 1/2 and 2. (Twitter)

When the Following/ Followers ratio is between 1/2 and 2, you are probably communicating with equals. (Twitter)

If you become an authority in your medium, your Following/ Followers ratio will typically fall way below 1/2. (Twitter)

When your Following/ Followers ratio < 1/2, you are talking and others are listening. (Twitter)

Then, you disable comments on your blog, limit your feeds to a low double digits & create a page on Facebook to recruit fans. (Twitter)

The price you pay for being a celebrity is that you don’t have the bandwidth to communicate with your fans. (Twitter)

But then, there are celebrities like Robert Scoble, who seem to have unlimited bandwidth… :-) (Twitter)

By the way, my Following/ Followers ratio is roughly about 1.5 as of now (on both feeds & Twitter), so I’m still listening more than talking… (Twitter)

The question you need to ask yourself is — how do you make it worthwhile for others to follow you? (Twitter)

So, what is your following/ follower ratio?

PS: The other question you need to ask yourself is — why are you not following me on Twitter yet? :-)

Published on November 13, 2007 in Tags: , , , , , , , .. View Comments
  • We've been talking about TFF Ratio (Twitter Follower Friend Ratio) for a while now, too. I like your analysis of the different phases and levels of ratios. http://tffratio.com is the site and you can get it reported to you automatically on Twitter by replying to @tffratio (send a tweet that starts with @tffratio).
  • Hey thats good research. Grad students can appreciate a good piece of research when we see one though love life stories are far more interesting ;).

    507 feeds! Good Gracious! And you read 175 feeds daily!! Does your day has 48 hours?

    BTW, you are on my bookmarked blogs so I do visit quiet often.
  • @Richa: I guess 'both', 'both', 'yes' would be my answers.

    I have 507 feeds on my Google Reader as of now (although I only read about 175 feeds daily); want a screen-shot?

    BTW, grad student types - with the honorable exception of Patrix - rarely leave a comment here nowadays (it used to happen much more often when I blogged about my love life). So, nice surprise. :-)
  • Hmmm..interesting. So are the follower number of visits you get or number of visitors leaving comment on your blog? Similarly is following when you leave comments on someone's blog or just visit? Also is answering to comments considered in talking part too?

    BTW, reading 500 blogs? I don't think even Bill Gates can afford that luxury.

    BTW, Great hypothesis.
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