Twitter Lists: Why @guykawasaki and @mashable don’t get it!

Twitter lists have been rolled out and they are dividing the Twitterverse.

Some love them, some hate them and some (like me) think that there are better free services out there that perform the same function (and in a better way). It is my opinion that rather than focusing on lists, Twitter should instead be focusing on how to reduce the spam waves that have been devastating it.

At first, lists were something exclusive and they were all the Twitter rage (in the that way that if you had already received the “invitation” to start using lists, you were part of the “cool crowd” and if you hadn’t, you were a
loser). And it was pretty annoying within the realm of the Twitterverse to hear the “cool cats” talking about lists when you weren’t part of the enabled crowd.

Then, the service was more extensively out and users started making their lists. Then, as these things inevitably go, things started to get tricky.

Much has been written about Twitter lists and I am not going to explain what they are and how you use them. There are much better people doing that and people who write way better than I do. Take Brian McDaniel’s post regarding Twitter Lists for example:

I encourage you (and myself) to ignore the numbers and just be who you are. It is a challenge we all face, but hopefully we will instead embrace ignoring statistics and pursuing real relationships with genuine people.

In my opinion, this should be what everyone should be doing. But who am I, right?

Welcome to the races: You are now a click-bag

Let’s take a look at Twitter “monsters*” Pete Cashmore, from Mashable, and Apple’s #1 Evangelist, Guy Kawasaki, Alltop’s God and Guru.

Last week, Cashmore wrote a post on Mashable asking its readers and followers to help Mashable beat President Barack Obama on the Twitter Lists Rank (I didn’t know there was one until I read the post). In my opinion, this is absurd and goes against everything that Twitter should be about. But the dementia didn’t stop here. Not to be outdone, this week Kawasaki wrote a post asking his readers and followers to help him “beat Pete” on the before mentioned rank. Apparently, there is a race going on to be #1 and followers are being used like click-bags to satisfy the ego of a few. Don’t we have enough swelled egos in the realm of the Twitterverse?

Is it just me or is this just plain wrong?

Both Cashmore and Kawasaki are forgetting something they say they defend: The right for every individual to choose what¹s right for them – without being influenced by anyone other than himself. After all, isn’t this what
the whole social media shebang is about? Users who adopt the tools and strategies (or lack thereof) that work for them and fit within the realm of their individual definition of the medium of Twitter or any other social medium? It appears that these two social media “gurus” feel as if theory is just fine until it applies to them at that point they clearly want to use their influence to manipulate the masses so as to achieve their individual goals.

But then I had a thought. Actually, the thought occurred in the part of my brain that I lovingly refer to as “Dick Cheney”. The brilliance that occurred to me was this: Maybe I am pointing the finger at the wrong guys and Obama actually started all of this by making a call to his followers to include him on a list. For a moment, that made perfect sense. After all, Obama is only the President of the good old US of A. How can that be compared to the dubious honor of being number one on the “Twitter Lists Ranking?” As I said, it was only for a moment. A really brief one. Like a nanosecond. Really tiny.

But, this led me to look for hard evidence as to whether or not this was the case.

The Search Begins.. and ends.

I searched the web (using several search engines), watched television (including Fox News) and listened to US Radio stations. I found no evidence. So, being the intrepid researcher that I am, I dove in even deeper I
watched Al-Jazeera for 24th time in a row and … still nothing. Then, in desperation, I even watched a few episodes of Cartoon Network. Still nothing. Not even a subliminal message. Nothing. Zero. Nada.

Do you really want to be on THAT list?

Apparently, the denizens of the Twitterverse added Barack Obama’s account to their personal Twitter lists all of their own volition. Imagine that!
Further, and as factual proof that numbers are meaningless, in the approximately 14,391 lists in which Obama is included as of the writing of this post, he is included in such dubious lists as “Grocery-News-Stand“, “Famous Douches I follow ” and, my personal favorite, “Useless Shit“.

There were also a myriad of people who added Mashable to their lists: Apart from the obvious blogger and social media lists, you can also find Mashable’s twitter account listed on “Spam “, “Desconhecidos” (Unknown) aswell as on the “Zombies ” list. Guy Kawasaki shows upon lists like “Gifted“, “Egos” and “Gringo” among, of course, a plethora of others.

Pete Cashmore was not happy with the people’s choice and decided to manipulate it. Apparently, Guy Kawasaki had nothing better to do, and decided to follow suit. Can you smell ego trip here? I can.

I have no personal dispute either with Peter Cashmore, Mashable’s team or Guy Kawasaki. I’ve actually even had the chance to exchange a few tweets about this with Kawasaki himself. Additionally, I am an avid reader of Kawasaki’s books and his “How to Drive your Competition Crazy” was, at the time it came out, a source of inspiration to me. Mashable featured one of the releases of my netlabel, bringing lots of new listeners and I am a fan and a daily reader of Mashable’s blog. In short, I like and respect these guys.

What comes as a shock to me, however, is that these two men, each possessed of considerable influence and reach, could use that influence to educate others, to inspire best practices and to make the Twitter experience more genuine and fruitful for everyone. Instead, they engage in a ridiculous contest to see how many lists they can amass under their respective belts and I find it rather disappointing. As mentioned previously, I have tremendous respect for both of these individuals, but, frankly, they are acting like adolescents chasing after the same girl – and it’s not even springtime (at least where I live)!. This “race” and the subsequent consequences that ego-driven endeavors like this might bring, are truly things that can be a tremendous negative for Twitter.

An example of the negative ramifications of stunts like this is the one million followers race between @aplusk and @cnn. During the time of that ego trip, Twitter, suffered tremendous operational difficulties and users experienced the hated Fail Whales more than ever. The system was barely functional and all due to an ego trip, disguised as a “power to the people revolution”.

I respectfully remind Cashmore and Kawasaki that with every follower comes added responsibility. And truly, there is no real purpose behind being included in thousands and thousands of user-generated lists, ranging from Gurus to Douchebags, from Hollywood Stars to Not-Good-Enough-to-Be-My-Gardener. Let’s all have a little reality check and remember to measure ourselves by virtue of the people we are, the good deeds we do and the differences we make on a day to day basis, rather than how large our penises are … oh wait, I mean to say rather than how many lists we are included on.

What do you think?

* in the spirit of this post you can make up your mind in what sense the word “monsters” is being used

I want to thank Shelly Kramer for her help in editing this post and make it so much better than when I finished writing it. THANK YOU! If you don’t follow her you will not be on any of my lists