Yesterday, Twitter released a Follow Button for websites. Basically, you pick an account you want people to follow, throw some code on your website, and then pray more people will follow that account.
This would have been innovative, in maybe, I don’t know, 2009, but right now, it’s just sad.
Why should I just blindly follow a brand that puts the button on their website? How will I know if their Twitter updates are even relevant to me. On their post about the follow button, Twitter highlights IMDB, which is a perfect example of how broken this is. I go to IMDB for random trivia and information about the movies I watch. IMDB’s Twitter on the other hand, features new trailers, random trivia and updates about a handful actors I don’t give a shit about. Why should I follow them? Their updates bear no relevance to me, and as a user, I can’t easily distinguish if their updates will be relevant.
There are many other more useful widgets that will pull the most recent tweets for a user, and then give them the option to go to Twitter and follow me. These have existed since at least 2008. Twitter even makes a version of its own. How did they just get around now to making a follow button?
Are you going to use the follow button? Would you blindly click the follow button, not knowing what lies beyond? I’m still waiting for the new true revolution in social networking and social graphing. These dull widgets just aren’t cutting it.
I did just use it for someone whose blog I like to read. I usually find that I like the twitter feeds of people whose blogs appeal to me. Like you.
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