Twitter: the online, 140-characters-or-less way to broadcast or listen to comments from other users around the world. It’s social, business, personal, and everything in-between. It’s a real-time connection between real humans and the things they are willing to share in short, quick blurbs. If you “follow” a person on Twitter you’ll be able to read what they type into their Twitter account and others can do the same for you. Think of it like a lot of people around a virtual water-cooler chatting, talking, or picking up bits and pieces of other conversations. It’s a big deal. I find it interesting. I’m fascinated by it all.

…I’m a little concerned.

Perhaps what kicked it off was a good article from Robert Scoble entitled “The secret to Twitter.”

Essentially, I interpreted his post to be about the value of exchange… of listening – not just of being listened to. What I took away from his post was that the true value of Twitter is that so many people can share and learn from one another – that he (as he would remind any of us) grow more because expanding our circle of who we listen to is more important than who we try to gain the attention of. I also took away that there’s value in not just listening to those we might normally hear… the value is in variety and different points of view.

There’s no way I’ll argue with him.

I’m concerned, though, something got taken the “wrong” way – and it might be unfortunate because, if I’m correct, his lesson was intended to be the opposite.

…”follow more people and they’ll follow you then everyone will eventually be focused on you!”

I fear that’s the message some people walked away with – or they ignored the message and went with a tactic they could use.

The reason I’m bringing this up is because the day Robert made that post was also the day I noticed other people’s “followers” count skyrocketed. It’s just something I paid attention to. I’m noticing the increase as well – along with some Twitter spam and seemingly unrelated people following me.

It’s not really quantifiable, yet, so I’m not saying this is something definitely happening. However, I’ve read other blog and Twitter comments to the effect of “How I gained 100 subscribers in 24 hours!” or “Gain Twitter Fame Overnight” …or similar.

No, no… I’m not saying Robert Scoble is to blame. There may not be anything to blame at all. I just think his wise words timed out to something I’ve observed and, the nature of people being what it is, makes me suspect a certain segment of the Twitter universe took those words and ran with them. I could be totally wrong, too… his post may have no bearing on what I think I’m observing but he does have a large following and makes good points which, by some, could be appealing to pervert.

So, are we going to see a rash of people using the tactic of following thousands of others in hopes of expanding their circle for the sheer purpose of being listened-to when they talk? Is the hope to create a built-in marketing machine where gaining listeners (followers) is the next big thing since email spam?

…or, since Twitter is all about voluntarily listening and following it’s all good and we get out of it what we put into it? No harm done?