This morning I decided to scan some headlines in my RSS Reader, because that thing is Sorely Neglected since I’ve started using Twitter.

And I came across an article contributed by Rich Brooks, who you can find on Twitter.

He wrote an article called Why Guy Kawasaki Is Wrong About Twitter | Social Media Strategies for Small Business | Fast Company – here’s a clip:

I was recently reading a post from Guy entitled How to Use Twitter as a Twool. There’s a bunch of great advice in the post, but I found one piece of advice that I just couldn’t swallow:

“Get as many followers as you can. I recently explained what I do to get more followers. Ignore people who tell you that it’s the quality of your followers not the quantity. They’re trying to make friends, not use Twitter as a tool. And, truth be told, there are only two kinds of Twitter users: those that want more followers and those that lie. You can follow me here.”

Mr. Kawasaki, for the record, my pants are not on fire. Twitter is the Swiss Army knife of communication tools; not everyone needs that big ol’ knife to get the job done.

I’ll take a little bit of a departure of the conventional wisdom – Guy is partly right. I want more followers. I’d love to have a million followers one day, that might be cool.

I also know that it’s STILL about the quality of followers. Still, as the writer notes, in some industries, quantity isn’t totally bogus either. Aside from people who don’t use Twitter for business, I don’t recall anyone in any article I’ve ever read say that quantity doens’t matter at all.

And I’d love if everyone would stop painting the detractors that way.

What we’re saying, if I may speak for those who share this philosophy, is this: just like with targeted traffic, you need a good balance of quality and quantity. IE – if I sell furniture, having 10,000 teenage followers is a crappy strategy.

I’d do better with 1000 home owners.

Now if I can GET 10,000 or even 100,000 home owners? All the better. The point is not to SACRIFICE quantity IN FAVOR of quantity.

Everyone clear?

Can we stop talking about Twitter for 20 minutes now?

Or at least, if we’re going to have a discussion about Twitter, can you tell me what YOU think? Leave a comment or hit the retweet button, and I’ll follow the discussion back to Twitter.

Don’t forget to tweet Rich about how cool his article is.

About six weeks ago ago, I was over at Scoble’s blog, reading some of the things Guy said about Twitter in s recent interview. As usual, I was struck by some of the comments made.

A few of the commenters in that and a related post seemed fixated on two areas.

1- I don’t get Twitter/ Using Twitter for Business Is a Mistake,

and

2- Guy’s comments were outrageous.

Here’s what I said. Go read the post for more, but come back because I’m not done yet. Next we’re going to talk about *exactly* how Twitter and Social Media leads to more clients or customers. Once and for all, you’ll see how it’s possible, and more importantly how it’s possible to do without doing anything scummy, nor anything that would make you more uncomfortable than meeting people at a business conference in person.

There’s a hint in the paragraph below.

The comments are outrageous because Twitter isn’t mainstream. Who would have said these things about the phone, the computer, Digg, before the mainstream phase?

And I got 2 clients from Twitter just in this month, December – waiting on a potential third now. Not indirectly, Directly. That’s like saying you can’t drum up business by using the phone. It’s all in *how* you use the phone. If you call everyone you know via the phone up and bang them in the head with your marketing message, they’ll probably hang up and block your number.

But if you use Twitter to build relationships, for the sake of relationships, and not solely to get cash out of someone’s pocket? Odds are you’ll make a lot more money.

As in all social media and communication devices, not being able to get it to work for you is a case of not knowing how to use the tool, not the fact that the tool is broken. I’ve been extremely guilty of this myself, so I’m putting it bluntly to you because that’s what made me see, and what helped my business so much.

Social Media ROI is spectacular if a- you’re not desperate for cash right now (in which case you should start with advertising anyway), and b- you want to build a business, rather than a series of one-time customers.

Is Twitter a place you should go to talk about what your business does, the features of your products, the details of your services? My opinion is No, not unless someone asks you specifically. It should be clear by now, if you’ve read my past posts on Twitter, that I’m not going to tell you there’s only one way to use Twitter, just what I know gets results, and exposure of the techniques I know are full of shit.

If you’re interested in the results I have above, and wonder how I got them even though I only talk business on Twitter about one percent of the time, stay tuned.

If you haven’t read the first part, you may view this post in a different tone than it is intended. Please read Part 1 of the Marketing Tweetroveries first.

While we’re on the topic of social media, no, I’m not part of the team upset at Guy’s Twitter Twool post or the one on How to Pick Up Followers on Twitter. I’ve been asked about this several times, and not answered. Well, here’s my answer:

Guy and I have had a few conversations and I believe he’s a good guy who was just answering questions people asked him, honestly. Not that he needs me to defend him. He’s probably too busy to even realize there was a controversy over it. Again, people are asking my opinion, and I’m tired of answering the same question individually.

So here’s more of my opinion.

The articles he wrote are for people who are marketing to other people like them, who judge other people based on stuff like follower numbers and who they know. And the truth is, to the crowd he was talking about attracting, perception of those things matter. If you’re marketing to marketers, that’s what they look at.

I was a bit dismayed with the way the situation was handled by most folks on either side of the resulting feud on Twitter last week, especially since there was a much more important issue regarding truth and social media in the news that week that most people laughed about, then forgot about.

When this one came up, I kept largely silent on the matter for two reasons.

First, I was watching the prevailing perception that it’s somehow wrong to make money or to be interested in making money.

Now, as someone on the fringes of this crowd I don’t know if they were being tongue-in-cheek, or if they aren’t aware of how they come across and don’t mean it that way.

I can only say what it looked like to me from the outside looking in.

How I view it as someone who has been actively looking to link people who need freelance work to people who are hiring freelancers.

How I view it as someone who hires people who do what some of them do.

In either case, I appreciate them being authentic, but I’ll admit to being… saddened by what I see as a negative attitude towards wealth, or even financial stability. I just plain don’t think it’s wrong to have money, pursue wealth, or be in business for yourself.

Are there ethical ways to do it? Yes. Should those be the way we follow? Of course.

But the spirit of much of the ribbing, jesting and sometimes, flat-out meanness that I witnessed, wasn’t tinged with discussion of ethics. It read, intentionally or not, as an objection to capitalism, period.

In talking one on one to some people, I found that there was an anti-business attitude, even among freelancers. Not anti-bad-marketing. Anti-business.

Among a crowd made partially of freelancers and entrepreneurs.

No wonder so many folks are broke and the economy is a mess if we think the companies that serve us, hire us, or that we create, are evil just by virtue of wanting to make a profit.

That’s what business is, people. The world doesn’t run on cheese.

The other reason I hadn’t said anything while this was hot was that the timing coincided with the death of a really close friend. I’ll get into that more later in a post where I hope we’ll discuss how I’m doing and how you’re doing.

From what I saw, the fighting got a little vicious and there were some mean exchanges, as well as some unfortunate things said, and actions taken that have permanent consequences some may be deeply ashamed of later.

But I know how I react when I feel I’m being attacked, so I’m not judging anyone on either side. Not that anyone in the situation needs or desires my (dis)approval. This post isn’t for them, it’s for you.

Having said that, I also don’t think @ABigVictory, or her opinions about what Guy said regarding Twitter, should be “muzzled”, particularly after her update. I don’t even think that kind of thing is possible.

At the end of the day, whatever happened between her and Guy as a result is really between them.

Of course, I don’t think people who share her opinions should be called names either, the nicest of which would be “a social media elitist”, the worst I’ll tell you in a minute.

What I want to know first is; when did it become okay to call people names and accuse them of things we wouldn’t say if we weren’t eye to eye?

No matter how big or small a person’s business is, it’s wrong to try and disparage them over a difference of opinion, no matter how passionate you are about it. Even if they did something immoral or illegal there are avenues for that. I’m not against using your site as a platform to protest someone else’s actions.

Just let it be known that bickering is an immediate unsubscribe for me. I’ve been guilty of it myself, and I’ve learned from that, to the point that I won’t stay around to witness it amongst others.

The takeaway point of that is that I’m not alone.

As more people come to the realization that they control what they consume, how they spend their day, and the mood it puts them in, they’ll continue to refrain from participating in bickering – or witnessing it.

There are better ways to deal with a situation than calling people who have helped more people than either claims in public, a “douche” or a “bitch”.

Again, I’m in no position to judge, and I’m not specifically condemning anyone. But since you’re asking, yes, that’s my opinion. And yes, I’ve defended myself with name-calling before, yes in business settings.

And I’ve always regretted it. The best thing I’ve ever done for my business, my life even, is learn how to keep my temper under control.

As far as Twitter goes, and using it for business, I fall somewhere between the two of them. I think it’s fine to talk business on Twitter to people who have indicated that they want to talk business.

I believe that as long as I treat other people the way I would hope they’d treat me on Twitter, everything will be fine.

That includes letting me know that they’re someone I can outsource work to – I personally feel I shouldn’t have to hunt further than your profile to find out what you do and where to hire you. Or how to refer you to people.

Because you know what? I won’t. Most people won’t even go that far.

And since none of us owns Twitter, seems to me that everyone gets to have their opinion about what Twitter is about.

As long as we keep the realization that these are just Opinions – they are only rules to the people who agree with them, who group themselves into sub-communities within Twitter.

Next Twitter posts will be about how I help people’s businesses using Twitter, how Twitter helps me, and how Twitter can help your business Without doing traditional marketing.