When I watched @thebrandbuilder Olivier Blanchard's vid Everyone on Twitter is a community manager it really opened my eyes to the meaning of follower.
Olivier has reframed the perception of followers, and also what a great concept that "everyone is a community manager" - that in itself causes reflection on the current mental models we have of ourselves and others in social media.
Anyway you can watch the vid and get the whole story.
My version, is that the word "follower" is a misnomer, and are not "things to collect", nor your ducklings following blindly on instinct. In fact followers have made some choice and usually it is not about looking for a cult leader either.
Other than those using an automatic follower-generator tool the folk who choose to follow you are actively creating their own Twitter experience, based on what matters to them.
So what a Follower truly is, is a patron and a potential advisor/and or promoter.
In this sense followers are very important social assets.
Viewing them in this way helps frame thinking about social media strategies, and how to treat these connections in the right way and how to communicate with them in the right language and with the right respect.
If you follow the Network Contribution Participation (NCP) model of social media analysis this new viewpoint adds to the network analysis phase of your thinking.
In summary, think of everyone as a community manager, and followers as patrons.
Thanks @thebrandbuilder.
