How Many People Should I Follow on Twitter?

More specifically:

Crowd Photo by Sreejith K

How many people is too many to follow?

I’ve had several people ask me lately how I can possibly follow thousands of people. It’s hard to explain, but I think I’ve found an analogy that helps people understand why I lean towards wanting more.

The Television Comparison

When there were only three television networks, there were plenty of shows to occupy more time than anyone could possibly allocate to watching television, but no one opposed PBS arguing that there were already too many shows. Then independent stations propped up, and by the 70s many metropolitan areas had six or seven stations.
Fast forward to today. Thanks to fiber optics and/or satellite, and the options include literally hundreds of channels.
Yet few people would argue that cable companies should offer fewer channels or that the channels should show fewer shows.

Twitter as Television

Think of Twitter as your television, and each person on Twitter as a show. If you follow 72 people, you basically have 3 channels, with one show each channel each hour. If you follow 144, it’s 6 channels. At 288 it’s 6 channels with half-hour shows, and so on. Following 12,000 on Twitter, then, is basically the equivalent of 240 channels running half-hour shows.

How Do You Manage So Much Information?

• You have your favorite shows – the ones you record automatically. Those are the people you have Twitter set to send you SMS alerts on.
• You have your favorite channels – the ones you tend to favor as you’re flipping through. Those are the people, subjects or hash tags you search for frequently, or those you have grouped in TweetDeck or some other Twitter client.
• You have specials – unique shows that catch your attention and really stand out. These are the people sending you @ replies or retweeting you or commenting on one of your posts.
• You have diversions – programs you didn’t plan to watch and weren’t an obvious fit for you but they educate or entertain you in some new, surprising way. These are the tweets you just happen to catch from the people you follow that make you sit up and take notice. They may prompt a moment’s reflection, or they may start a conversation that leads to a deep relationship. Either way they make your day, and in aggregate, your life, better.

Just as I’m not sure which channels I’d ask my TV provider to remove, I’d have a tough time agreeing to remove a significant portion of the people I follow. You never know what show you’ll come across that has just the right message for you at just the right time. Fortunately, I don’t think that’s a choice I have to make.

And if they offer me another 100 channels tomorrow, I won’t turn them down, either, because I don’t know which one might have my new favorite show, and that possibility of discovery is exciting.

Am I Wrong?

Does the analogy make sense?
Does it change your thoughts any on how many is too many to follow?
Where do you disagree or take issue with the characterization, or my implementation of Twitter?
I’d really like to hear your thoughts, and I’m sure others would also.