WeFollow - user powered Twitter Directory

OK, the latest Twitter resource that people are talking about is WeFollow, which is going to become THE biggest and most useful Twitter directory on the net, no question. Before looking at the resource in any detail, let's just go through how you use it, because I've already seen a few people getting it wrong.

In your 'What are you doing?' box, type in @wefollow as the first thing you type, to bring it to their attention. Then you type in a hashtag - the # symbol, immediately followed by any keyword you want to be listed under. There is no restriction on what the keyword should be - it's up to you to decide for yourself. So before you make a choice, spend some time over at the site and search for appropriate terms. In the information industry for example people are using terms such as:
Librarian (41 people)
Library (18 people)
Librarianship (0 people)
Knowledgemanagement (2 people)
Literacy (1 person)
LIS (1 person)

You can have up to three keywords, so your tweet should look like:
@wefollow #librarian #library #knowledgemanagement
... and that's it!

• You can't have more than 3 keywords - there has to be a limit somewhere and they've restricted it to 3. [Edited to add: This restriction now appears to have been lifted, and you can add as many as you like.]
• Your keyword cannot contain punctuation as far as I can tell, so don't do #women's do #women
• You cannot have spaces in a keyword, so #social media will be taken as #social (If in doubt, search their database first).
• If you get it wrong you can simply retweet until you get it right. HOWEVER, what may be a slight bug is that if you're the only person in that particular category it won't let you leave it until someone else has joined. So foolishly I added #internetsearch and then discovered that everyone else was being sensible and using #search and however much I retweeted, I couldn't get out of the #internetsearch category. I had to use another account, add that to the same category and then the @philbradley account could leave it.
• You seem to be able to retweet as often as you like; it only takes the system a few moments to add or delete you from categories, which given the amount of battering their system is taking at the moment is very impressive. However, it only seems to update your profile data (ie. followers) once every 24 hours or so, so if you get an influx of new followers, don't bother retweeting your details because that won't update your numbers - wait for the system to do it itself.
• Please be aware that the system is buggy and under development, so all the above is open to change!
• Your tag can be as long as you like - I've not found a limit yet, though I'm sure there is one. The longest tag I've seen is (deep breath) #someonewillingtobepaidasalaryforlearningtoplaypiano

OK, let's look at the resource now. It's a listing of categories based on keywords, under which you have a list of Twitter users, ranked according to number of followers. (So even though I was the very first in the 'librarian' category I'm falling down the listings already! boo hoo!) The front page shows the most important categories (based on total number of people in that category who are being followed), so it looks something like:

Explore a category by clicking on its name, or view a specific person by clicking on their name, or click on the 'i' icon for their latest tweet, keywords they're associated with and their website if they have one.

View popular tags by exploring the 'Popular tags' option to the right of the screen, which is also arranged in order of the largest number of followers of the people in that group. This is likely to change as time goes by. If the subject area that interests you isn't listed, simply search for it in the 'search by tag' option (no # needed at this point - just type in librarian for example), or explore the top 100 Tweeters based on follower numbers.

If you don't want to use the manual method of adding yourself as described at the start of this post, choose the 'Add yourself to Wefollow' option:

This then pops you back into Twitter (so make sure you're already logged in before you start!) and you'll get the code already in place:

So just delete everything in the (brackets), edit the hashtags to what you want, and you're done. Wait a few moments, and then check to make sure that you're added to the right categories. Don't panic if it's not instant - the system is, as I've said, still new and a bit buggy, so cut them some slack.

What should your strategy be for using WeFollow?
In general I'm not really interested in how you can beat the system; just use it sensibly and it'll work for you. However, for most of us we have the choice of being a big fish in a small pond by choosing a less popular set of categories, or being a little fish in a larger pond by choosing a key category such as #socialmedia. I've just gone with my own instinct for what works for me, which after some thought is #librarian #trainer #search since that neatly describes who I am, what I do and what interests me. To be honest, (having just thought of it in those terms) it's a pretty good way to work it.

Of course, there are other directories out there, such as Twellow, and JustTweetIt, but the beauty of WeFollow is that you can use the system without leaving Twitter, you don't need to create accounts and log in, or share your passwords or anything! That is why WeFollow is going to become a key player in this area, and it's also pointing the way to a whole new concept of using Twitter, which is to use it as the platform or interface to do something entirely different.

If you're still here, can I just plug a couple of other posts that I wrote recently, stupidly on a friday afternoon when everyone had gone home. Twenty alternative Twitter search engines and a posting on my website on how to use the Twitter search engines.

Comments

[Tom Roper]

It's good I agree, but could do with some refinement. If I go to the category #running, which I chose for one of my three tags (#librarian and #classics being the others) I get a list of two pages and I'm ranked 7th though, as you point out, I will move down the list as wefollow grows. Fine for the time being, but as it takes off the lists will become unmanageable, unless there's other ways to refine search: eg geographically, or by combinations of tags. It would be interesting to see if there are any other running librarians interested in the classics

[Keren Dagan]

Thanks Phil.
Good coverage of the service. I hope to see how many people are already assigned themselves to tags. Now it only shows the following total. If you want to see how quickly it grows just run this query: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=@wefollow and watch how quickly this page needs a refresh.
It is another prove that empowerment is a scalable method.
Keren

I twit at www.twitter.com/kerendg