Why Am I Following You On Twitter?

My friends here at HuffPost recently posted a list of 50 funny people to follow on Twitter, and hearing all the thank-yous and hey-what-about-mes that followed, I wondered about the 436 people I currently follow on Twitter, and why I follow them.

Since it is Follow Friday, after all, what better time than today to tell you?! If you go to my Twitter feed (@thecomicscomic), then you can see all 436 of the feeds I'm following. And here's why I'm following them:

1) You are funny. It's my job to know about funny people and write about them on The Comic's Comic, and you are one of them. Congratulations!

2) You followed me first, and you seemed nice enough, even though I'm not sure we've ever met, or will ever meet.

3) I may want to interview you at some point, and this will give me some good fodder for questions when that happens.

4) You are famous and likely to say things to everyone on Twitter that your publicist would never tell me and the media on your behalf, and there's something amusing and amazing about that.

5) I want to know more about you in real life, and this will help me seem like I know you should we ever meet, although I should remember not to say too much about your "Tweets" in the first 30 seconds after our introduction.

6) I have a crush on you. See #5.

7) You rejected my Facebook friend request, so this is the next best way to find out what you're doing. This may apply to a number of you, that number being greater than zero, and less than two. You know who you are?!

8) I hope to work with you someday.

9) We are colleagues, or were colleagues, and this is a much easier way for us to fill each other in on our lives than meeting in real-life like human beings.

10) You are my friend. I know you. You know me. Twitter is our way to have an ongoing conversation about life, work, and anything we care to share when we're not actually hanging out together. That's what Twitter is about, right?

Follow Sean L. McCarthy on Twitter: www.twitter.com/thecomicscomic

Comments

[eSarcasm - Huffpost Blogger]

hey fellow huffpo comedy blogger:

you forgot "he/she/it looks pretty darn hot in 24-by-24 pixels, I think I'll follow him/her/it­."

fyi, we've published a handy dandy guide for people who need help figuring out whom to follow on twitter. (and yes, this is a blatant plug for our eSarcasm blog -- thanks for asking.) you can find it here: http://www.esarcasm.com/3687/to-follow-or-not-to-follow-a-twitter-guide/

@zukervati: we are both narcissists and sheep. does that make us sheepicists?

esarcasm.com.com

[zukervati]

By design, there are two types of people using Twitter: Narcissists and sheep (ones who want to be followed and the followers).

[devans00]

I agree with most of McCarthy's reasons. There's another one for me that I'm surprised another Huffington Post news junkie didn't bring up.

I follow certain people because I saw them on a news program or The Daily Show/Colbert Report and I liked what they had to say and how they said it.

[Neal Tucker]

"Our way to have an ongoing conversation about life." Best, most succinct reason for social-web I've probably ever heard. Loved the post! :)

[Sean L. McCarthy - Huffpost Blogger]

Thanks, Neal!

[capricorndevil]

i follow (on twitter) for some of the reasons you outlined; but mostly, as a "news junkie", i do in order to keep the news headlines and other happenings at my finger tips!

[Pavane]

Man. You NEED that? I'm not being critical ...just wondering is all. The news depresses moi. So I write symphonies instead. It's calmer. Sometimes.