∞ I follow people, not companies

Written by

I was having a beer and talking to someone at WWDC (I can’t remember who — probably the beer’s fault) and he pointed out something that is true for me too. I follow people, not companies.

That holds true for RSS feeds and Twitter. I’m not so much interested what news a Web site has, but I’m really very interested in what some writers have to say about the news.

I have a folder in my RSS application that is specifically for those people. I’m sure you can guess most of the names in there, but that is the folder that I pay the most attention to during the day.

When companies post news, they go into a Tech or Mac folder and I’ll skim the headlines to see if there’s anything earth shattering. Most of the time, there’s not.

I understand that many people like to follow companies on Twitter because they don’t like all of the chatter of the individuals. That’s certainly true in some cases too.

That’s why we have an account for The Loop, my personal account and Peter’s personal account. A little something for everyone.

However, as I look through Twitter and my RSS, I see an increasing trend to follow and engage individual writers, musicians and other people that I find interesting.

I’m not sure if it’s the same for everyone, but thought it was a worthwhile trend to mention.



  • https://twitter.com/#!/danielhedlund Daniel Hedlund

    I agree, using Twitter as an RSS replacement does not appeal to me. Following writers is more interesting because you get more thoughts and insight from those writers that you wouldn’t get if you did not follow their Twitter accounts. 

    As for RSS, I don’t really read big tech news sites like Engadget etc anyway so I use it mostly for blogs. 

    But I do subscribe to quite a few RSS feeds for sports sites, specifically for the teams I follow since I can’t really remember to check them at the end of the day. But they are in their own folder which I get to when I get to it. 

  • http://twitter.com/Moeskido Moeskido

    I follow several tech writers on Twitter because there’s a good chance that their non-tech conversations might be of interest to me as well. Glen Fleishman is a great example.

    • http://mangochut.net/ mangochutney

      Same here, I store the tech writers I follow in a twitter list and they seldom disappoint.

      A bad example would be MG Siegler, who has become unsuffrable and was quickly unfollowed.

  • http://twitter.com/shelholtz Shel Holtz

    I follow people AND companies. I follow whoever’s interesting and whoever I want to be able to initiate a conversation with. I think it’s worth pointing to the Edison Research/Arbitron study that reveals 80% of social media users prefer Facebook to connect with brands (not people). 

  • Mayuresh Walke Ml

    Do share which writers you follow who comment and help make sense of the news.

    • http://www.loopinsight.com Jim Dalrymple

      Sure, people like Gruber, Ben Brooks, Shawn Blanc, Dave Caolo, Marco Arment, MG Siegler.

      That’s off the top of my head.

      • Michael T. Rose

        I’m telling Dave you said something nice about him, just so I can see his head grow to 2x normal size. :)

  • http://www.informationworkshop.org Mark Hernandez

    Like image and audio formats, Twitter is lossy with low dynamic range, RSS is synchronous with greater depth and range.  This is indisputable.  I’m really tired of the Twitter vs. RSS pseudo debate. They each have their tradeoffs and usefulness and I use both.

    People get caught into that argument because people have a tendency to think binary – either/or. “I follow people, not companies” is an example of binary thinking that leaves no room for the complexity of the world.  There is plenty of wisdom in it, but it shouldn’t be taken literally.

    I have 200+ feeds in NetNewsWire (for a reason) but can only read about 20 a day. The good sites (individual, news, or company) have simply bubbled up to the top over the years depending on their quality and interest to me in particular.  

    My “A-List Personalities” folder includes Gruber, Arment, Michael Mace, Lisagor, Mullenweg, Inhatko, Simmons, Drance, Mrgan, Dilger, Pogue, Gassée, Blanc, Gray, Gemmel, English, Dash, Godin, FOSS Patents and more.

    My “A-List Feeds” folder includes Asymco, Techmeme, MacStories, Macworld, The Loop, AppleInsider, MacRumors, MacObserver, Onion, AnandTech, Hacker News, TUAW, TiPb, Ars, and many others.

    Sites that have sunk quite low down into my “Everything Else” folder are far too many to count but include sites whose quality is inconsistent because they allow 20% BS and linkbait in their pageview-oriented machines, including GigaOM, BusinessInsider family, CultOfMac, etc.  

    If something makes the grade it will likely appear in Techmeme, or be “Quote and Commented” here or on DaringFireball, or The Macalope.  Or, get referenced on Twitter that are only my “A-List Follows.”

    It’s a complicated situation with a complicated approach to staying on top of my industry and field of interest in the most efficient way I can think of.

  • http://mangochut.net/ mangochutney

    The way I use Twitter and RSS has changed during the last year.

    I follow mostly people and sites that offer the most value to me. The number of sites I followed who simply report tech news has dropped to zero, because the really good sites offer more than the usual regurgitating the same piece of news twenty times.

    I have a twitter list containing companies whose products I own that Im interested in. But only a few show up in my regular timeline.

    I follow a lot of developers and web/UI designers, because I’m a sucker for good apps and design.

    The most important use for twitter communicating with people, most of which I’ve never met, but who I’ve come to appreciate.