Are sarcastic comments on Twitter, the only way to gain more followers for individuals?


For a while now I’ve observed the content of tweets from people on Twitter (who I am following) who’re really popular. And my interpretation of them being popular is based on their Twitter follower base. These people constitute of journalists, bloggers, PR professionals, marketers, artists like stand-up comedians, domain experts on things like social media and so on.

Either by design or by default, a lot of the tweets from these people are getting sarcastic by the day. That’s my observation and the premise for me writing this post. Is it good? Is it bad? Is it irresponsible? Or is it a result of free speech? Those will be very subjective questions. But the question to ponder is - Are sarcastic comments on Twitter, the only way to gain more followers for individuals?

Making sarcastic remarks is one way of drawing attention
My take, yes and no! Yes, because tweets that contain sarcastic comments get a lot of attention and/ or re-tweets. It’s a typical demand and supply equation. With 340 million tweets a day, how does your tweet stand out? It’s the same question that publication/ media houses face. With so many publications in India (print and online) how do their stories stand out? That’s why I say yes; making sarcastic remarks (akin to ‘breaking news’) is one way of drawing attention and in turn increasing your follower base on Twitter.

In addition, it’s not an uncommon fact that our minds are anyways attracted to doing things we’re ‘not allowed’ to do, or say, in this case. Automatically more people tune into such a tweet; and RT and/ or follow the person.

Logically there are other ways to increase your Twitter followers too
I also say no, because logically it isn’t the only way of getting followers. There are sufficient examples of people who have a high follower base on account of (1) the content they share (2) the regularity with which they share (3) the way they engage with others on Twitter (4) how early they came onto Twitter (5) their offline popularity and/ or influence and (6) their having consumed some online pill, that overnight quadrupled the number of followers they had.

I won’t comment on the sixth point (because that’s a separate debate all together) but the first 5 points are definite ways to increase your Twitter following. Things like quality of content and regularity of posting seem too basic, but rich content always stands out. Engagement is also highly important, and is something that could be defined as an art, because everyone has a different strategy for it.

I’ll conclude my thoughts on this – sarcasm occasionally expressed via tweets is okay, it’s sort of justified; but continuously being sarcastic is not a smart long term strategy to adopt. Such an approach may initially entertain, but later, the attention just fizzles out with time. Again I’ll draw a parallel to ‘breaking news’. If all news shown on TV were to be ‘breaking news’, the interest in such programing (and its credibility too) would subside. It’s the law of diminishing marginal utility.

But have you noticed this trend on Twitter too? What are your thoughts on this?

karanbhujbal

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