LEADERS & FOLLOWERS- Life According To Twitter

lead-er[lee-der] –noun
1. a person or thing that leads.
2. a guiding or directing head, as of an army, movement, or political group.
3. Music.
a. a conductor or director, as of an orchestra, band, or chorus.
b. the player at the head of the first violins in an orchestra, the principal cornetist in a band, or the principal soprano in a chorus, to whom any incidental solos are usually assigned.
4. a featured article of trade, esp. one offered at a low price to attract customers. Compare loss leader.

fol-low-er [fol-oh-er] –noun
1. a person or thing that follows.
2. a person who follows another in regard to his or her ideas or belief; disciple or adherent.
3. a person who imitates, copies, or takes as a model or ideal: He was little more than a follower of current modes.
4. an attendant, servant, or retainer.

Welcome home!

Today is Wednesday 30 December 2009, which makes this the second to last full day of the first decade of the new millennium.

As some of you may know, I have been working on my
New Decade Resolution list for the past couple of weeks, and I believe that this particular subject is extremely relevant, and needs to be addressed as it is showing itself to be one of the key components which brings individuals to the Internet at this very moment.

“Just like the butter on your breakfast toast, it’s the little things in life that seem to matter the most”
– Rylan Branch

I could and very well may write an entire book on this particular subject, yet out of respect for your time and attention, I will work towards sticking to the bare essentials of the matter.

As we bring this year to a close along with the decade, one thing that I have stated to members of my inner circle, is that it appears that one of the most in demand things in the world at this time, is the desire to feel or be important, and over time, I have noticed a tremendous increase in the supply of services on the Internet that appear to be serving this need.

One of the most accurate example, is the social networking, and cultural phenomenon known as Twitter, which is based on forming relationships between leaders and followers.

As a  fly on the wall type of observer, I have determined that there are many individuals in the world who have taken to using the numbers of followers that they have on Twitter as a measure of their self worth and value amongst their peers.

It is to the extent where online, and perhaps offline battles take place over who decides to follow and be a follower who, as if the decision to follow another is a symbol of power , along with the decision of the leader to allow and disallow follower-ship.

I am fortunate to actually be a parent of elementary school children in this day and age, because I have clear and accurate proof of the scenario that adult behavior in society mimicks childlike behavior more and more at an alarming rate.

One time, I overheard one of my sons make a claim to the other that he had over 15 friends at his school, which my older son countered with a rebuttal.

This is important because the trend actually started and flows over to other Social Networking Sites, which base their connections on what are termed as friends, so I conclude that the person with the highest amount of friends or followers has the highest value according to what they believe in the area of value.

The current stat sheet for PimpHop on Twitter is as follows

For some of you more technically inclined individuals, if you wish to score yourself some cool points in the world of tech innovation, I would advise you to create something that allows an individual to access their very first and subsequent few tweets, and here is why.

I was referred to the site by a technically advance friend of my, as an inquiry to the next hot thing on the web, and this was in 2008 before the site became a cultural phenomenon as it has been classified as.

I can recall that my very first entry in 140 characters or less was something to the effect of

Ok, I get it, if you have many followers, ur a KOOL KID, and if you have more peeps that you follow then followers,then ur a SQUARE!

Another friend of mine who had been using the site for a while laughed at the simplicity and truth of the statement, and he was actually our first followers, and people that I followed, yet the original friend that recommended me played a tick on me, by having me follow him, but him not follow me back, as I guess I was not as KOOL as the people that he was following.

Let me see how I can explain this.
I guess we all have our own ideas of who what and where is important to us, and for me, it tends to be individuals who have accomplished goals that I seek to accomplish for myself, so one of the first individuals that I decided to follow on Twitter is as follows

http://twitter.com/Oprah

She may not be the most technically inclined individual on planet earth, yet when it comes to the area of MEDIA, whether new or old, I hold her to a pretty high esteem, but thats just me.

Anyhow, that happened, because just as we signed up for an account, Oprah did also, as she also heard of the sky rocketing popularity, through Larry King and Aston Kutcher battling it out to see who could reach the status of a million followers first.

Oprah then signed up, and she was able to acquire a million followers in a short time.

I am sure that I could easily figure out a way to generate a large number of followers as well, with all of the techo apps  that have been developed for that purpose, yet interestingly enough, Oprah’s tweet frequency is for whatever reason, EXTREMELY minimal, and became so after only a month of having a membership on the site, so I took my chances and decided to follow her lead accordingly. Again, that’s just me.

As I said before, I could write a full book about the subject, and point out the inherent flaws in this popular application known as Twitter and social networking sites in general, yet since I am more of a fixer upper than a
tear downer, I can simply propose a more effective formula, which will be applied here at Your Friendly Neighborhood PimpHop.com

Firstly, while many individuals may actually desire to be a leader, pimp, boss, or whatever term floats your boat, I believe it is simply due to the associated accolades that individuals believe to be associated with the position.

As a word of wisdom, from a person that actually holds the position, I will simply state that there is, always has, and always will be an extremely high cost associated with being the boss, so much so that I often rush to delegate the title to others.

Simply put, as a leader, it requires that an individual have the ability to look out for, and have concern about, the needs of the followers, meaning, the well being of individuals besides their own self.

In the real world, this is somewhat naturally assumed, yet we seem to be headed into a parallel universe scenario with many things on the Internet, as this trait seems to be extremely rare, although the desire for leadership status is increasing.

As a simple rule of physics, I would state the following and leading both involve motion, and ask if anybody thinks that it is wise to request followers and not be moving or lacking a clear sense of direction and purpose?

Likewise, is it feasible to follow any person, place, or thing that is at a stand still and only wishes to absorb your attention with nothing beneficial being offered to you in exchange?

With that said, lets look at a simple yet effective real world scenario that may in fact allow others to attain the status of leadership and help others simultaneously.

PimpHop.com Leadership/Followership Tour Adventures.

Welcome to Sunny Southern California.
my name is RB, and I will be acting as your tour guide for today’s journey.

Our starting point is a place known around the planet as
The Happiest Place On The Planet, known to you as Disneyland.

We are now entering the on ramp to History Interstate 5, which is a route that runs north and south through most of the western side of the Continental U.S.

Our destination is
The City Of Angels, approximately 33 miles to the north where you will have a chance to visit all of the exciting attractions including famous people and the places that they live and work.

As you look to the right, the monument that you see is known as The Citadel.
It is a modern shopping retail outlet location which borrows architecture from Ancient Egypt, and serve all of your retail shopping needs.

Ahead of us in the distance is Downtown Los Angeles, which will be the first stop on our tour, and you will have the oppurtunity to visit many of the locations that you frequently see on television and in movies, including movie sets, and the Staples Center.

Before we arrive, I would like to congratulate for also serving the task of providing leadership most effectively.

Since we are travelling in seprate vehicles, individually and as groups, although it may appear to you as if you are being led, you are actually in fact leading the crowd, as you are relaying this same information to the individuals in our party who are following behind you subsequently, as well them  leading those who are following behind them.

Yes, I appreciate the thanks, yet in actuality, it is simply a matter of fact that we all were headed to one particular destination point, and although I, as your guide have traveled this route more than a thousand times due to the fact that I was born and raised here, someone ahead of me provided the same directions for me to begin with, and I am sure that you also have the same exact capablility to lead a tour in your native area, to keep with the tradition which claims that if we all work together, we can all benefit from what we have to offer others, which makes us all a valuable member of the group by default.

A different perspective to consider.

See You At The Top
( And Bring A Friend!!)

Written By
R. Branch
Code Name
Scotty Pimpin