Jonathan MacDonald

Evening! Cheers for the mention. It's an interesting tool, as are all the 'ego tools' for Twitter (apart from the one's that just want to take your password and spam your profile)

Yeah, I was one of the gullible one's that got duped by Twitterrank.

Anyway, I've been wondering about all this for a while.. what does the number mean? Does it make you a better person if you have a higher 'grade' than someone else?

I think it's something that can be misconstrued and doesn't accurately represent the achievements of an individual.. Let's take the Top 50 PR Users by Twitter Influence from Wadds.

I'm up there in the fairly heady position of 11th. That's great and it's led to me gaining a whole lot of new followers and a much greater audience than I'd been exposed to previously..

However, I'm at a higher position than a lot of the people that I really admire, respect and seek to follow in the footsteps of. What does that say about the 'grade' ? Visionaries who have been in the industry more years than I've been alive and who are happy to dispense their wisdom and experiences.

It could potentially be counter productive from my point of view whereby possibly employers would expect more of me because I'm on a top 50 list?

Thoughts?

My friend.....you should never, ever worry that people will expect too much of you.

Firstly, I find it tremendously unlikely that any reasonable employer will look at that and think.....JESUS...this guy is a fucking genius he should be given 350k/yr and an automatic position on the board.

Secondly, it is absolutely no bad thing that people look at such a result and think you are 'powerful' in some way...no bad thing at all....milk it for all its worth my brother. For sure, manage expectation but heck, if people admire you - DONT LET THEM DOWN. Under promise and over deliver like a motherfucker.

Third, and sorry to say this, the grader is entirely subjective and doesn't take into account (for example) the readers and contributors to one's blog or other production. Seth Godin on twitter is one thing but his publication and quotational presence is AWESOME.

In summary, if this grade (which to be fair yours is actually just one part of PR), was a full chart of POWER(!!) then you would be so fucking important you wouldn't have time to write a comment on my blog...nor would you look so damn cheery in your twitter photos.

My adivce: think BIG, act SMALL, scale FAST.

Ignore the bullshit - dont drink your own Kool Aid, request positive criticism over ass-licking and above all.....the main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.

I've found grader's recommendations useful. I've already come up with some great new friends through the lists.