The meaning of milestones! They say in social media and in this particular
case, Twitter, that numbers don’t mean anything. Well, I beg to differ!

Here’s the story – Today, Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2009, with my “trudge-along” – “particular about who I follow and who follows me” approach – I reached
a milestone (for me) of (Ta Da!) 3500 followers. This was done with no
“build your list fast” software, about 750 tweets and 1180 direct messages (DMs). A milestone for me – to hell with the know-it-alls.

On this date my Twitter Grader Score for SeniorTweet was 99.5 and in the TG “location ranking” for Mountain View, CA (Yes – Googleville), my SeniorTweet blog was ranked 25th!

Well folks, numbers may not mean anything to the gurus or other “experts”
but to this 70 year sole proprietor/entrepreneur, 3500 followers was a
real morale booster. The quality scores are also important – my “frosting”.

But that’s not the whole story or, perhaps, even the best part. It just
so happened that the 3500th Follower was Chris Money (@twitaddicted). Chris is associated with Hummingbird a Twitter management software.

I do believe in serendipity. So, I followed my gut and purchased
HummingBird2, the pro version, fully intending to leave my foot slogging
search process for Followers and automate the process. I will keep you posted on my progress, speed bumps and all.

Just to verify my data I am providing images of my Twitter Grader and
Twitter numbers for you to see. (As is the pattern, these numbers go
up and down – but the + and – are small – fortunately more + than -.
I still haven’t figured out the whys and wherefores of these fluctuations.
If and when I do, I will surely share that information with you my friends.

From my Twitter Home Page.

Not bad for Googleville!

Of course, you can make of these numbers what you will. But, for me,
they represent some diligence, dedication and integrity.

Hopefully, you will take heart from this and remember the old saying,
“What one damn fool can do, another can!”. I will also keep you posted on my progress from here and what I learn along the way.

Happy tweeting. Keep at it!

- Val Spangler, SeniorTweet on Twitter.