Stop chasing followers: The web is not a numbers game

I think it's obnoxious to hear Zeldman say this; it's kind of like a millionaire lecturing me about how money isn't everything. (Zeldman has 55,000+ followers on twitter and most of the web design/tech community attention at his beck and call when he starts a new project.)<p>It is a valid point, so maybe this is just sour grapes. I always find dismissive platitudes like this coming from the <i>haves</i> as annoying. (For the record: I admire Zeldman and have read his books. I think he's a visionary and deserves the attention he does command.)

<i>What it would gain you to acquire all the followers in the world?</i><p>If I literally had billions of followers, I would have a <i>ton</i> of free traffic that I could direct anywhere I wanted, whenever I wanted. That would be worth a lot.

The question of meta-followers is one that's confounded me for some time. I'd love to see a list of my top 100 followers by their own follow count—are most of them just regular users, or do I have a fair number of large-following followers? I'm sure there must be tools out there that do this, but I haven't come across any.<p>Ironically, while this would objectively demonstrate the imprecision of follower count, it should be easily translatable into yet another score.

Remember when everyone and their dog wrote and spoke about this 2 years ago? Here's another insight: The Internet is going to change the way we do business! :p

it is if you care about money