Why do you think a high-quality site like... - Chris Baskind

Oh, that's why. - Chris Baskind

OMG! Back to Lesson #1.... - Bora Zivkovic

Maybe because "high-quality" is in the eye of the beholder? - Craig Eddy

Even if you don't like Salon, they're still doing about 1.6 million uniques a month (so says Compete). They're running 300 x 250 banners all over the site pushing their Twitter outreach -- for less than 300 follows. Broken. - Chris Baskind

They're using Twitter as a broadcast channel (i.e., one-way communication) - Dave Martin

I don't know about Salon, but I don't even have an active blog or podcast and I just broke 300 today. But what I lack for in those other departments I think I make up for by helping people solve (technology and other) problems. :) - Dr. Apps from twhirl

Simple: Salon readers do not use Twitter, Twitter users are not Salon readers - Jeff McNeill from twhirl

Actually, what Dave Martin said makes sense. One-way is lame, just subscribe to their RSS feed and you'll get the same info as what you would get from their tweets. - Dr. Apps from twhirl

wow that is interesting - Susan Beebe

Twitter is a meritocracy. - Eric Florenzano

OK, I asked my Twitter stream if any of them read Salon.com.I don't have a particularly large number of people listening, but I think we can firmly establish that Twitter users do, indeed, read Salon: http://is.gd/aDMc - Chris Baskind

FWIW, many media sites, including InformationWeek (where I am an editor), have broadcast-only feeds, some very successful. So I don't think that's it. - Mitch Wagner

I read Salon, so now they have one more follower - William Harryman

V for Veselka, several successful media feeds are broadcast only and follow 0 people. So that's not it either. - Mitch Wagner

I think that depends on how you define "success", and you forgot the "social" part, Mitch. - Rahsheen ™, Coach Rah

So let's generalize this principle. Consider http://twitter.com/algore, should we now assume that if they up their subscriptions to 1, they'll get get 21,250 followers? Man, I'm subscribed to 180 people, that must mean I should have a million followers! Edit: in the time it took me to write this comment, Al Gore got another follower. Man, subscribing to people (or rather a person) really is great! - Mark Trapp

I don't understand the point of broadcast-only twitter streams fed from RSS. Why wouldn't people just subscribe to the RSS feed instead? A couple of my fave film blogs just started using Twitter, but when they only fed the RSS I stopped following immediately - I was getting everything twice! - Jandy, ConcertMaven of FF

Broadcast only is pointless but RSS to Twitter + communication is really effective. I run a small tech blog and I have more followers on Twitter now than I do via RSS. I'm also feeding my RSS feed to Twitter but I also actually communicate with people as if it were my normal Twitter account. People seem to appreciate the fact that I'm doing both. - Jon Gosier

Michael Arrington does the same thing for Techcrunch. I find it great that I can see his Tweets, and also see when a new article comes out - Tyler (Chacha)

Twitter seems to be supplanting RSS. I feed everything to Twitter from my site and feature the stream prominently. But I also interact with the people who follow. Don't think Salon's anemic showing on Twitter is entirely because they're not following back, but the owners of The Well, Table Talk, and Open Salon should understand the benefit of two-way communication. - Chris Baskind from IM

It's a different audience. Salon users tend to be passive and read it as a magazine. The interactivity of twitter is a different breed for them... especially when salon doesn't even try to have a conversation. - Jason Williams

V for Veselka - There's more than one way to be interactive. I manage InformationWeek's Twitter account, and I don't log into it much to check for replies. However, I *am* active on Twitter on my own name, that information is in the @InformationWeek account description, I have a search.twitter.com feed set up for our brand and its nicknames, and other editors are on Twitter too. - Mitch Wagner

So our presence on Twitter is broadcast *and* social -- without the @InformationWeek account following anyone. - Mitch Wagner

I agree. That's smart, Mitch. - Chris Baskind

I blogged about this here: http://www.informationweek.com/blog... - Mitch Wagner

This is why i love FriendFeed. - Chris Baskind