Isn’t it odd that John Reese followed up his announcement regarding dropping his Twitter account with an email about “minimalism?”

Yes, I went over and read the blog post John cited in his email, and this line, “Being minimalist is about focusing on the important,” stood out (to me) as being the exact reason I followed John on Twitter to begin with.

To me, when I chose to follow John Reese, I did so because I felt (for whatever reason at the time) the things John might say on Twitter would somehow be – or lead me to – things that were “important.”

Hmmm. Something to think about.

Did it matter to me if John told me what he ate for breakfast? No. Did it matter to me if John mentioned he was out goofing off with his buddies? No, not really (although those tidbits DID make “the great JOHN REESE” seem more real, more human than some people who set him up as the “Traffic Secrets god” might see him).

Even though those specific kind of tweets weren’t as important to me, I didn’t stop following John. Why? Because I didn’t want to miss the tweets that “were” important.

The fact is, John knows things about Internet marketing that I (and many others) don’t know — yet. We’re still learning, but John’s already learned a ton of things I and some of his other followers haven’t.

By following John on Twitter, I was practicing the very act of minimalism he cites in his email. I was focusing on the important…on things and people whom I feel are helpful to me and where I want to go with my life.

Yes, I know John’s human, just like every other human, right? Of course he is. And heaven knows the point of this follow-up post is not to inflate John’s ego (although I don’t mind pumping it up a bit by admitting what he has to say can be and often “is” important to me — and to others).

The point of this post is this: when you know things, people do tend to find what you have to say important. Often important enough to go through days and days of their Twitter timeline just to see what you said.

Doesn’t matter if you Tweet something every day. Doesn’t matter if you respond to @replies (although it DOES help build relationships). What matters is whether or not you say “the important stuff,” get what’s helpful or what needs to be known out there.

Does it bother me that John deleted his Twitter account?

No. I’m on his email list, so I get to hear from him anyway, from time to time. Same with Frank Kern, Clayton Makepeace, Jason Moffatt, and a few other folks I find listening to important to my future plans.

But I sure am going to miss clicking back through my timeline to see those @JohnReese tidbits.

Have a great day!