Kawasaki implies that follower count is less useful than re-tweets as a metric because one’s number of followers does not indicate the usefulness of one’s tweets—but he still relies on a metric to determine whether or not his account is helpful to others. Metrics, whether automatically or algorithmically generated, are socially interpreted as measures of self-worth. Kawasaki wants to be useful to others, echoing an instrumental, business-like approach to social media use, but he also uses metrics to determine how he himself measures up.

Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, loc. 217