Jackson saw his Twitter followers and blog readers as an audience, and was very focused on maintaining high follower numbers and producing content to interest and inspire his fans. The persona he presented to the world was carefully crafted to fit his career goals. Many of his actions and choices, like going to tech parties, blogging prolifically, mentoring younger entrepreneurs, inventing hashtags, and sponsoring events, were modeled after people whom he admired, such as gadget blogger Ryan Block, Scott Beale, technology journalist Larry Chiang, microformats pioneer Tantek Çelik, blogger Michael Arrington, and entrepreneur Jason Calacanis. Jackson expressed admiration for their work ethic, community involvement, intelligence, honesty, and initiative, and believed in demonstrating these qualities in his own day-to-day life.

Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, loc. 309