We do love our business cards, though. We’re still passing them out at even the most high-tech conferences. They’re little bits of art, tiny extensions of ourselves, especially if you’re lucky enough to not be a cog in the works of some giant corporation. 

When I get home from a conference and sift through the stacks of them I’ve collected, I feel the way I did after my elementary school Valentine’s Day card exchanges.

Now there are a couple of platforms you can use to create something resembling an online business card. I doubt they’ll replace the paper versions any time soon, but they can be fun and practical. Read about them in my post About.me and Flavors.me: Online Calling Cards on GigaOm Collaboration.

This is what’s happening: Francophilia, my startup, has its own Twitter account with hundreds of followers. Francophilia wants to follow all the francophiles back. But Francophilia can’t always tell if followers are actually francophiles, or if they’re just flagrant and indiscriminate self-promoters who have no interest in France or Frenchy stuff.

Take Rawinvstg, for example. Short (and hard to remember) for Raw Investigations, “an online music mag.” Now, maybe the person/people running that account are actually francophiles, but because the account is a “business” account, I have no idea if there’s a francophile behind the curtain.

Then there’s cellphonebestbu (another abbreviation mishap). Are the owners of this company that sells cell phone accessories in Mississauga, Canada, francophiles? I may never know. What I do know is that I don’t want to get their updates on their latest greatest deal for bluetooth headsets. So Francophilia is not following them back.

Among Francophilia’s legit business followers are boutique owners, wine merchants, real estate agents dealing in French property, gourmet shops, etc. This makes sense. But PETA? Or a religious charity? Or an online brokerage firm? There’s something fishy going on here.

I have two Twitter accounts, one for plain old me and one for Francophilia. I had the courtesy to create separate accounts because I didn’t want to waste the time of Francophilia followers with my updates and vice versa. You see?

As far as I’m concerned, Twitter only makes sense if genuine communities are formed. But how do we separate the “real” people from the imposters? Your thoughts?

Here’s a related post I wrote for Web Worker Daily, in which I emphasize the dangers of having your Twitter feed on your professional blog or site…