Twitterholic still shows me as having the most Twitter followers among users claiming Menifee, CA as their hometown.

And I only have something like 106 followers as of this writing.

Is that a reflection of Twitter, or a reflection of Menifee?

Menifee is still a small town by Southern California standards. Estimates put the population between 60,000 to 70,000 people. But before concluding that Menifee is too small to make a mark on the Twittersphere, consider that Facebook has a very popular following here in town. Most of the households on my block are on Facebook and we've all friended each other there.

People just don't understand Twitter.

I attended a "Tweetup" yesterday, organized by Kerilyn LaFournaise, a gal who markets herself as a social media consultant. There were about seven of us in attendance besides her.

She asked how many of us had MySpace accounts. We all raised our hands. She asked how many of us had Facebook accounts. Five of us raised our hands. Then she asked how many had Twitter accounts. My hand was the only hand raised.

We were all business people in one regard or another. Either we owned businesses or we were in the business of doing business, like banking, payroll, et al. Yet we were all in attendance to learn how Twitter could help someone with their business or to do business.

Yet they couldn't grasp the value of social marketing. Kerilyn to liken tweeting with attending a chamber mixer, which I thought was a great way to put it. But I still saw puzzled looks. I think they were wondering, "Well why should I tweet when I can meet people in person at a mixer?"

I think people understand Facebook because the social network in which you exist is closed. That is, your status updates are only seen by the people in your network. That gives you a sense of being in a fun circle of friends.

But everything in Twitter is wide open. While your tweets will be seen by your followers, they can actually be seen by the entire Twittersphere. It's just that your followers are more likely to see your tweets than others.

The fact that a circle of friends isn't really defined in Twitter is why average folks don't understand it. They think it's fine to tell their circle of friends that they're enjoying an awesome California roll right now, but they don't understand why you'd tell the whole world that.

People don't feel comfortable about opening their lives up to such great publicity.

As I said, Menifee is still a small town by Southern California standards. People here tend to see each other quite often, just by going to the grocery store, or standing in line at the bank. In a small town you don't need Twitter.

In a big city like Los Angeles for example, you have a lot of anonymity due to sheer size of population. In that scenario, Twitter helps you be seen.

In Menifee, people have little trouble being seen. If anything you need more privacy.

And that's why Twitter will never gain the following that Facebook has.

Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry