Not entirely meaningless - I think the important number is the ratio of followers to followees. If somebody's got 1000 followers, but they also follow 1000 peop

Not entirely meaningless - I think the important number is the ratio of followers to followees. If somebody's got 1000 followers, but they also follow 1000 people, most likely those are all followbacks, and not indicative of genuine interest. But if somebody's got 1000 followers and and only follow 100 people, they're more likely to be worth your time.