Social Media Snit
OK, time to take off the gloves before this goes too far. I keep threatening to show my feisty side on this blog, the place from whence the name of the blog was created.
So here goes: How in the name of Steve Jobs would anyone else be able to tell me “Who to Follow” or “How to decide who to Unfollow?” How would they know? They are not me. They don’t know why I’m on Twitter or Facebook or LinkedIn, just as I don’t know why anyone else is! Perhaps I got on so I could follow the mating habits of pygmy butterflies in East Timbuktoo. Perhaps I’m on Facebook to see if I can find High school friends, or connect with long-lost international friends who I met when speaking and traveling through SE Asia in the 90′s.
Yet, almost every day I am inundated with instructions on these very things. Instructions, I might add, that just land in my inbox or in my Twitterfield. People have taken a couple of really fun and interesting apps and codified them, tried to control them, tried to tell the rest of us how to interact and use them.
I FOLLOW people I find interesting. End of story. I am not manipulating the game. I don’t follow you so you will follow me. That strikes of third grade thinking. “Maybe if I let that boy know I like him he will like me back!” That takes waaaaay too much energy. This isn’t a race, people. So you have 12,832 followers. And the point would be…….? How do I know from your “numbers” if ANY of those people are actually reading anything you say? I don’t.
If I have 250 followers and 200 of them read my tweets, and you have 12,832 followers and 100 of them read YOUR tweets, who won? Nobody. We’re just out in cyberspace meetin’ and greetin’.
And seriously, I mean REALLY, how the hell does ANYONE — with a life, that is — “follow” 12,000 people? Who has the time? Who cares? When I see those numbers, I assume you either have a host of secretaries, or you live alone in your mother’s basement and have no social life. I don’t think, “WOW!” I think, “Whoa…”
So, if you followed me just so I would follow you back; and then you UNFOLLOWED ME to punish me because I didn’t follow you back… Oh Well. I don’t care. I don’t even know or care who has unfollowed me. I’m playing. I enjoy the ability to post cool links, funny little tidbits, quotes that move my soul or say something better than I can. If that isn’t good enough for you to keep me in your “Follow Stable” I promise I will sleep tonight.
I block people who are spammers, or porn queens. I block idiots who are trying to sell me or instruct me on the ways to make money with this stuff. Other than that, I welcome interesting and interested people to my twitter party.
Here’s the deal — All social networking — actually, all networking — is about relationship. It takes time to develop. It doesn’t happen in an instant, at least not the great relationships that are worth tending. Having thousands of followers is no different than having thousands of business cards in the box by your desk. If you can’t pick up one of those cards and have a sense of who that person is and what they need, the card is worthless. So stop trying to pee higher on the tree and take some time to build worthwhile friendships out there in cyberspace.
I think social media is amazing. I love that I can Skype a friend in New Zealand that I just met through Twitter. I love that I can instantly send a DM on Twitter or Facebook to an old high school flame. I love that I can keep up with friends in the speaking industry and celebrate their new books, new babies, and retirement plans.
But I am NOT in this just to see how much money I can make from it. To come from that place is to miss the point. And the fun.
Happy Tweeting,
Beth
© 2009 Beth Terry Seminars, Inc.
