It’s not everyday I actually get to write about something I want to discuss. Most of my writing consists of work – whether for clients or my business, it’s still work. Every once in a while, though, you have moments in between the 9 to 5 when you’re compelled, no, forced to purge and rant. You want to scream in horror, to shout from every mountaintop. Why not to you, dear readers? Grab a beer or a glass of wine and settle in.
Now, I’ve been told (and believe for the most part), that you should never post anything negative about someone. It’s bad for business; it’s unprofessional. It could be professional suicide. Therefore, I’m going to turn what may sound like a negative rant into something we can all learn from – especially moi.
Fame does weird things to people, whether they’re politicians, rock stars, movie stars or Internet stars. I don’t know this personally (I’m not famous), but I can share what it’s like from the perspective of one who knows a famous person. I can only imagine how the change happens when you wake up one morning and your life is completely different. I’ve seen it happen time and again, even in my lil’ old life.
Let me tell you about someone I know. When I first met her she was just a normal person, funny as all get out, important to her friends and family, and has become so famous I dare not mention her name. This was over 30 years ago. She was a dear friend; I supported her any time I could. I’m so proud of her and I think she deserves all the success she’s received. She’s a true super star…. But I cannot seem to re-connect with her.
In her defense (Super Star) and mine, (Not a Super Star) I left the country and lost touch. When I came back, however, I wasn’t able to connect with her. I sent letters the first couple of years, recently tried emails and I think I tried once on Twitter. After trying to contact her, I finally understand we’ll probably never talk again… And that’s okay but she gets being in social media. If nothing else, you can imagine how many people I’d have to get through to see her again. I regress.
Now, let’s take this to where it belongs: Twitter. Twitter, the golden child, the most amazing social networking site ever created in the 21st century, is well on its way to becoming a household name. Think about it; the future of micro-blogging, texting sexting, tweeting ad nauseam is all about making rock stars out of you and me.
I was to discuss the Twitter Marketing gurus online: how my love, admiration and respect falls a degree lower with almost every post I read. You know the ones; they’re well respected, followed by many (including me), RT’d by thousands. Who knows, you may have moments like this, too.
Now, in order to “make it”, everyone know you either
a) get an awesome viral video to shoot into the Twittersphere or
b) you build your following with smart strategies that work for your niche. Either way, the posts should be mainly focused on your followers. Even the gurus say this!
However, for the past six months or more, I’ve noticed a definite change in the strategies of some of my favorite Twitter rock stars. Either they’re so self consumed they don’t care, or they think they’re still connected and they aren’t. I don’t know them personally, so I’m not sure which.
Self-proclaimed boasting – “me me me.. mememe” – is coming out of some of my most favorite people to follow. It sounds like they’re warming up for a vocal concert. To be honest, some have become pompous asswipes. What a shame; I liked these people. It’s almost sickening to watch them self promote day in and day out. “Enough about me, what do you think about me?” All they’re really doing is… well, jerking themselves off for the world to see.
Self-proclaiming tweeters, catch a clue. I can understand getting touched by the Twitter gods into rethinking the way you position yourself. However, if you were an ass before you got on Twitter, guess what – you’re still an ass. Twitter doesn’t make you different from what you were.
What it does is give you the ability to connect in 140 characters. When you first came on, you actually spoke to people, not because you had a deal with them or were promoting your product, but because you actually cared. Now you’re a big star and guess what? The person you really are shows and it ain’t purty.
Maybe you can set up one day a week to stay connected. If you must use automated responses, at least send something like, “I’d love to answer your question, but I’m only available on Tuesday. Please join me here. Then, on Tuesday, you could spend a couple of hours talking to your fans via webinar or something. As, a matter of fact this “famous” x-friend I know does something very similar but it’s on TV. She connects with her fans.
What I’ve seen coming from your feed has been horrible. You sound like a freaking spam bot. Every time I think you might have put out a great link to follow, I find out you’re associated with the person and want me to spend money. Shame on you, self-proclaiming tweeters. Without your followers, you’re nothing.
Respond to emails, will you? Oh, here’s a thought: respond to tweets! Do something besides “memememe”.
Here’s my promise to the world. If I ever become famous, I promise to answer my emails. I promise not to have someone else use my Twitter account. I promise only to promote things I truly believe in, and I promise not to disconnect… what are your promises?
11 Responses
Thank you Gabriella
I will read those links and look for you on Twitter!
Cathy
I am lost. I opened a twitter account to help promote my jewellery and get it better known.
I picked people to follow who were in the field of fashion, advertising, magazine of all sorts, other designers and celebrities (hoping someone famous would see my jewellery and fall in love with it and there fore promote it.
I have no clue what is right or wrong on twitter. I honestly wasn’t aware I was supposed to answer all those tweets I read. Most of them I don’t have a clue about (seems it is a different language on twitter).
I would love some short concise set of rules and neticate on not pissing people off. HELP!!!!!
Cathy
Cathy, breath… it will be fine 😉 You are doing what everyone of us started out by doing. Managing a train wreck. lol I have written a few posts on some “concise rules” as you called them. Using Twitter has made me re-think how I do business. It has made me a better writer, has given me inspiration and forged new relationships. I have been meeting new people not only through #FF but, at the various meet-up, webinars, conferences etc.
Look, you have your strategy, I have mine. I stopped manually following everyone who followed me about 2 months ago. My reason was simple, what I have noticed is some of the people I was following started spamming. Well okay what I thought were great people and automatically followed turned out to be total duds. To tell you the truth I don’t follow any of the big names. The media Guru’s are predictable and in my humble opinion boring. Self entitlement is unattractive in my books. Here are a few extra articles for you to look through.
First one is about DM/RT’s/Automation & Follow Friday
Second is How to use Twitter
Third is a 15 second Twitter SEO Do Over
There are few more but I think these will give you specifics; you can decide whether they work for you. Keep in mind I actually spend about an hour or so removing followers rather than adding them. You are probably saying I am wasting too much time thinking about my follow strategy… Maybe I am. But for every “great” person I follow the better my chances are to making Twitter a dialogue and not a monologue.
In regards to responding, It’s not easy unless you are using a tool like Hootsuite or Tweetdeck. Then you can actually take your time and fine tune not only your list but your communication. Btw I will look for you (on Twitter) and follow you… then I can give you some one liners that may help.
Gabriella, you raise a very interesting point about a topic you don’t see a lot of information on: the disconnect between the advice the ‘gurus’ give and their own practices.
Social media is about connecting and there is an etiquette that spells out how best to proceed. But as you get better/more famous and the number of connections increases, it becomes very difficult to connect in the proscribed manner. How can you expect someone with 40,000 followers to answer every tweet and thank people for every RT & #FF? It’s a gigantic challenge. I have fewer than 4000 followers and already it is becoming very difficult to keep up.
Your suggestion of a weekly web chat is excellent. I am also exploring other ways of managing because otherwise, what’s the point? You meet people, establish relationships and then what – snub them?
Interestingly, no one is writing about this topic, maybe because there aren’t any easy or inexpensive answers… A lot of Twitter stars are solos and responding adequately requires resources or even hiring people – as all the big brands do.
Continue to write about this! Would love to hear more ideas on how to cope!
Johanna thanks for your input. I would like to share a bit more about my insight into the psychology of Twitter and how to manage at least in my humble opinion. I’m not sure if you are aware I have several accounts on Twitter. Some are in “Stealth” mode while others are well known to our readers. The reason I bring them up is, that each account is used differently. My following patterns are different as are my RT’s, conversation, links etc. The beauty is I’m experiencing various trends from high peaks to low engagement. For example our @level343 account I keep a (somewhat) strict professional conversation going. I don’t follow that many people but for some reason I am getting followers daily almost 50% more than I follow. So it leads me to think that those new followers like what I have to say enough that they don’t care if I follow them or not. I will admit on @Level343 account I don’t see as many wonderful things as I do on @SEOcopy but that’s because I’m following a couple of thousand people on that account.
Which brings me to my point ( I do have one lol ) While I sit on @SEOcopy as my main account the connections are greater because I “engage” on a personal level. Whereas on @Level343 I don’t get personal so management of that account has become fairly easy. I know the goal is to push people to various links I want them to look at. I do it for our blogs, our clients, and to establish a credible respected brand. So do I feel bad for not engaging in #FF with @level343 or do I feel the need to thank people for a RT? No absolutely not. But I do make it a point to respond to any and all mentions or questions with that account at least once a week. So you see there is a way to connect with tons of people and give them what they want.
Yes, Leyna indeed it is the point. I’m sure you know the old saying (maybe it’s not an old saying lolol) But ” We can all aspire to want hundreds of friends but close friends I want to count on one hand ;)” Or something like that eh? In some way it’s sad though I’m recalling what made me write this post. T’was not pretty, I was reading Tweets from one of my favorite “stars” and kept noticing everything they posted was about them, attached to them or someone that spoke of them. I’m like WTF? Was that out of touch? meh, so I decided to rant on the blog.
Gab, I have not forgot, I am just crap at managing my time right now and clients have very kindly tripled my workload 😛
When you`re famous Gab I am going to send all my posts to you to pimp 🙂
I am kidding, calm down.
I know what you mean though, the “stars” just want to hand pick who they reply to, to stroke their own egos or further fuel the monster. Shame.
I promise to continually ramble aimlessly on twitter and stalk all the rock stars to filter the good from the noise, it takes time and effort to realize who the people up their own arses are.
LOL Hey Dean you have a way with words… can you promise that when you do become famous you won’t use a writer? That is all 😉
I promise to email you when you become famous…just to test you, you know. 🙂 Good post!
LOLOL Well that’s not gonna happen any time soon. But seriously what’s up with that? Am I dreaming to think that these “super stars” would be NOTHING without us? *sigh maybe I’m a dreamer, but I do think there is something missing and they should pay attention. Always nice to see you here Judy Judy Judy 😉