Today is sort of a rant. Sometimes I just can’t take it anymore and I have to let off some steam. Because I spend a stupid amount of time on the internet, combine that with some Adult A.D.D. (loss of focus) and I see things on the internet that I consider downright stupid. I’m no genius either, if I were, I’d have figured out how to blog from the beaches on the French Riviera. As it is, I’m sitting here in my office at home no where near as successful as those I’m getting ready to rant about.
I refuse to be one of the sheep.
As some of you may know, I’m not a very big fan of Twitter. I was pretty hot about it at first but my enthusiasm cools monthly. I just can’t make myself like it very much. I rarely follow anyone anymore. I have made a decision, right or wrong, that it will not be a large part of my social media unless the owners change the way it works. I’m tired of porn sites following me. I’m tired of anyone following me for purely a way to market their product or business that I don’t want. C’mon folks, I can find a porn site on my own if I wanted to. I can Google anything I want and find it. If you are in Nebraska and I’m in North Carolina, and you make homemade jewelry and I’m a hyperlocal blogger, I don’t see any connection. Do you? I am much more interested in finding people in my local area that I have a common interest with.
How eHarmony could kick Twitter’s ass
I wish Twitter would give me options of blocking people who are not in my geographical area. Twitter should allow me to set parameters that I control how people find me. If I could set controls in Twitter, much like a dating site like eHarmony, only people who had matches would find each other. If you wanted to find more people, expand your personal parameters inside your Twitter account. If eHarmony was smart, they would stop calling it a dating site and make it a social media site much like Facebook. Allow me to start an account and meet other people who have the same interests that I do. As it is, I can’t stop anyone from viewing my updates on Twitter without blocking them.
Stop re-tweeting guru’s of the internet, you look stupid doing it.
When someone who is firmly established on the internet, posts a stupid article, and you retweet this person, it makes you look like a freakin simpleton who will follow anyone. Join the herd of sheep my friend. Please, for the love of our Almighty, STOP IT! I’m not going to mention any names here because I’m nobody and I don’t want it to appear that I don’t appreciate the success of others. I do. Most of the books in my personal collection are about successful people and how they came to be. Why in the hell are you using the Twitter platform to promote other people all the time? I didn’t follow you just to watch you promote others. Do you think I’m so stupid that I don’t already know about the Guru you are promoting?
How does it make you feel when you are one of 375 retweets?
Did you just alert me to the breaking news story about the cure for cancer? No you didn’t. Guess what you did? You just retweeted an article from an internet fake who appears to have cut & pasted paragraphs from a Tony Robbins paperback. Do you realize what a sheep you are when you are one of 375 re-tweets? Do you really think anyone cares when you are comment number 117 at the bottom of a useless article about how to manage your personal brand? When you retweet, did you actually read the article and determine that it was important enough to divert my attention and click your link? If I’m following you, I probably have enough faith in you that you will alert me to thoughtful or funny articles that will enhance my knowledge or maybe give me a good chuckle or a cool video. Guess what, I just un-followed you for filling my Tweetdeck with pure crap. 99% of the time when you re-tweet you look re-tarded. I’ll probably catch hell for that remark. I hope I do, at least then I can interact with you directly and we can have some real Social Media.
So you want to be part of the herd and promote the Big Boys
Ok, I realize that some folks just need to be accepted. Promote this guy, David Risley, 6 Figure Blogger. He’s an internet success story who actually gives you great useful information. He’s not full of fluff like some of the others. Read and learn. Watch and learn. David is a great videoblogger and teaches you his methods. I also like him because he rants against Twitter at times also. Apparently, he makes a lot of money on the internet. Good for him I say. He gives value and deserves to be rewarded. He’s opinionated. He’s not going to tell you to be all fake and protect your brand. He doesn’t care, he’ll video tape himself riding in his car going to the post office to pick up his checks. To me, that is cool. Check out his video below. Guess what? No B.S. fluff here. This is great stuff that you and I can use. David’s videos don’t show him on a stage in front of a herd of sheep reading his own powerpoint presentations and causing audience narcolepsy. David doesn’t teach you to just think it and have good karma and read BS on a powerpoint and I will create success for your Fortune 500 business. No, he shows you the camera he uses, the microphone he uses. He show how his studio is setup. This is real, tangible not a nirvana I’m trying to create inside my brain.
Do me a favor, alert me to the obscure.
Have you found someone on the internet who is a great writer and is obscure and not quite so famous?
- Is this person worthy of a re-tweet? Are you a regular reader of their blog?
- Do they give some form of value?
- Do they make you laugh?
- Do they take photos and you know I like to take photos?
- Do they shoot video and you happen to know I enjoy making videos?
- Do they have the best yard in Southern Chicago and you happen to know I’m a yard freak?
- Have you found a great site for motorheads and you know I own a 68 Camaro that I work on in my driveway?
Please tell me about sites like this one
Pacing The Panic Room is a great blog about a new family and their experiences during pregnancy and now they have had their baby. Ryan Marshall is a photographer who takes awesome photos and if you read him, you will be hooked. This is great stuff. It’s real life. Go look at his photos, they are awesome. I bet you have never heard of him have you? Why? It’s because you have been in the middle of the herd, stepping in all of the crap that the other sheep around you are crapping while all of you are eating the same grass on the same hillside.
Best bet, build something for yourself
I can’t add a lot to this. Build something for yourself. Let me follow you if we have common interests. Tell me about you. I’ll find the others on my own.
I have an email address. I have a blog. I have a comment section and you are not limited to 140 characters. Hell, write me a novel if you want to. Give me a link. Tell me about the obscure. I have a telephone. Click the link below and leave me a message. Re-tweet something deserving of a re-tweet, not the crap you’ve been doing. Tell me about yourself, your family, your dreams, your techniques. I can find the Guru’s on my own thankyou.
The Initiator
“I’m just here to learn.”
Learning is fine. Listening is good. Consensus is natural.
But initiating is rare and valuable and essential.
How often do you or your brand initiate rather than react? How often do you tweet instead of retweet? Invent rather than exploit?
If you would like to make a voice comment on this article and blast me, thank me, disagree with me or cuss me out, just click the link below and I’ll publish your comment in a player right here in this article. Whatever you do, do not re-tweet this article.
Copyright 2009 BloggerLens.com
“I’m tired of porn sites following me. I’m tired of anyone following me for purely a way to market their product or business that I don’t want.”
Steve – why does it matter who follows you? Their posts won’t show up in your feed unless you follow them back. Turn off the email notifications and you won’t even know who’s following you.
“If you are in Nebraska and I’m in North Carolina, and you make homemade jewelry and I’m a hyperlocal blogger, I don’t see any connection. Do you?”
Maybe that person is thinking about starting a local blog and wants to follow you for advice and conversation?
“I am much more interested in finding people in my local area that I have a common interest with.”
So no one outside of your immediate area would ever have anything of any value to share with you?
“When someone who is firmly established on the internet, posts a stupid article, and you retweet this person, it makes you look like a freakin simpleton who will follow anyone.”
So, I’m a simpleton because I retweet articles/posts that I find interesting? I think I’ve retweeted some of your posts, haven’t I?
“Why in the hell are you using the Twitter platform to promote other people all the time? I didn’t follow you just to watch you promote others.”
I’ve never equated retweeting with promoting the other person. I retweet because I think something might be interesting to the people who read my tweets. And I never assume that they all follow the same people I do.
And the awesome thing is that, if I’m retweeting too much or retweeting stuff from people they already follow, they can just unfollow me and get on with their lives. No big deal, right?
“Do you realize what a sheep you are when you are one of 375 re-tweets? Do you really think anyone cares when you are comment number 117 at the bottom of a useless article about how to manage your personal brand?”
Hmmm, well I wasn’t aware people were actually counting stuff like this, but okay.
“If I’m following you, I probably have enough faith in you that you will alert me to thoughtful or funny articles that will enhance my knowledge or maybe give me a good chuckle or a cool video.”
But I have no idea who you’re following, so isn’t there a chance that I’ll retweet something thoughtful and funny that you’ve already seen? And then you’ll get all worked up about it? I don’t get it, Steve. You don’t want people retweeting too much. You don’t want people retweeting stuff from “gurus” (whoever they are). You want people retweeting stuff that no one’s ever read (which kinda sounds impossible), stuff that you haven’t already read … and yet it’s impossible to keep track of everyone else’s followers. So how would we go about this? How can I avoid retweeting something you’ve already read?
And what’s with the last line? If you want real social media, why are you trying to tell me what I can and can’t do with this article? The thing about social media is that you have no control over the message. Once it’s out there, it’ll spread how other people want it to spread — that’s the essence of social media. If you don’t want it on Twitter, don’t write it.
“I’m tired of porn sites following me. I’m tired of anyone following me for purely a way to market their product or business that I don’t want.”
Steve – why does it matter who follows you? Their posts won’t show up in your feed unless you follow them back. Turn off the email notifications and you won’t even know who’s following you.
“If you are in Nebraska and I’m in North Carolina, and you make homemade jewelry and I’m a hyperlocal blogger, I don’t see any connection. Do you?”
Maybe that person is thinking about starting a local blog and wants to follow you for advice and conversation?
“I am much more interested in finding people in my local area that I have a common interest with.”
So no one outside of your immediate area would ever have anything of any value to share with you?
“When someone who is firmly established on the internet, posts a stupid article, and you retweet this person, it makes you look like a freakin simpleton who will follow anyone.”
So, I’m a simpleton because I retweet articles/posts that I find interesting? I think I’ve retweeted some of your posts, haven’t I?
“Why in the hell are you using the Twitter platform to promote other people all the time? I didn’t follow you just to watch you promote others.”
I’ve never equated retweeting with promoting the other person. I retweet because I think something might be interesting to the people who read my tweets. And I never assume that they all follow the same people I do.
And the awesome thing is that, if I’m retweeting too much or retweeting stuff from people they already follow, they can just unfollow me and get on with their lives. No big deal, right?
“Do you realize what a sheep you are when you are one of 375 re-tweets? Do you really think anyone cares when you are comment number 117 at the bottom of a useless article about how to manage your personal brand?”
Hmmm, well I wasn’t aware people were actually counting stuff like this, but okay.
“If I’m following you, I probably have enough faith in you that you will alert me to thoughtful or funny articles that will enhance my knowledge or maybe give me a good chuckle or a cool video.”
But I have no idea who you’re following, so isn’t there a chance that I’ll retweet something thoughtful and funny that you’ve already seen? And then you’ll get all worked up about it? I don’t get it, Steve. You don’t want people retweeting too much. You don’t want people retweeting stuff from “gurus” (whoever they are). You want people retweeting stuff that no one’s ever read (which kinda sounds impossible), stuff that you haven’t already read … and yet it’s impossible to keep track of everyone else’s followers. So how would we go about this? How can I avoid retweeting something you’ve already read?
And what’s with the last line? If you want real social media, why are you trying to tell me what I can and can’t do with this article? The thing about social media is that you have no control over the message. Once it’s out there, it’ll spread how other people want it to spread — that’s the essence of social media. If you don’t want it on Twitter, don’t write it.
Now this is what I’m talking about…this IS Social Media now Matt.
You are actually one of the people I enjoy following and you always post information I can use, that’s why I’m a big fan of yours as you know already. If everyone used Twitter & Facebook like you do, I wouldn’t have a beef with it. You get it.
I myself, am a Twitter Dumbass because I can’t figure it out I guess. I followed a lot of folks and now I have started unfollowing. My aggravation comes when I get an email that someone is following me and when I check them out as I always do, I look at their Twitter stream and web page and usually I am disappointed lately. It’s a porn site or a sales landing page. I keep my email alerts on because I may find that hidden gem. I don’t consider what’s mostly happening now on Twitter as Social Media, I consider it marketing. Is Twitter Social Media or Marketing? If it needs to be classified as marketing, well then my opinion just changed and I would consider it possibly the best invention since the internet and Google. It started as Social Media and I guess I’m confused now. I consider you taking me to the woodshed here on BloggerLens as real Social Media. I can DM you or make a comment on your site or Facebook you and you always respond. I’ve sent DM’s to those who have 30K followers and some respond but most do not. I understand why you can get lost in the crowd.
Maybe I should turn off my email alerts, but I’m afraid I’ll miss the next Matt McGee.
You have retweeted me and I you. I make no bones that you inspired my start into hyperlocal blogging. I have reviewed you here and will continue to do so. Your generosity has sent me traffic and made people aware of me that otherwise would not know I exist and that’s the point I’m trying to make, possibly not doing a good job of it. There are those out there who know about me because of you. I’m grateful for that. I subscribe to everything you do on email and look forward to receiving it. Retweeting an article that other people have already read cannot be avoided. However, because I know you don’t Tweet a bunch of crap, I’ll go look and RT you if it’s good.
When I see the folks I follow do a RT, I tend to go and check it out. I find lots of good info and at times I will RT to my very small following. For the life of me, I just can’t see the value in retweeting a post that has already swept the internet. I would love to see them instead, RT their own article and remind me that they are still out there and that gives me a little reminder to go back and give them a look. If you notice, I made no comment about re-tweeting your own stuff. I think one should. I actually do look at comments and the number of RT’s on articles. If the number is high I usually shy away from a RT or a comment because a quick look at Tweetdeck shows me it has swept the internet already.
Now you know the last line in my article was in jest.
Now this is what I’m talking about…this IS Social Media now Matt.
You are actually one of the people I enjoy following and you always post information I can use, that’s why I’m a big fan of yours as you know already. If everyone used Twitter & Facebook like you do, I wouldn’t have a beef with it. You get it.
I myself, am a Twitter Dumbass because I can’t figure it out I guess. I followed a lot of folks and now I have started unfollowing. My aggravation comes when I get an email that someone is following me and when I check them out as I always do, I look at their Twitter stream and web page and usually I am disappointed lately. It’s a porn site or a sales landing page. I keep my email alerts on because I may find that hidden gem. I don’t consider what’s mostly happening now on Twitter as Social Media, I consider it marketing. Is Twitter Social Media or Marketing? If it needs to be classified as marketing, well then my opinion just changed and I would consider it possibly the best invention since the internet and Google. It started as Social Media and I guess I’m confused now. I consider you taking me to the woodshed here on BloggerLens as real Social Media. I can DM you or make a comment on your site or Facebook you and you always respond. I’ve sent DM’s to those who have 30K followers and some respond but most do not. I understand why you can get lost in the crowd.
Maybe I should turn off my email alerts, but I’m afraid I’ll miss the next Matt McGee.
You have retweeted me and I you. I make no bones that you inspired my start into hyperlocal blogging. I have reviewed you here and will continue to do so. Your generosity has sent me traffic and made people aware of me that otherwise would not know I exist and that’s the point I’m trying to make, possibly not doing a good job of it. There are those out there who know about me because of you. I’m grateful for that. I subscribe to everything you do on email and look forward to receiving it. Retweeting an article that other people have already read cannot be avoided. However, because I know you don’t Tweet a bunch of crap, I’ll go look and RT you if it’s good.
When I see the folks I follow do a RT, I tend to go and check it out. I find lots of good info and at times I will RT to my very small following. For the life of me, I just can’t see the value in retweeting a post that has already swept the internet. I would love to see them instead, RT their own article and remind me that they are still out there and that gives me a little reminder to go back and give them a look. If you notice, I made no comment about re-tweeting your own stuff. I think one should. I actually do look at comments and the number of RT’s on articles. If the number is high I usually shy away from a RT or a comment because a quick look at Tweetdeck shows me it has swept the internet already.
Now you know the last line in my article was in jest.
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I love to retweet stuff from gurus… it’s like giving them digital fellatio. ROFL
J/K
over the line?
AL
I love to retweet stuff from gurus… it’s like giving them digital fellatio. ROFL
J/K
over the line?
AL
@Al, ok, that was funny and a new term I’ll have to remember.
@Al, ok, that was funny and a new term I’ll have to remember.
You could be getting your wish, regarding location based filtering on Twitter. http://blog.happn.in/2009/08/21/twitter-geo-tagging-and-the-importance-of-location
You could be getting your wish, regarding location based filtering on Twitter. http://blog.happn.in/2009/08/21/twitter-geo-tagging-and-the-importance-of-location