I was rather confused by a remark a well known editor made recently in a publication.
The editor was writing about a well known celebrity and went on to make an aside that they (the editor) would never take their Twitter followers for granted.
So just for the heck of it, I thought I’d see for myself and pulled up their Twitter profile.
I noticed that they have 30,000 + followers and yet they only follow back 5,000
I see a constant stream of “stuff” and no interaction with their audience and . . .
I thought to myself for a moment that perhaps no one is engaging this editor in any degree of Twitter conversation.
Quite the contrary . . . this editor had plenty of “@” messages but chose not to respond.
This is where the confusion sets in . . . How the hell could you make a statement claiming you don’t take your followers for granted if you behave like that?
It gets better . . .
Someone in my network “@” messages the dude so I decided it was time for a mild intervention and let him know that the guy doesn’t respond.
I receive a response from my connection (and I’m paraphrasing) “That’s alright Paul I just want to connect with him”
Am I missing something?
How do you connect with someone who doesn’t follow back, respond or interact?
This leads me to ask a rather obvious question . . .
How do you define a “connection”?
Is it merely masses of contacts you have just to look like you have lots and lots of contacts?
Should there be either some degree of interaction or at least the intent of interaction before we label them so?
Or are we merely just collecting, collecting, collecting so we can broadcast and lose the business of this “Social” BS?
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You’ve shred a valuable insight into this idea of connecting and what it means. Sometimes shining a light on what is obvious is just what is needed.
Thanks Jerry!
Happy Monday to you my friend!
Hi Paul,
As always your comments are spot on without calling anyone out by name. It’s hard (okay impossible) to really “connect” with someone who never responds. I often wonder about accepting LinkedIn invites from people I don’t know in far off locales but I generally accept then send them a message trying to find out what made them want to connect. It’s almost humorous how many people can’t even take the time to write back a quick comment or response. (I should expect it when they send the generic invite I guess!)
I think many people do just collect connections. They join groups so they can have the badge on their page or whatever. I use FB and LI because that is all I can manage. I’ve tried to follow your advice to make the contacts “real” and two-way. Otherwise, what is the value? That is why I don’t connect with everyone I’ve ever met.
Great points Thomas!
Thank you for taking the time to stop by and share your thoughts!
Paul,
I don’t understand people have connections for the sake of connections either. I would rather have 100 people that know me, respond and interact with me as opposed to 1000 connections that are useless except for me saying I have 1,000 connections (with chest expanded – lol).
Mark Secko
Endeavour Solutions Inc.
I hear ya Mark but many of these people who “connect” just as poorly at 100 as they do at 1000+.
They are missing it big time and in the process, they miss opportunities too.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts Mark!
@ Lisa . . . probably because they’re racing to make their next “connection” 🙂
Very hard to figure them out.
Personally, I live for the interaction part but I guess I’m a complex carbohydrate like that 🙂
Thanks for stopping by Lisa . . . always appreciated!
Paul, excellent observations and analysis!
One of my biggest turnoffs is when the request to connect starts off with 5600+ connections and growing. Are they trying to impress me or themselves?
Spot on as always Paul! Not to mention you are the epitome of what you prescribe…happy to have connected with you for sure…(that’s connected, not collected!)
Hope you’re having a stellar day!!
Virtually Yours,Anne-Marie
You are right about LinkedIn. I have a personal connection with virtually all of my LinkedIn connections but I view Twitter and Google+ differently, as more of a platform for publishing and reading so I may not have a personal connection on those. It seems the editor was speaking of his followers as more of an aggregate group rather than as individuals.