Tuesday, March 10, 2009

Twitter: It's Not You; It's Me...

So, I’ll admit, it took me a long time to warm up to Twitter. At first I thought it to be overwhelmingly – well, overwhelming. I mean, who could possibly keep up with all of the information being purged? I had enough difficulty maintaining a Facebook status. As with anything however, time sort’s things through and after implementing about 12 Twitter monitoring tools and nailing down who it was that I really wanted to follow, what I really wanted to say and learn, I’ve gotten comfortable there.

Until lately. Well, I take that back, I still like it there but recently I feel as if I am in a cyber relationship with a myriad amount of folks I’ve never even laid eyes on and my every move is in measure with something resembling speed dating. I’ve got 1 minute and 1 Tweet to prove my worth. Eeek, what if I’m having a bad hair day and not at my wittiest? My numbers climb, then they drop and vice versa. Was it me? Did I make a bad first impression? Do I have bad breath? Was I just being used for a number and when I didn’t immediately reciprocate affection I got dropped? I mean hey, I’m not that kinda girl. Maybe it takes me a little time to get to know you.

And then comes Qwitter. Yikes. If someone stops following you, then you immediately stop following him or her? When did Twitter become spiteful? Are you following people because they interest you or because of numbers alone? And truly, you might not be interested in my random thoughts about social media marketing, what I had for breakfast or my favorite music of the week but I still might really be interested in what you have to say. Do I have to stop following you because you stopped following me?

Sometimes, you meet people, and you think you have something in common and in time, you realize that you don’t. That’s ok. It’s nobody’s fault, it’s just who we are. Can’t we still be friends? You might follow me but I’m just not interested in antique cars or optical physics so I don’t return the follow. Isn’t that my right? It doesn’t mean that I still don’t think you’re fabulous. It just means that our Twitter relationship will never go to the next level because we don’t have much to talk about - so, I’m bowing out gracefully before anyone gets hurt.

I’m not here for numbers, I’m here to learn, laugh, educate and hopefully connect with some folks that have common interests. It’s ok if your not my type – or I yours. I think? I wouldn’t want anyone to follow me if they aren’t interested in social media, food or music – because what I have to say would most likely bore them – and I don’t want to be the lame girl at the party.

My thought is that people might be taking this game of Tweeting a bit too seriously. Personally, if you have 3 followers or 30,000 that won’t make a difference to me. I like you for you and I’ll follow you because something you’ve said has sparked my interest. If I stop following you, it’s nothing personal; maybe we’ve just drifted apart. It’s not you; it’s me. No hard feelings ok?

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