Please accept my apologies for disappearing over the last few weeks. Life has a way of getting busy with things like helping clients, producing a radio show, and performing my mission critical soccer dad duties. Somewhere in between I’ve been able to squeeze in a few hours building my microcelebrity (more like expanding my nanocelebrity). Over the last two weeks I broke the 1,000 followers mark on Twitter (OK, Limeduck I mentioned it in public so you can unfollow me now). Here are some of my observations from the 12 months of tweeting:
- The number followers doesn’t mean as much as quality of interactions and conversations. This is an obvious point that gets lost in Ashton and Britney’s battle for supremacy. I thank Ivan at Tipjoy for changing my mind on this.
- Twitter has helped me connect with really interesting people I never would have met in my World 1.0 circles (folks like @jeffcutler, @matthew_t_grant, @robertcollins).
- A milliscoble of social media infamy is no substitute for my longstanding professional relationships when it comes to new business development.
- Twitter is a bit like Vegas. Some thing are larger than life on Twitter. Also many things that happen on Twitter stay on Twitter.
- People can become in social media “experts” very quickly. You can find a ton of great info on Mashable and Techcrunch not to mention the blogosphere about social media channels. FOTS (Friends of the ‘Slice) have heard my regular rants that social media are just media that need to be tested like any other channel making “expertise” less important.
- I’ve met Chris Brogan three times (but I’m not sure he remembers my name). I want to dislike the whole “social media rockstar” schtick but he is a genuinely nice guy who blogs with a clarity that I admire. I also really like his dad’s poker blog.
- The credentials that give someone status in the business world (ie Harvard MBA, worked for Goldman Sachs or McKinsey, etc) are not always a big deal on Twitter. I guess you could argue that Twitter is more egalitarian than the real world.
- Twitter can be a powerful promotional tool. The Skeptical CMO team signed up 100 people for our first radio show back in May almost completely through Twitter.
Did I miss anything? There are too many great people and conversations to highlight in one small post.
Shameless self promotion: I’ll be on PermissionTV today discussion all thing marketing, social media and tangy. I hope you can join the conversation.
Stay tangy my friends…
Philosophical question here – if we are all famous for 15 minutes are we nano-famous for just 15 seconds (microscopically famous in correlation with our relative fame) or can we expect to be nano-famous for longer (say 15 hours) because the fame is confined and may not burn quite as bright or as fast?
Great post. One big, healthy reminder that we should not despair if we have low SM cred, nor should we get overly excited about our number of followers, or the latest retweet. I love the Vegas analogy, by the way.
congratulations on the milestone. Though from your post, I suspect the process is really what you are celebrating!
I’d like to think I learned a thing or two in the process. At least that his how I am rationalizing all the time I spent on Twitter…
Every time I see you, I stumble on your name. I’m not yet sure why. Maybe we need a few drinks together in the same place standing still. I’m such a doofus for not immediately connecting you to your online persona, however, because I watch your tweets and your posts swing by from time to time.
Forgive me?
Chris,
LOL. Thanks for the reply.
My dual life as a recovering CMO/aspiring white rapper confuses alot of people. When my next album goes double platinum you can say you knew me way back then. Until then, I’m sure we’ll get a chance for a few drinks at a future Boston Tweetup.
Frank
Thanks for the mention. You have already hit the goal of being microfamous – you have both of us brogan’s commenting on your blog post. lol. Hope to see you next month at the felt.