Please do your homework.
by that damn redhead on April 8, 2009
in Rants, Social Media, twitter
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Would you buy a car from a salesman who didn’t have a drivers’ license?
Would you take tennis lessons from somebody who first picked up a racket last week?
Would you hire a nanny without first doing a background check?
Would you take singing lessons from Marge Simpson?
Didn’t think so.
So then, why would you pay to take a class on “How to Use Twitter Effectively for Business” by somebody whose Twitter ratio looks like this:
?
Whose Twitter stream was only broadcasting what they were doing — “come to my workshop” this and “my business is having an event on ___, here’s a link” that — and whose only visible interaction with anybody on Twitter was one lonely retweet . . . of their BUSINESS PARTNER’S, broadcasting yet another event they were having? Said person is also charging money to teach people how to use other social media tools “effectively” and “for your business” when they themselves are barely active on them.
One of my favorite people in the social media space (and now real life space), Amber Naslund, made a great point the other day:
Look, we need the craptastic shillers to showcase the good work when it’s done. We need examples of lousy results and scattershot tactics because the people that are really digging deep to do good work will eventually look that much more brilliant, and their results will be that much more compelling.
. . . and I agree with her, so I’m not about to beat a dead horse. Said shiller above is somebody local to me. I’m not going to waste the time and energy calling this person out because a) I’m classier than that, and b) the universe will balance it out in the end, but please, folks, all I ask is that you just do your homework a little bit before forking over your cash.
I’m leaving you with this commentary by Perry Belcher, a guy I totally admire and adore for his ability to tell it like it is:
Kind of reminds me of the old rhetorical quip:
What do you call the guy who graduated last in his medical school class?
I would argue that there are no “experts” in the Twitter space beyond self proclaimed experts. Just because you have alot of followers and people you follow doesn’t make you an expert.
coe’s last blog post..Job Seekers Take Notice
I guess those types prey on the those who are just too busy to do their own homework. Within less than a week, you can learn pretty much everything you need to know about Twitter, for free, no matter why you are tweeting. Not sure what’s sadder, the scamming or the scam-ees.
Great food for thought!
@coe if you’re inferring that I’m inferring I’m an “expert” then I strongly suggest you read my stance on the term and theory of expertise. Everybody has different uses for Twitter, and everybody uses it differently, but having a following:followers ratio so unbalanced gives the message “I don’t care about what you say, I only care that you care what I say.” That, on top of them NOT INTERACTING AT ALL and only promoting themselves is universally (“twitterversally”?) considered broadcasting, something that is just not cool and IMHO, gives them no authority to be teaching a class and charging people money where they clearly don’t even have a grip on the basic culture of the service itself.
@Mirigi I agree to a point, but there are some people who need someone to sit down with them and just walk them through it. There’s nothing wrong with that, not everybody is as well-versed in internet schtuff as we are. I am reminded every day when I’m out and about in my little community that my “natural habitat” of the internet is uncharted waters for many.
I will say when I hit my limits on Twitter. The first people that are cut out of my circle are the ones who have the extreme differences in followers! I need a reason to clean house and this is a great way to make changes.
Their is no reason for a Twitter snob. Social Media is about Networking though I don’t agree with Perry Belcher and the automated response to find me on Facebook. This could be taken the wrong way as well as the auto DMs he was complaining about. You could already be following him and their for he isn’t listening.
Jamie Favreau’s last blog post..Digital Divide, Startup Weekend Detroit, and the Young Professional
Twitter Comment
RT @damnredhead Please do your homework. | that damn redhead [link to post]
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