SPOS #229 – How To Win Friends And Influence People (On Twitter) With Mark W. Schaefer

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Welcome to episode #229 of Six Pixels Of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast. I don’t think you should follow back everyone on Twitter who decides to follow you. It didn’t seem like a big deal to say it. It turns out it was. Mark W. Schaefer (over at Grow) had a great Blog post titled, Bringing Down The Twitter Snobs, that ran contrary to a post I had published titled, Being A Twitter Snob Is A Good Thing. It’s not the first time we’ve had discourse over a hot topic (in fact, we debated Ghost Blogging right here: SPOS #214 – The Ghost Blogging Debate With Mark W. Schaefer). I like debating Mark. He’s not a Social Media Guru – and you know the kind of "guru" I am talking about. He’s a professional and an educator with real experience and a great perspective on all things Marketing and Communications. As you can tell by the comments on both of our Blog posts, this is a hot topic. We decided to take the gloves off and discuss it, right here. Enjoy the conversation…

Here it is: Six Pixels Of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast – Episode #229 – Host: Mitch Joel.

Download the Podcast here: Six Pixels Of Separation – The Twist Image Podcast – Episode #229 – Host: Mitch Joel.

5 comments

  1. I must say that I hand curate every person I follow as well. Not getting 2-300 mails per day of course, I usually wait until I have 200 collected and then sift through, not adding everybody but only those with the right mixture of bio, link and tweets, and maybe friends. I don’t think it has to do with being a snob, I am on Mitch’s side there. But then, this is his blog 😉
    @Mitch thanks for the email comment follow feature.

  2. I’m more into design & photography but I listen to your podcasts while I do photo shoots & must admit; I sort of hate Twitter.
    I can see how it is a valuable tool for networking & marketing so I can’t dog it, but personally speaking it seems like a time-wasting digital Twinkie.
    I think Facebook, LinkedIn & blogs give ample opportunity to meet interesting people and share quick content without adding Twitter to the list of digital deluge.
    People like Twitter because of what Matt Richtel called “dopamine squirts” (from a Stanford study he cited on Fresh Air a while back. I wonder what you would think about it. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129384107)
    I already feel like I need to spend more time outside, reading books or with real people than to add a Twitter account to my list of digital to-dos. Again, I don’t say this because I think Twitter should die but I secretly hope it does.

  3. I don’t think you’re alone. Twitter has grown into something that most people never expected – which means it will do things that most people can’t relate to. Many of us are experiencing “filter failure” and we adapt by cutting things out/down. We scan through content vs. deep diving and, let’s face it, it’s much easier to tweet than it is to Blog, so we tend to take the path with little resistance.
    In the end, it’s going to about “different strokes for different folks.” If Twitter is not for you, there’s nothing wrong with that. If Twitter’s perfect for you… nothing wrong with that either.

  4. Sadly, even if Twitter “isn’t for you” I fear it is growing into such a force that you can’t be a part of the industry without it.
    I am working on a redesign of a series of websites and of course Twitter is a part of that. Luckily we have a social media person so I don’t have to worry too much about it but the career implications of my not playing the Twitter game sometimes bothers me. That’s why I hope it dies down so that you don’t “have to” be a part of Twitter to be a part of the design community.

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