These days I find there are times that I simply don’t want to open my Twitter or Google+ accounts.
I follow a few marketing people on both of these services and though there are some who are wonderful and incisive in their observations and choice of post-sharing, others are repetitive in their posts and self-serving in their content. They seem interested in merely boosting their own reputations and egos in a way that makes the rest of us feel like we are being forced to subscribe to a cult of personality. If you want to use social media as an outlet to boost your reputation and spread some well-earned knowledge you should feel free to, but be warned: the internet is a fickle place. Preen and strut at your own risk. If you have something important to say, say it. If you want to remind people of something you’ve posted in the past, do so, but space those reminders out thoughtfully. Just posting the same sh*t day after day (or even several times in one day) is just you trying to keep your name in the newsfeeds. You’re not sharing anything we’ve not heard before. Don’t alienate your base audience just because you fear being forgotten. We’re fickle but not so much that you will vanish from our minds within hours. You risk us thinking that you’ve not an original thought left and we’ll move on.
If you had something to say that was worth our attention, we’ll be grateful and remember you for it. If all you post are the same things over and over, day after day, you’ll soon find yourself un-followed, defriended, and… uh… anti-circled. You’ve abrogated your right to be considered an expert, you are now just noise. And all you’ll have left is your ego and a massive number of “followers” who have decided to ignore you but are just too polite to say so.
Jason Polkovitz 