I love the flow of Twitter. I feel a rush when a newsworthy event occurs and the stream rises with discussion and news sharing. I have met good friends, learned so much and grown my business because of the way most of us use the platform to communicate.
There’s one practice some engage in on Twitter that just stops me cold: the launching of endless motivational quotes.
There are a few people I followed initially because I know them and am familiar with their work. Time quickly demonstrated to me that their use of this platform has been misguided and that the bulk of their engagement consists of words others have said. I think my friend Emma said it best:
[blackbirdpie url=”http://twitter.com/#!/SocialMediaEmma/status/83121390449991680″]What’s a Twitter user to do? Well, I ‘m taking a stand. I’m unfollowing the quoters. It’s such an irrelevant interruption to the conversation I can no longer abide it. How about you?
Jaggers, out.
I understand some of who you’re talking about, the people who contribute only motivational quotes: it’s dull and predictable. However, to unfollow someone for peppering their dialogue with quotes seems cold and harsh. If it’s irrelevant to you, certainly unfollow, but I personally find much value in the individuals I follow who occasionally throw a motivational quote in.
@amberdegrace I don’t think she’s speaking of “occasionally”–I know I have people I am following and that’s all they do. For those I really do want to unfollow. I do ignore them right now but for me it’s not worth following them. I’m getting nothing from them and since I’m pretty sure they’re only tweeting quotes and not actually responding to others I doubt they’re getting anything from me either.
I enjoy an OCCASIONAL motivational quote. But the relationship has to be more than that or I agree with you, unfollow.
@amberdegrace I am definitely referring to the people who ONLY tweet quotes and do not engage.
Once again, Marijean, get outta my head. When someone follows me, this is often a determining factor as to whether or not I will follow them back. The other one that drives me nuts is the person who gets a congratulations from someone, and then they just retweet it, kinda like breaking their arm while patting their own back.
And, this reminds me of another cool project I’ve wanted to do for a long time, and perhaps it’s one more thing for us to work on together. Let’s chat when you get home from vacation. I think you’ll love the idea!
@BestRoofer Oh sure! OCCASIONALLY I love to hear from Gandhi, Jim Henson, Jackie O., Coco Chanel, etc. but I do not want that to be the sum of the “engagement” from any user. Would you ever reply to a quote? I am hoping we can make a difference by unfollowing. Thanks for the comment!
@KenMueller Yay! I like your ideas. And you should be in my head, since it is on vacation. 🙂
oh man, I have a brilliant idea. We should all start quoting some random person and get people wondering. It could be either a made up name, or some generic no one. Or you could pick someone like Charles Manson. And use a hashtag. Get a lot of people on board and keep ’em wondering..
@Marijean i think we spend far too much time in each other’s heads. not that that’s a bad thing…
@KenMueller It ain’t over till there’s blood on the floor — Charles Mason #crazyquotes
@KenMueller Er, Manson. Obviously.
@Marijean nice. real nice. just keep Charles Manson out of my head