Twitter Cliques and Other Social Media Faux Pas

Twitter is a useful little tool but let me tell you one of my absolute pet peeves when it comes to Social Media: I hate cliquey Twits.

I do. I despise them as much as I despise cliquey bitches in real life.

Let me explain.

Social Media is all about engaging, connecting and conversations. Sure, we all are pimpin' something and have to run a business so we are selling ourselves or a service BUT that doesn't mean you have to set yourself apart from the Twitterverse by ignoring questions, comments, complaints or other Tweets.

Yes, we have all dealt with the Trolls or seen the drama on Twitter but you can still choose to engage with the people who want to converse with you. It's easy to become friends with a small group of Twits or develop online relationships that are stronger with some people that others but it doesn't mean you should blatantly ignore your audience.

On the flip side of that, Twitter IS a live chat so you may not always see the tweets that come your way (unless you're like me and have your Blackberry glued to your hand) but that doesn't mean you can't monitor your twitter stream. And yes, I get that you may be bombarded with tweets but making an effort to converse  is a lot better than completely ignoring people.

Let me give you a couple of positive examples because I see no point in posting negative examples: 
I love Perez Hilton. I know, I know, he's not for everyone but I see beyond his online persona that he has created and admire the little empire he has established. Every once in a while, I'll tweet at him and ask a a celeb-related question not really expecting a response (the guy has 4,800,000 followers and he only follows 485 people) but one day, he replied to my tweet! It was the coolest moment of my day knowing that someone with THAT many followers saw my inconsequential tweet and took a moment to reply.

This one time at bandcamp... wait, wrong story. This one time, I was lamenting about that fact that the FIERCE Christmas party was the SAME night as director Kevin Smith and his bestie Jason Mewes were going to be in town, and GUESS WHAT!?

Jay responded to my tweets!

I just about died. I'm not even kidding. OK well died is the wrong word... cancelled my event is the phrase I was looking for. Anyway, the point is, he has 185,000 followers (but only follows 264 people, tsk tsk) but he STILL took a minute to respond to me. 

Are you the non-celeb Twit who has 15,867 followers but only follows 24 people?

That annoys me too. What makes you think your message is SO important that you are only here to talk and not listen? Is your message more important than someone else's message? Are you the Dalai Lama? Uhm. No. I'm guessing you're not.

This mentality reminds me of the movie Titanic, specifically Rose's pretentious mother who asked if the lifeboats would be seated according to class. Well excuuuuuuuuuuse me, Mrs. Dewitt Bukatur, but I won't  be taking my 3rd Class ass back to Steerage. In fact, you can kiss it. Snap, snap and OH SNAP!

I understand that celebrities have millions of followers and it would be nearly impossible to manage an account by following all of your fans BUT if you're not Lady Gaga or Oprah, chances are you don't have millions of followers.

I'm not saying follow every person who follows you because clearly that would be hypocritical on my part since I don't follow everyone who follows me however I do follow people who intrigue me or engage me in conversations.

It's SOCIAL media, people. SOCIALIZE. Mingle. Chat. Make small talk. Develop relationships. ENGAGE!

Ahem.

If you need me I'll be drinking coffee and awaiting your comments/tweets.

 
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