Kings and Douchebags
There are tons of pithy statements regarding actions and words: Show, don’t tell. If you’re gonna talk the talk, then walk the walk. But the best phrase I discovered was in Melanie Rawn’s sunrunner series where the queen admonished her son that if he has to remind people he’s a prince, he’s obviously not much of one.
I only rarely participate in Twitter’s Follow Friday. For the non-twitter users, you post on Friday your favorite people to follow, spreading the word around. It’s flattering and nice, but honestly I don’t see my follow numbers spike on a Friday, so I’m not sure how effective it is. For the hell of it, last Follow Friday I looked at the #ff hashtag to see what strangers were saying. I was astonished to see several people say “please follow me.” For one thing, only people who a) follow them, and b) look at the Follow Friday hashtag will see their plea. For another thing, they give you no incentive to do so. Do they really want me to follow them out of pity?
The way you get people to follow you is to a) follow people and b) write tweets worthy of others’ interest. That’s about it.
I recently went through my list of followers and added a bunch that looked legit, for the hell of it, just to see how the conversation would change. I was surprised to realize that most of my new followers were “Social Media Experts” who tweeted only about social media and were utterly sterile and vapid. (Yeah, I know several people who’ve been complaining about social media douchebags, but I didn’t really grok what they were talking about till now.)
It hit home again. You don’t need to tell people you’re an expert. Do expert-level work. You don’t need to SAY you are king. You’re just king. You don’t SAY “follow me on Twitter!” You make content worth following. This applies everywhere: twitter, blogging, writing, movies: anywhere there are experts.
Beware the person who says they’re king. If they’re known more for their boasting than for what they’re boasting about, don’t listen to them. If they have to remind you how awesome they are, instead of showing you constantly with their content and their actions, then walk away. Look to the people who are doing, not talking. That’s where you’ll find the kings.
Category: Personal
I saw your tweet and was so hoping this would be a post about NBC’s Kings and the douchebags who canceled it. I am now worried I might be a little obsessed.
Still, good post.
Yes. That. Said so much more succinctly than I could have put it. Thank you.
That’s kind of a problem in writers’ groups, too. They are so often attended by kind folk who like to tell you that they write/plan to write. They are not “writers,” but rather “writeurs,” those who want to live the writing lifestyle, whatever that is. I would be surprised if there was one finished book or story to each five members of most groups.
I’m not saying that you should go around calling bluffs, but I see little reason to listen to someone who just talks.
And of course, this principle also applies in marketing – why do you think Microsoft needed a name for “Plug and Play”?…
Too true! I just wrote an article on social media “experts” for work (shameless plug here).
I think the general conclusion there was if you’re claiming to be an expert, you better be able to show it–Google makes that really easy these days.
WELL said.
I use to get weirded out when people called me “an expert” but then I stopped. As long as I wasn’t calling myself that or touting it then I guess I should be ok with it. (still feels weird though every time)
One thing that the Internet has allowed is for anyone to talk louder about themselves. Ever notice that it is the quiet ones who usually know more then the loudmouths?
CC- exactly. People can call you an expert, and you can give advice, but talk about what you’re good at, don’t talk about being good at it.
The fact that you feel weird with it means you’re human. And awesome.
But it’s OK. We all know you’re an expert. And you never told us once.
Every time someone says “social media expert” the terrorists win. Seriously, though, why are people not getting this message? Entertain me. Don’t tell me you know how to possibly entertain me at a later date. Because I won’t give you the chance.