It occasionally happens that Twitter doesn’t register tweets sent via text message until several hours later, or sometimes not at all. I’m not a fan of these type of glitches, but hey… ish happens. This evening, I had a two-tweet thought, but the first one didn’t post posted out of sequence. Perhaps it’s a blessing in disguise as now I can elaborate on my inspiration.
tweet 1: try turnin on SMS notifies for one person you follow for one week. you’ll get a great feel for who they are.
tweet 2: on for me right now: @jaybaer. really impressed by how he embraces new users & laudes lauds his contemporaries, community, & commenters.
For those who don’t know him, Jason Baer is, among many things, founder of Convince and Convert. He is a deep thinker who shares his insights and perspectives on social media and other digital marketing techniques. We’ve been loosely connected as mutual followers on Twitter for some time, but had never conversed on or offline. Until last week.
I met Jay on the final evening of the MarketingProfs Digital Marketing Mixer. I immediately turned SMS notifications on. A few hours later, Jay nearly took me out of a poker game on the first hand. Still I left notifications on. And I haven’t been disappointed.
Over 7 days and 75 tweets, I’ve seen Jay warmly greet new Twitter users, congratulate and well wish first-time bloggers, whole-heartedly promote blogs and articles he finds compelling, and graciously engage with his community both on Twitter and through his blog. I enjoyed seeing that it’s not all biz. He is engaged in his family’s lives, and he has included family into his professional life with Hottie and the Fatso. Jay talked recently about out-caring the competition, and he does.
It’s been a rewarding experience watching Jay’s character unfold via his tweets. So much so, it makes me wonder what I will learn about someone else by following all of their tweets.
Why don’t you try it? Turn on notifications for one person you follow for one week. Then come back and tell us what you’ve learned.
#1 by Jason Baer on October 31, 2008 - 5:57 am
Ms. Herr –
Thanks so much for the kind words. I’m blushing.
No question the SMS alerts is a great annoyance barometer. It can turn buzzzz into grrrrrr very easily.
I’m so glad you’ve found value in my musings, although that’s certainly not the universally held opinion. As you know I’m tracking my unfollows and they’re up lately.
I think I know why. The more you use Twitter to help someone specifically, welcome them, etc the less relevant that tweet can be for other followers. I’m finding it to be a real challenge. I want to be personal but some people clearly don’t like that approach. I’ve decided to just keep doing what I do – and what I tell my clients – and try to make myself 3 dimensional but not worry about a fourth. The fourth dimension is how I label the truly inwardly focused tweets that people sometimes post – the ones non-twitterers talk about. The “I wish i had some mustard right now” stuff.
All in all even though this is my business, I’m trying to practice what @mackcollier preaches about not taking social media, or yourself, too seriously.
You’re also lucky that you caught me in a good week! No promisesfor the future. You’ll probably have me turned off by Monday!
Thanks again. So great get affirmation.
Jason Baer
Convince & Convert
#2 by Temple Stark on November 1, 2008 - 11:11 pm
Good words all around. My humor gets lost in Tweet translation sometimes and I try and be welcoming to many (though I don’t learn em in return except with vocabularization.)
Were you behind the C& C Music Factory as well?
#3 by Joshua on November 3, 2008 - 12:51 pm
I was in that poker game as well and I can confirm everything that @MsHerr is saying. Jay is a very laid back, smart and all around awesome guy. What @MsHerr did not mention though is she was knocked out early and then came back with a vengeance, damn near cleaning out the 8 other guys playing against her, including taking a few stacks from @garyvee. 🙂
-Joshua