When a retweet means nothing, and connections ≠ conversations…
Originally published on 17 September 2014
My primary concern comes from what I have come to regard as “The Thought-Mongerers.” Individuals who do nothing but push an incessant slew of mindless content out to people who don’t read the content and still re-tweet the content. Those who are trapped in a vicious circle of their own dirge, beige in a landscape of colourful people and opinions.
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There is a formula for these tweets: [Boring snippet] x [bitly/buffer link] @author = 3 retweets and no engagement. How is this using social media for anything other than a lonely hearts ad for unenthused content regurgitation?
Sounds like the people from another social media network.
You know, the one that starts with ‘F’…
Believe it or not, people interact via Twitter. They chat (read: complain) about everything, swear at each other and display other human qualities like humour and compassion (and sometimes wonderful notes of sarcasm). I will assume that the suited men with the semi-side-on-avatar-picture-in-front-of-a-blue-background have tens of thousands of followers because they have some sort of credibility in their respective industries, but all I see is that they are tools rather than voices.
These “human qualities” are what defines Twitter and its true audience.
Anyone can come along, open an account and start tweeting to their heart’s content. Yet, what truly defines (the quality of) a Twitter user can not simply be extrapolated from quantitative (or statistical) data, but also from its qualitative aspects.
A recent article by Glenn Gow on EB2B suggested that CEO’s shouldn’t be on Twitter, and I disagree on many levels. They absolutely should, but imagine this for a revolution: they don’t endlessly attempt to re-inforce their company’s message through articles written by other people or being told what to tweet, but rather represent the ethos and brand by being a human ambassador. You can’t be social with robots… unless you’re another robot, presumably.
Remember — human beings naturally try to associate things with one another. Giving a personality to something that normally doesn’t invites thought, which usually involves emotions.
Of course, things can become either good or bad — but isn’t this the human way?
Kinny tweets aviation, social media and technology on Twitter.
