Crazyworld

"Hi! Thanks for following me. This is truly amazing, sharing ideas and knowledge..."

"Thanks~Yeah~ Let's trade Tweets! if you're open here's a treat- the best 100% FREE PPC Training EVER..."

"Thanks for the follow! Live for today...|Thanks for the follow...give a smile get a smile|Been down-sized? Do something now..."

Yeah, I don't know what that last one means, either.

Suffice it to say I was blown away that my short story on brand strategist Olivier Blanchard's presentation yesterday at the Social Media Club Spartanburg's July meeting was the most-read story on our Web site today. I mean, I can't talk about numbers, but this is getting the attention usually only reserved for heinous crimes, scandals... or stories about restaurants. People love restaurant news, particularly stories about Wild Wing Cafe, it seems.

Since this story had a lot to do with Twitter, it was only natural to assume that Twitter users would be among the people reading it.

So I used the little do-dad at http://backtweets.com to see who all was helping disseminate the information. I mean, it wasn't like this was a story I had spent weeks on, tireless hours devoted to research and writing. It was a drive-by piece that attempted to touch on some of the themes Blanchard spoke on.

Anyway, I started following several of these people who appeared to find interest in my work. (It's considered polite.) Almost immediately, it started happening: Private messages sent automatically via Twitter telling me how to triple my followers, make money fast or whatnot. A few are posted above. It's been hours, and they're still filtering in.

Before dropping these peoplebots, I glanced at their page one last time... and a lot of them were the same or similar. Many were social media "experts," entrepreneurs, enthusiasts or whatever other name wayward public relations and marketing people have coined for themselves to try to take advantage of the Next Big Thing.

And that's when I realized it. I've had a series of conversations with people lately, about public relations in general and social media in particular. When I heard that in one large U.S. city, 80 percent of the public relations people didn't understand the media, I found it hard to believe. When I heard that out-of-work marketing people have begun to (sometimes indignantly) take up the mantle of "social media expert" -- whatever that is -- yet these people don't understand how to use social media, I scratched my head again. Things were starting to make sense, though. And then today, everything became crystal clear.

I should point out that there are plenty of people in news, in public relations and in marketing who do, in fact, get it. I just didn't think there were so few.

There's a good number right here in the Upstate -- I've mentioned Blanchard, who goes by thebrandbuilder. There's also Trey Pennington, Doug Cone and, a bit further away, Kristi Colvin. There are others. I'm sure I'm leaving someone out, and if you are one of them, my apologies. This is written on the fly as I take a break from deleting people who have accounts that are programmed to say how thrilled they are to meet me. (And this AFTER I had this conversation with Jason Zacher about how auto-DMs -- Twitter lingo, sorry -- were bothersome.) I mean, if you're really happy to meet me, it takes less than a minute to look at my profile and get a hint that I don't want your auto-gratitude. Seriously, one person's handle was something like "I FOLLOW BACK." Well, that's a #fail.

In the unfollowing frenzy that... umm, followed, I noticed that nearly every person I was distancing myself from had something in common: They didn't interact with anyone. They just pushed links and information onto people.

Is it really that hard to listen? To have a conversation?

As a reporter, I remind myself often to listen. Sometimes, during interviews. Sometimes, when I'm listening to audio recordings of interviews after the fact and realize I talked too much.

But to successfully use social media you have to listen. You don't have a choice. Or else you might as well be a robot.

This was a topic Blanchard talked about recently. One quote from an earlier story I didn't have room for, when we were talking about social media: "This isn't a fad, because it's not about technology," he said. "People aren't going to stop talking to one another."

The platforms may change. Some of you may have "outgrown" MySpace. Some think Facebook is on the way out. Some of you, particularly if you are a knitter or a Second-Lifer, may Plurk. There are tons of other platforms. One that intrigues me that I haven't spent much time with is Tumblr. Former state GOP director Jay W. Ragley recently devised a stellar way to use that platform, posting pictures, videos and comments about a cross-country trip he took.

If you are familiar with Twitter, you've probably seen people brag about the number of followers they have. I've mentioned before it isn't a popularity contest. All you have to do is listen, participate, and whatever success you were looking for will probably find you with less effort than you were putting into it in the first place.

When it comes to social media, whatever platform you use, if you participate, you are a leader. If you just listen but don't feel the need to chime in just yet -- that's fine, too. But if you just try to accumulate followers and bombard them with information they may not want or need, you're not leading. You're in the way.