I’ve been mulling over something that has been bothering me at times and then at other times, I get it. People are busy, too many irons in the fire – add social technology to the mix and all that it entails and we just don’t have enough time to tell our community a big ole “THANKS.” Or do we?
Technology has afforded us all to be able to check our Twitters while we’re sitting in the dentist chair having a root canal but yet we can’t click “respond” with a “thank you so much for sharing my shit” because we simply have too much going on? Really?
I am connected with folks who may or may not have a large online community of followers and I am often blown away by two things:
- Those who have a large following that always send a kind “Thank you, Susan, for sharing my post”
- ………………………(nothing but the sound of crickets, in response to sharing)
Now, it’s pretty much a given that those with a smaller following (not always the case) are going to send you a thank you. But the big guys, you know who I’m talking about, who would be spending countless hours a day responding to thousands of followers, just don’t have the time to do so. And when they do, it’s just a nice gesture.
This really bothered me in the beginning stages of developing my online community. And then I chillaxed, to some degree. And the more I built my following and the more they started sharing my content, I understood the time that it takes to respond to every.single.one. But yet, I still try to do that.
Now, obviously, I don’t have millions of followers. But I still have a loyal group of “sharers” that get the word out. These are my friends. Why wouldn’t I take the time in between my day while grabbing a coffee, to say “thanks for all you do.”
Do we have to say thanks to those with whom we are connected that share our content? No. And sometimes I often want to tell my close friends, “It’s really not necessary that you thank me every time.” And I mean that. But it is nice to acknowledge folks once in a while.
I don’t think your ever too big to do that.
Okay, bring on your comments. I’m waiting and bracing myself.
Photo Credit: dorry’s
It may be just be my version but the blue text is very hard to read.
Keep up the great blog postings.
Sent from my iPhone
Thanks for the heads up, John. I sometimes forget about mobile reading. Thanks for stopping by on the fly!
Uhm thank you for sharing and retweeting all of my stuff from Costofwork.com and PerformanceICreate and SmartRecruiters.
Dude, you should have taken that opportunity to incorporate your links
I agree on the one hand. On the other hand, I can see how it would be easy to overlook lot of retweets, as I have, in the following cases:
1) at a conference, or traveling and never logging in on a laptop. I find the native iOS twitter buggy and it can be hard to respond from the basement of a Las Vegas hotel
2) when you are managing multiple client accounts and building their brand may be more important than building yours…when I’m working hard on a project sometimes my social etiquette fails me on my personal accounts.
3) sometimes people respond by reciprocating or spreading out the love. Sure, sometimes I say a direct “thanks for the RT!” on twitter but other times, I’ll make sure to read and share someone’s blog post, something that may not give them the warm and fuzzies but benefits them and my (personal) social community.
4) scale. from my vantage point, sometimes it’s tough to respond and be involved in multiple conversations. When you say a meaningful ‘thank you’ often the conversation doesn’t stop there. And sometimes things fall between the cracks and people are just plain busy. When I feel that’s the case, I will ping someone and remind them about whatever it was I felt gave them value.
5) Finally for the record, I don’t think it takes that much effort to retweet. Everyone in the community provides value at some level and when I retweet great content you wrote, it benefits me as much as you, so I don’t really need a thank you. I try to thank people who’ve gone out a real limb for me, referring business, giving me a great speaking slot, hiring me against a competitor, mentoring me, listening to me complain, explaining a concept I didn’t understand before without making me feel stupid, even writing a well-written endorsement, those are the folks who really deserve, and GET my thanks.
Thank YOU for a thought provoking post!
You make valid arguments, Maren. And I get the whole “multi-management of accounts” I have to do that myself. You make valid points indeed.
Love the illustrative photograph. =)
Thanks Karen, I thought is was appropriate, or not
Susan, I agree with your sentiment. I am no big baller in this Twitter thing, but my following is growing. I find it increasingly difficult to keep up with the RT’s and overall interactions, but I feel compelled to say thank you. My perspective is whether your following is small or in the millions- a group of people out here thinks you are the bomb and as such they take time out of their day to engage, share or just give kudos. This is amazing to me and as such I don’t care if it is 2 am I am making sure they all know I appreciate them. It’s only right.
Thank you for speaking the truth on this subject. I see some usual suspects doing this and I’m glad you called them out in the nicest way possible.
xoxo,
Janine
P.S. Thanks for all of your support!
Thank you, Janine. There are some great tools out there (like Bundlepost) that help with the management of your social channels in so many ways that give one more time to manually respond and stay connected. After all, it’s about engagement and building that following and remaining human, right? My friend Robert Caruso who created Bundlepost has a massive following and yet is adamant about thanking your following for all they do. I learned from the best.