Dichotomy Consulting :: Social Media | Advertising | Branding

We’ve all had those followers. Maybe they promise that we can get rich if we do X, or that, if we just follow their this-many-steps plan, we can be making $10K a month from home within three days. No matter what the creepy, too-good-to-be true come-on, we decide to do them a “solid” and follow them back.

So it is that a constant stream of lame drivel enters our lives. Kind of like an infomercial but without the charm. Suddenly it feels as if you just got a really pushy friend that keeps trying to get you to sell Amway for him. Un-follow and goodbye!

Like many of you, I have a strategic reason to be part of the Twitterverse: I want to find an audience for my inane musings, especially if I ever get around to publishing some of them in bound, dead-tree form. That said, I cannot flood the Twitterverse and my poor followers with incessant pleas for them to engage in some sort of commerce. They call this social media for a reason, and it stands to reason that any behavior that is verboten in a social encounter in meatspace is a faux pas online as well.

You have a business? Great. Welcome to the Twitterhood. We’d all love to interact with you, but please remember that we aren’t here for the sole purpose of being sold to. Socialize. Engage us. You have an offer? Sure, put it out there. Just remember that it’s also important to let us into your world from time to time. Was that Kung Pao dreadful? Let us know. Did your kid do a face plant while trying to ollie the couch? Share it with us. Bonus points for making us laugh.

But, please, pretty please with Splenda on top: don’t be another tool, will ya?