Throughout history, people have made some mighty amusing, insightful, and motivational statements. From time to time, it’s nice to see those quotes, particularly when they’re on topic.
Still, when I’m on Twitter or reading updates on Facebook, I don’t follow or friend people so I can see them regurgitate other people’s points of view non-stop. Nope, I want to make a connection with a person, not a stream of quotes.
Don’t get me wrong – there are many folks who use quotes effectively as updates, usually mixed in with other information and conversation. There are also accounts set up simply to provide quotes, often on specific topics. That’s all well and good.
What I’m really talking about here are individuals who do almost nothing but tweet, retweet, or update statuses with quotes by others. To me, that’s defeating the purpose of being on a social network.
It can be hard to come up with content, particularly if you update Twitter frequently. Yet connections aren’t formed by the volume of updates, but rather by the quality. For me, at least, connections aren’t made to words but to the person behind them.
This doesn’t mean you have to reveal intimate details of your life, of course. And it’s not too hard to use quotes to reveal something about your beliefs or motivations. That takes effort, though, and still doesn’t work in a vacuum.
Put another way, a stream of 100 motivational quotes doesn’t tell me that someone is a great motivator. It only tells me they have access to a list of motivational quotes.
Now, if all that matters to you is to have content… my guess is that you’re only interested in the number of followers/friends you have, not the quality of them. That’s a choice, of course, but one that will likely lead to social media being less helpful to you than if you made connections.
Do you think I’m off base here? Are quotes the bulk of your updates for a reason? Do you have effective ways you use quotes? I’d love to hear….
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
I just wanted to say, “Hear, Hear.” I’ve stopped following a few people who do nothing but tweet so-called inspirational quotes–one person would tweet the same quote every few hours. It was . . . bizarre.
Hey Greg,
Thanks for the follow in Twitter!
You’ve very eloquently expressed here exactly how I feel about people who retweet other people’s tweets constantly. I don’t mind when people I’m following want to highlight others who they admire but not when it’s the only thing they tweet. I also delete people who post useless information several times an hour or the same information numerous times. Argh!!! I have found my own “Social Networking Rhythm” and blogged about it at http://www.anne-writingjustbecause.blogspot.com I definitely favor quality over quantity. Can you truly follow a million people? I think not!
Anne
Greg:
You said “connections aren’t made to words but to the person behind them. ” I totally agree. Those people who keep retweeting may think they’re getting name recognition, but I think it’s negative recognition. Those are NOT the people I want to follow. I don’t know who they really are.
Besides, who can follow a conversation that starts with retweets and ends with them too? My feeling is, if you want to talk to me, TALK.
Thanks for the wonderful posts. I often find myself nodding my head “yes” along with your comments.
I have a different reaction to those who RT a lot rather than those who simply offer up quotations. Good retweets offer value to me, more often than not. Oh, sure, some folks retweet quotes! But in general, most folks I follow retweet useful links or information of substance. I’m okay with that… though I also don’t want to see that as the only thing in someone’s stream. Then, I agree – there’s no way to make a connection. In that case, I tend to view those tweeters as a news source rather than a person.
Thanks for the comments, y’all. I am sure I’ll revisit this topic in the future!
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