If you don’t, someone will do it for you.
I have so much to learn about the human condition as it pertains to social media, it’s not even funny. I learn something every day. Today I learned that I really don’t know as much as think I do. Case in point. I smugly tweeted the following:
So I comment on a person’s blog who claims 2 b all about the conversation & they choose to delete it. Guess it’s not about the conversation…
I was thinking that I was right and I was thinking that it might be cute to tweet that if it’s so much about the conversation, then why are they deleting comments? So what did I get back in response? Ken Beaulieu tweets the following:
No. There are times when you have to push back to protect the integrity of your business.
Pretty succinct and to the point, wouldn’t you say? The bottom line is this. My comments, no matter how cute or clever I thought they might have been, brought zero value to the conversation. ZERO.
That person, who I highly respect, who probably has zero respect for me at this point, pushed back to protect the integrity of her blog and a very good blog post. She had every right to not include my snarky, baseless comment.
As I said, I have so much to learn about the human condition as it pertains to social media. In social media, our human condition is there for everyone to see. Regardless of who you are, there is a certain amount of respect that we need to show everyone. I learned that there is no place for ego here.
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I like that this became a blog post instead of just a few tweets that might have been more easily forgotten.
This shows a lot of sincerity in your belief that you have a lot to learn.
Thanks for this one.
Good lesson to learn.
I respect the decision and the integrity of relevant conversation.
Cyndee, it may sound trite but I really am trying to keep it real. But also trying to show how easy it is to screw up.
I’m going to try and do that more, I waste, well not waste, but a lot of good topics get used up in 140 characters and this one was I had to salvage since, its a very viable topic. Thanks Nathan.
Thanks for sharing this Marc – I have a slightly different perspective on this. I don’t think you screwed up – we all have our different perspectives, our own truths, and our own senses of humor. Sometimes we don’t always express these in a context that others will get. And sometimes we all try to be funny, but it falls a little flat.
Here is to both you and the blogger in question for being transparent about your interests and intent – that goes a long, long way to create trust. So thank you for showing the rest of us how to do it. We’ve all been there, and I certainly don’t always handle the situation as gracefully as you have.
Maybe you’re right. It’s not that I screwed up. I think part of it was that I was miffed that she did not include the comment- and then the other part was that perhaps I let my ego get in the way of someone’s free choice to delete anything they want. It did though, smack in the face-of the conversation, good or bad. Thanks for your thoughts, I value them always.
This episode of yours triggered a question in my head. Perhaps some others can try answering it too.
If one’s a social media practitioner, does that automatically imply that such a person must be acting nice to each and everyone?
(Being humble is another issue.)
I come from a slightly different perspective, one such that we can never please everyone no matter how hard we try. More often, I am pretty much blunt myself… something that I curb most of the times. But I do observe how “correctness” is gradually determined by the “fame” of any individual more and more, and this is something I cannot agree with. (We know many top guns had their dirt [used to get to where they are] dug out of their graves isn’t it?)
You said a short while ago, there’s always two sides to a coin. On that, I had to concur with Rachel above that you may not have screwed up too. Just a matter of perspective.
Likewise, it is sometimes disappointing on my end to see how individuals I respected and hold in high regards turn out to be anything… but respectable.
we are quite defenseless actually, using social media. I though about that a few times; the more we post, the more material we give others to make up whatever they want…
I wrote a small series on that (in german)
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Way to sell out.
You couldn’t be further off the mark with that comment. I’m surprised by your shallow brevity given the verbosity and tenacity of your blog. Perhaps it was just a crude attempt at link juice, if so, you got it.