I think you’re missing the point of social media.

At least the “social” part.

And I realize it’s nothing against me personally. As a general policy, you don’t follow anyone except the 102 people in your inner clique – even though 6,324 people follow you back.

I’m not here to tell you how to use Twitter or other social media tools. It’s your trip. You’re the captain of your own digital ship.

But I can and will share my own views on “web celebs,” the Twitter personalities who cut themselves out of the conversation by never following new people – even if they’re interesting.

(Behind your back, cause you’re not listening to me anyways.)

You might think that non-reciprocation makes you look like an “influential thought leader,” but to me it looks like:

1. You’re kind of a noob. Your name might be “big,” but your social media interaction and filtering skills are small.
2. You’re kind of a snob. You’re more concerned with appearing “popular” than listening and learning from people.

There’s a chance that maybe you’re just really, really busy with very important stuff and you get your social intelligence from other sources. I know that Al Gore’s got planets to save, Brittney’s got buns to tone, and Shaq‘s got backboards to shatter. It’s understandable if the Hollywood, White House and NBA superstars can’t personally interact with 375,000 people on Twitter.

But if you’re a professional web geek “celebrity” with less than ~15k followers – and you use Twitter heavily – I see it differently. When I look at your profile page and see that you’re unlikely to follow me or anyone else back – you become exponentially less relevant to me.

Unless you’re my real-life buddy or associate that I already have a connection with – I’m prolly not gonna to follow you either. Even if you have very interesting stuff to say, cool links or breaking news to share — I can afford to tune you out.

Why?

Because there’s millions of peeps with different, but equally interesting stuff to share.

I get way too much pleasure out of connecting with people through social media to squander my screen space and attention on one-way signals.

And there’s plenty of brilliant, approachable rockstar web celebs who might well listen, interact and even follow me back if I reach out to them.

So, sorry Mr. Web-celebrity-who-never-follows-anyone-back, but…

You’re not on my list anymore.

[contemplate1]
[contemplate2]