Potpourri Tuesday

Brett Favre, Social Media Douchebaggery, Blocking Followers and the Consistency Dilemma

I have never posted a "Potpourri" entry. To be honest, I don't really know what it is. I guess it smells nice. Not sure why it represents randomness. But that's what I'm going with.

I'm sports. I'm technology. I'm non-profit. Oh well.

Brett Favre... I'm not going to lie. I loved watching Favre and the Vikings lose. This is two separate things, really. I always like watching the Vikings lose. I enjoyed watching Favre lose because... well, we don't have all day to break that down. But he's a Viking now. Let's just say I enjoyed it and leave it at that.

But after the game, rumor out of ESPN was that Favre said it was "highly unlikely" he would return next season. Pardon me while I roll my eyes... And roll my eyes again. Hey, famous athletes. I know I'm not famous and stuff. And I know I'm not an athlete. But if you don't know for sure what you're going to do, just say, "I don't know yet."

If you don't want it to seem like you like attention, don't leave anything open to interpretation. And if you aren't concrete or if you change your mind a lot (not mentioning any names), don't complain when people get annoyed by your actions.

I have a feeling Favre knows exactly what he's going to do. I have a feeling that Favre wants to string this out as long as possible. I have this feeling... this sneaky suspicion... that Favre likes the attention.

I remember Michael Jordan saying that he was 99.9% sure he was retiring. He returned.

I remember Roger Clemens saying the exact same thing. We know what happened.

Yet, the media is biting on this Favre story like he means it. Come on, people. Ignore it. Ignore it until he isn't on the field Week 1 this season. Until I see with my eyes, he's coming back. Period.

I watched this and I immediately thought of @tremendousnews and his blog entries about "Social Media Douchebags".

I've gotta admit, I really don't know that many people in the industry. Still getting to know folks. This guy is probably very well known. He's dropping names like they're going out of style and was retweeted by Guy Kawasaki.

In other words, he's 10,000 times bigger than I am.

Regardless, watching this video just makes me feel dirty. I can't even explain why. It's nothing in particular about what he said (other than all of the shameless name dropping). It just made me think that people are putting way too much thought into how they portray themselves on Twitter.

"Portray" is the key word here. It would seem that to be successful, it's an act. Which leads me to...

This guy wrote a blog entry about why he blocks people on Twitter. Eh.

His whole thing was that your followers reflect upon you. That you should think about what your kids would think if they saw who follows you.

Look, I hate spammers, too. But the truth is that, I'm convinced, more than 90% of all of Twitter users are bots or spammers who won't admit that they are spammers. I very rarely follow back the people who follow me because they all look like the same lifeless person.

Do I really have the energy to block all of these people? And for what, to make Twitter a better place?

Eh.

Let's get one thing straight. I don't care about numbers. My 350-ish (or 1/100th of what is acceptable among "Social Media Gurus") followers should be a testament to that.

And since I don't know for sure who is a spammer and who isn't, why would I go person by person, judging, blocking people who make me suspicious?

This is the funny thing. I'm convinced that the people most annoyed by spammers are those who auto-follow or follow almost everyone who follows them.

I don't practice this. I am careful about whom I follow.

Do you know what happens when you are careful about the people you follow? You don't get DM spam. Amazing how that works.

But those who are all pumped up about numbers, those who like "returning the favor" of those who follow them will eventually get burned by spammers. And then they get ticked when they get spammed.

Eh.

You can block, if that's how you choose to work. I just choose to be particular about whom I follow. Don't need to get all dramatic and whatnot.

Oh, and about this "randomness" and "potpourri" business...

We're supposed to be consistent! That first dude, in his eight tips about social media, said that we shouldn't be sports one day and social media the next. Only fitting that I'm random in addressing this.

I have a pretty random life. I worked in sports, hitting a pretty cool pinnacle with the NBA. Not to mention, the history of baseball is one of the top three passions of my life.

I work in technology, covering social media, gaming, mobile, and anything that beeps.

My son survived cancer. My mother survived cancer. My uncle died of cancer. I work for the American Cancer Society. Non-profits and the way they use technology and social media are important to me.

Does this confuse you? Does it bother you that I am not focused only on sports? On technology? On non-profits?

It might. And to be honest, if it bothers you, you shouldn't follow me. I'm okay with that.

Me, I prefer to be honest. I like to spill it, and tell you just how I feel and who I am.

Anything else is insincere, and... well, douchey.