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Jul 19 2009

When Have We Pushed To Far on Twitter? The Collapse of My Empire of Followers!

Category: social media,tech opinion — jmacofearth @ 6:53 am

So, if you've followed the saga thus far you'll know who I am referring to when I say "my Twitter Sniper ™" but you might be interested in the damage I have suffered, both physically and emotionally [Tongue firmly in cheek for this one.] as a result of my own irrational outburst. ;-{

First the fallout.

This local luminary, who will remain partially covered to protect the ignorant, was early to chime in on the TS's behavior. In what appeared to be a like-minded DM this person also expressed frustration at the TS's sniping. BUT…

On Wednesday, this Wednesday, July 15, a mere 14 days later, everything changed.

So I was curious and I tried to go to the newly unsupportive Tweeter. And golly by golly they had blocked me too. So an unfollow and a block seemingly unrelated to any direct activity connecting myself and this person to @omarg, but there it was. [see update at end of post for more info on this]

Okay, so now I'm really curious and I can't DM this person now, cause they've nuked our connection. But let's see over here… Facebook, yep there they are still a friend of Facebook. So I sent this person a direct message that simply asked, "You unfollowed and blocked me on Twitter today. Did something happen? Just curious." That's it, the complete message. And I bet you already know the response.

Now this person has "unfriended me" on Facebook as well. OH SNAP, I wonder if they got LinkedIN too. Yep, seems like all ties have been severed between me and this social media leader in Austin. No longer curious now, I'm just disappointed in this person's response to my question.

Nothing? So you're going to ignore my question and take more actions, so perhaps I cannot find or message you in the future? Wow, that's ODD. And a little childish. Who knows perhaps @omarg is on a campaign to destroy me. The @MoneyTweets unfollow I was grateful for. But if I start losing really high-value tweeps, I guess I'm heading in the wrong direction.

But it really is OKAY to unfollow me. I have no bones about you unsubscribing. In fact, here's a tip, if you are UFM you might as well check all your networks to make sure you get all of our connections. DOH! Looks like I'm a day late on this post cause the TS has found our LinkedIN connection and removed it. Purty sure I saw it yesterday and I almost alerted him to the ISSUE myself, but perhaps the above "social media standout, real estate leader, and corporate social media trainer" hipped him to the problem. Shame on both of them.

I guess our shared connects are going to go down as well. Gosh, I hope he doesn't start messaging my LinkedIN networks calling for a jihad.

Well, I tell you what. I'm not leavin the Austin Top Guns group. Say/do what you like OmarG, this town is big enough for both of us. The social media global network can contain us both. I'm almost positive of it.

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/sniper-fallout

There's a whole lot more Twitter stuff on The Twitter Way page.

Update: The TS might have some empire problems of his own to deal with.

But I think the 3-month trending is more telling.

Update 7-21-09: This morning Mr. Omar stops by for a snipe. [See Mr. Omar's comment from 7-21-09.] But he's gonna bring the attention back to the flap. Oh well…

So today after Mr. Omar's drop by, I browsed his blog to learn that he wrote a nasty little post revealing his edited version of the Facebook dialogue between us without revealing the "rest of the story" as Paul Harvey would say. I'd like to quote the entire thing here, but I think I'll let the curious-types visit Mr. Omar's "Bloggystyle" page themselves and see what passes for the personal journalism of a professional journalist. I present to you Mr. Omar's Terribly-Happy blog about Keyboard cat and creepy followers who keep telling him what they think. [Seems he's got another "friend" who he can't stand either. I kinda like what the guy says to him.]

I guess when Omar reported me to the Facebook authorities [which he reveals in on his blog] that's when they shut down my ability to reply to what I thought was a fun and engaging wrestling match. The last word does seem to be quite important to Mr. Omar, so I guess he shut-er-down. But the entire post is still up on Facebook. I'd like to share it as well, in it's entirety, but I won't. In fact that's the "threat" I made to Omar. "I'd rather publish this entire dialogue on the web, rather than continue to deal with your unsubstantiated rants."

And that's what I did with my initial post regarding Omar's sniping me. And when he continued to shoot out sparks on a daily basis, not really criticizing but merely poking his blunt wit at me, I took aim with revealing screenshots and what I consider to be my own biased opinion of the situation. So he became my DEAR TWITTER SNIPER poster child. And I guess that makes him furious.

Here's the back story if you are interested:

The initial post where I tried to point out how Sniping on Twitter was a bad idea over a month ago on June 17. Mr. Omar Gallaga and JMacofearth Flap Their Tweets At Each Other – 6-17-09

The defining post now over two weeks old. Dear Twitter Sniper: Shooting Sparks, Blanks, Hollow Points, Warm Fuzzies, Nerf Darts

Update 7-23-09: So why after all his ranting, using dirty words to describe me, accusing me of online stalking and reporting me to the Facebook authorities does Mr. Omar Gallaga feel it is then worthwhile to continue sniping at me?

I'm like an extracted tooth or something. It's painful for a while, but you can't help but keep sticking your tongue in the place where the missing tooth was. So he has nothing better to do, no interesting pieces to write about Mommy Bloggers or the "Yo quiero Taco Bell" dog passing?

Perhaps if the effect is more like poking a fork in an electrical wall outlet he will shut-er-down for good. We'll see I guess.

Either this is his warped sense of humor or he's still going for the last word? Whatever the motivation, I'm sure the Statesman editors would think it somewhat unprofessional behavior for a professional writer, well let's say journalist. Maybe all of this is building towards a NPR All Tech Considered Showdown Show that he has in the works. Nah, probably not. Just warped.

Tags: @omarg, all tech considered, austin american statesman, austin top guns, blocking, comparing notes, dear twitter sniper, jmacofearth, linkedin, npr, oh snap, omar gallaga, twitter empire, twitter lessons, twitter metrics, twitter sniper, twittercounter, unfollow me, unfollowing, unfollowing and blocking

Comments (2)

Jul 18 2009

A Boy and His Cat: Two Moments of Syncronicity

Category: about me,just for fun — jmacofearth @ 6:23 pm

"But I can't remember the sound that you found for me." The Cat Virtute Explains Her Departure by the Weakerthans is a song that hit me hard the other day. I was driving to pick up a toggle cap for the tone switch of my Les Paul and this song came on and I was struck by beauty of this song.

The song completes a saga begun a disc earlier by the Weakerthans called Plea from a Cat Named Virtute. Which is another amazing song about a cat that tired of their human's depressing music, self-defeating ways and drinking and watching TV. "Frankly that thing doesn't really interest me." And the moment in this song that is so powerful is the cat telling the human, "Scratch the terror and begin to believe you're strong." And a few bars later Virtute is pleading, "If you don't stop the self defeating lies you've been repeating since the day you brought me home. I know you're strong."

And then in this next installment of the story Virtute reflects back on the relationship and talks about the "sound that you gave to [found for] to me."

What that struck in me was the loss of a cat two years ago now, named Lego. And what was amazing about this cat was the enthusiasm he showed when coming at the call of his name. He would leap over fences and run practically into my arms when I called him. And there was a special call. A way I sang his name. And somewhere this song brought the memory of Lego's call and Lego's joy. And more likely the painful loss of my 18 year-old Burmese Peter.

And to close this song Virtute recalls at the end of the goodbye song, "How I'd kneed into your chest while you were breathing, your shallow breathing made me purr. But I can't remember the sound you found for me."

And I was driving in my car between work and a music store, during my lunch hour, crying.

I let myself feel whatever was coming up. Sort of amazed at the touch of this wonderful song and the recollection of two amazing cats.

And then some stroke of Jungian synchronicity brought me this video as an alternative link when a web stats site was down.

What I can say about this entire day was cat's play an important part in my life. Ti Jean Duloz, Jack Kerouac's name for his little brother used to tell the 6 year-old Jack that a cat coming to sit in your lap was a cat blessing your life. It was a Buddhist concept that stayed with Kerouac for the rest of his life. And it has formed much of my understanding of the magic of cats.

To Peter, Lego and Ti Jean,

Namasté!

@jmacofearth
permalink: http://bit.ly/boy-and-cat

More posts about parenting are on The Whole Parent tab.

Tags: boys love cats, buzzie loves the weakerthans, cats, ghostofpeter, kerouac, the cat virtute, weakerthans

Comments (3)

Jul 18 2009

Who Needs a Social Media Strategist In This Economy? What's The Value Proposition?

Category: about me,career,executive learnings,social media,teaming & leadership,trust & reputation — jmacofearth @ 9:05 am

[Thinking how to frame a dialogue without overburdening the writing with punctuation and he said then I said, I'm going to use one color for my statements and another color for my friend's statements. Hopefully that will make it easy to read quickly.]

On Saturday night a good friend asked, "So what do you do?"

He was somewhat serious. And it got worse from there.

"You are the only friend I can think of who I have not given work referrals to. If I were to sum up what you do in one sentence what would I say?"

I tried a few ideas on him.

I am a Social Media Strategist. "Nah, you've got people like Brian Solis, Chris Brogan and Jeremiah Owyang doing that gig."

I can build communities. "Really? To what effect? To make money? To save money?"

I know how to guide companies to… "No. What's a guide? What does that get them?"

I can assemble the creative and technical teams to do social media projects. "Oh really? Like what kind of projects?"

Launching a B 2 B portal or a B 2 C portal. "What's social about that?"

Okay, so I know how to do online marketing programs. "Boooring. You and the other 100 companies in Austin. What's your value?"

I have these training sessions to teach businesses how to work within the various aspects of social media. "Great. What do you call that?"

Uh, the sessions? That's not very good is it? Hmm… "Not too good. I can't get a handle on that. When I have a client and they need what you do I can say… JMac he's the <insert cool name here>. And make the recommendation and you get the work."

How about a Virtual Chief Social Media Officer? "That's great. That's it. That's what <name of local dude> does. That's his job. Yeah, that's good. Nobody else is doing that. A VCSMO!"

Now I just have to figure out how to tell that story and put the "value" in that proposition. And educate my friend and my potential clients on what a Social Media Officer does, virtual or full-time.

So I'm building the DECK on it. Maybe I'll do the book, the podcast and the video presentation on it.

Here is the hero slide of my presentation What Is A Social Media Strategist. Once I get that nailed I can move on to showing the ROI on social media projects that I've been involved in and how that success can and will translate into similar success for YOUR COMPANY.

I will share the entire presentation when it is done. But until then here is my tenant of what I do, or what a Social Media Strategist does:

The social media strategist must assume many roles during the course of a given project.
The project often needs to be presented/sold/green-lighted by several levels within the spans and layers of a company.
Being a master of process and agile methodologies helps a lot in driving projects forward in these multi-team environments.
And finally the social media lead has to maintain a supportive attitude across all of the teams that come in contact with various parts of the project. Because one naysayer can ruin the entire program. And you never know where or when that negative leverage might rear it's ugly head.

It is a lot to navigate. And depending on the size of the company the leadership or lack of leadership can get quite complex. But that is the task of the social media strategist at any level. Stealthy and effective, the winning social media ninja can move projects through the darkness and opposition forces to achieve victory. Victory with or without the support of the entire cast of characters involved in the process, but victory (launch) nonetheless.

@jmacofearth (socialmedianinja.net)
permalink: http://bit.ly/socialmedianinja

Tags: across all teams, agile methodologies, brian solis, chris brogan, client guide, client services, creative guide, dev team guide, direct manager, evangelist, executive leadership, executive sponsor, jowang, maintain a supportive attitude, marketing programs, master of process, media strategist, negative leverage, online marketing, people process platform, process ninja, project management, proven track record, social media ninja, social media ROI, social media strategist, socialmedianinja, socialmedianinja.net, spans and layers, team leadership, virtual CFO, virtual social media officer, vision, visionary