I finally got to meet the person behind @iconic88. While I don’t usually follow brands or tweeps on twitter who aren’t forthright with providing details about their personal identity, I made an exception in the case of following @iconic88.
Iggy Pintado, or @iggypintado, author of The Connection Generation, a man I have great respect for, was following and recommending @iconic88. So, trusting Iggy’s advice, I hit the follow button too and found that @iconic88’s tweets were usually positive and uplifting, sometimes informative and there were always a number of them to be found in the tweetstream whenever I logged on for my twitter-fix.
At the recent A List Entrepreneurs function we had the chance to meet the mysterious @iconic88 as Iggy was doing the big reveal! I was really excited about being part of this event. The guest of honour was a genuine and warm hearted person, who was humble and optimistic and undeniably a good soul.
That said, I guess I just had far greater hopes for the event than I realized. It was great to be there for the big reveal, but I really thought there might be more substance to the evening’s discussions.
First off, I was surprised that in an event that was aimed at those who embrace social media (why else would you want to meet the unknown @iconic88). I just assumed that those who embraced social media would also embrace all the transparency and information sharing opportunities that come along with it, but we were told that we couldn’t take video (not that the dark lit room would have allowed it on your basic iPhone). I was genuinely surprised by the announcement asking us to refrain.
The discussions got underway, I was thinking I might learn something about creating a vibrant community on twitter, some real useful bits of information to apply to twitter strategy, some gems that I could employ or suggest to clients or associates.
Instead what I experienced was a very casual discussion between a couple of very nice, very sincere, very well meaning gentlemen. While it was all very pleasant and real, it also demonstrated a few of the things that, (pardon the language here) really piss me off about the discussions that happen around twitter.
I took offense to the warning from iconic88 to be wary of over-tweeting. While I agree over-tweeting is a bad thing, he was not the person to be offering this warning. According to his follow cost stats , his AVERAGE number of tweets per day falls around the 180 mark. Although over-tweeting is something he proclaims he doesn’t do, nor does he schedule his tweets. I want someone to tell me how an average of 180 tweets per day, yes that is 15 per hour, is NOT over tweeting. And, if someone has a family, a job, a life, how does one find the time to maintain this kind of average?
Then, of course, the conversation went to where it always goes, it turned to the number of followers! Why does it always have to come back to the lowest common denominator — the number of followers? Folks it’s not about the sheer numbers! It’s really not hard to get numbers, but connecting with the right people can be a challenge, but it is the key to unlocking twitter’s real value.
It really is about the conversations! How does anyone profess to have conversations with 30,000+ people? There is so much value to be extracted from twitter usage that is not reliant on huge numbers, but on connecting with those who can offer a valuable exchange. If you follow the right people, there’s undeniable value in that. So many people miss this in their discussions about twitter. So many of you think more is better, but as most of us travel along the path to reach our twitter goals, more often just means more “noise”.
My final challenge to the evening’s discussion was“ why, oh why, oh why do we keep focusing on the tactic? Why are we so hypnotized by the shiny object?
There were some great people there and I’m happy to have met many of them. I will continue to follow @iconic88 and @iggypintado and a few of the people in the video below, but I will also be sure to ask them, why we can’t we elevate our discussion as to how twitter as a tool (‘cause that’s all it is folks) can help us to meet our larger communications, marketing, education, personal development goals, strategies and objectives?
Question of the day:
What would make you follow someone with a high follow cost?
I love it when someone calls the bullshit that goes on!
I’m not sure what a high follow cost is but it does strike me that that many tweets a day is just ridiculous. There was a while ago when I decided that I would follow no more than 100 people as I couldn’t hold more than that in my head.
Now I realise that I don’t need to worry- even with my face-to-face friends I don’t hang on to their every word and listen to every single thing they say so I’m OK with missing some conversations on Twitter.
Some people do seem consumed with following for the sake of numbers and I invariably block them or do not reciprocate with the follow back.
I follow anyone who has tried to engage me in conversation in any way which is what it is about I think. That and sharing some of the wonderful learning opportunities on the web.
Hi Linda,
thank you for your fantastic feedback.
Apologies that you didn’t get everything you needed from the evening. With so many people in the room during that evening and time constraints, I’m sure many other questions weren’t answered which I would have been very open to reply to.
I did stay around for a while to address this situation with everyone there. Many came and asked me great questions to which I answered as best I could while appreciating that people were waiting in the wings to share their thoughts. From people who aren’t on Twitter to people sceptical about my approach Twitter.
The key is this, we all have options. You can do it your way or you can utilise what I shared to make your journey easier. I’ve made a tonne of mistakes on Twitter and I continue to do so. I don’t know everything but I do know how many different ways not to do things on Twitter so I can address most situations with confidence on best practices.
Let’s see if I can address some of the questions you have here Linda.
Please don’t take offense and get ‘pissed’ off Linda, I think there may have been a misunderstanding. It could be due to my Kiwi accent and feedback from the microphone that night. If you think you heard I said over-tweeting, it was meant to be ‘auto-tweeting’. Two very different concepts as you can appreciate. I know exactly how many tweets I share into the twitterverse daily and I regularly ask people to unfollow me as I am a touch-tweetist as opposed to a touch typist. This is a skillset that I have developed over the last 12 months.
You said: “It really is about the conversations! How does anyone profess to have conversations with 30,000+ people?”
You’re right, it’s not about the number of followers. Although having a large number of engaged and connected followers does help you share your message wouldn’t you agree?
The bottom line is this Linda, it’s about the quality of connections you have with people that help propel your message forward when your content ‘sings’. See below a Twitter Tip I share regularly on Twitter Linda which I hope helps bridge clarity on this:
“Twitter is like an ISP. Its not how many followers you have but the quality of ur connections that brings results.”
It’s impossible for anyone to have 30,000 conversations simultaneously Linda. However, this is an opportunity for anyone of those people within your community and the Twitterverse to share what you share within the open architecture of Twitter.
As mentioned during the conversation, I use tools like Tweetdeck and Seesmic to manage the conversations I have with people. I utilise the Twitter lists functionality to help me sift through the ‘noise’.
You say:
“And, if someone has a family, a job, a life, how does one find the time to maintain this kind of average?”
Sacrifice. I get up at 5am-6am nearly every day of the week and sleep any time after 11pm. Like I shared during my interview, if I can work as hard as my parents did for us, then I know I am on the right track to achieving my personal goals. I see tweeting akin to exercising. I make time to tweet and exercise. Twitter is my tool of choice to connect with people as well as to learn.
Moreover, I aim to make every tweet count and to make a difference in my interactions with as many people as I can on Twitter. While people are sleeping, I’m sharing and connecting. This isn’t work, this is a passion. This is a love for helping people which my family have done for generations and I personally have committed myself to carry on since I was a child. I am only an instrument of unconditional love of my parents and my ancestors.
Linda, if you’d like to elevate your understanding on how to use Twitter to apply to your clients businesses, I highly recommend you read Brian Solis’s book “Engaged” and read http://www.Mashable.com for more tips.
If you’re interested in seeing how my list of Twitter influencers are making a difference utilising Twitter, follow this list http://j.mp/dA8NW3
As a further tip Linda, here’s another Twitter Tip I share regularly:
“The power of Twitter is in your sharing, not your selling”.
All the best Linda and thank you for the fantastic feedback. Every day is a school day.
Regards,
Mahei
Hi Linda,
I too was there for the big reveal and as on Twitter, @Iconic88 was insightful, genuine and gracious.
I’m not sure about your reference in para 8 to his comment on “over tweeting” though. I do recall he talked about the use of “auto tweeting” and the fact that he doesn’t personally do this. Perhaps you should clarify this with him with a tweet? Seems a shame you should be left with a negative impression of what was a great night!
Regards
Alex (aka @vipvirtualsols)
Great discussion Linda, thanks for posting. @iconic88 has thoroughly addressed your questions, I agree with those points.
The value of Twitter for me is in the quality of new relationships I have built, @iconic88 included who I have gotten to know in person and regard as a friend now.
I’m only sorry I had to leave the event early, as the real drawcard and attraction of “tweetups” for me is in the face-to-face networking time it provides. Particularly in this case, as I too have high regard for Iggy Pintado whcih when combined with @iconic88 brought together some of my favourite “Tweeps” in Sydney, some of whom I haven’t even met “IRL” (in real life)
I will encourage others to comment here too Linda, its a worthwhile discussion as I haven’t picked up on any other feedback about the “unveiling” until your tweet today.
Cheers
Tony Hollingsworth
Linda
Thanks for taking the time to provide us with your feedback – it’s appreciated.
I take personal responsibility as the event host in that it didn’t meet your expectations. We wanted to cater for a wider audience than just the social media community. We invited a broad range of people to the point that you may recall, there was a person there who hadn’t heard of Twitter. The intention was to focus on the “substance” behind Mahei’s use of Twitter – positivity and community – instead of turning it into a Twitter tutorial.
I intended to use the chat interview format to bring out the person behind the iconic88 tweets without dwelling on the tool itself. If I didn’t do that for you and the gathered audience, I personally failed and I apologise.
I see that Mahei has personally responded to your post via a comment. Maybe the three of us can connect over a coffee some time in the spirit of mutual discussion and learning?
What do you say?
Cheers, Iggy
Yeah I was there too and I have to say I left very unimpressed with the whole iconic experience. Actually, I think it would be more accurate to say that left really surprised that so many others were appearing to be so impressed with what I thought was a pretty mundane experience.
There was little in the talk that night that I found insightful or even that useful. Iconic seemed like a nice bloke and all, but the lack of true depth in the way the Twitter medium was being used was striking to me. It felt very unauthentic and contrived to me.
I read the comments from Iconic above, and I have to say that when I saw the mention about getting up at 5am and staying up late after 11pm, in order to write tweets and then saying that it somehow matched the efforts of his hardworking parents… that’s just so pretentious I don’t even know where to start with it. My own parents were hardworking people who knew what it meant to make sacrifices for the family, but to even suggest that getting up early to send tweets is in any way comparable to their hard work is just plain insulting.
Twitter is a great tool. It’s revolutionised the way people connect and network and communicate, but for someone to start seeing it as a mission of some sort, and thinking that tweeting has some sort of perceived importance that puts it on a level with having a real job or producing real work… that’s just delusional.
And the mention about overtweeting, no you’re right, I don’t think iconic actually mentioned the word overtweeting at all. He didn’t have to. A few simple searches using a service like http://followcost.com/iconic88 shows that his average number of tweets is 182.95 per day (or 174.68 per day for the past 100 days). This gets a “nuclear” follow cost warning. So, no, Iconic didn’t utter the words overtweeting, but the facts make it clear that he does. Do the math… allowing 6 hours for sleep, that’s a tweet every 5.9 minutes. Yeah, that’s overtweeting, and it treats Twitter as broadcast medium, not a communication medium. That’s fine… Twitter can be whatever you want it to be, but let’s call it for what it is, and not be deluded into believing that sending 182 tweets a day – with only 27% of those being @replies – is in any way a “conversation”. It’s not.
The thing is, after following the guy for a while just to see what all the fuss was about, all I saw were a series of tweets and retweets containing glib, hackneyed self-help phrases that tried to pass themselves off as genuinely worthy content.
I know all this sounds really negative, so I’m sorry about that. But I’m so tired of hearing people attributing some sort of almost mystic religious importance to social tools. A lot of what I heard that night was just a whole lot of BS that attempted to elevate Twitter to some sort of instrument of social redemption. Like I said, iconic was a nice enough bloke and all, but I didn’t feel there was much real substance in the content of what he had to say, and I was surprised by how much his message was fawned over by those in attendance.
Chris
Some great comments from all of you. Thanks for taking the time to provide them. This is exactly what I mean by creating conversations. We don’t have to agree on all points. In fact, the conversation is better when we don’t. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and I’m happy to continue this discussion, here, over twitter or in person.
I’m just glad we have so many options to share them these days.