Yesterday, I got the following direct message from someone via Twitter:
please please don't use foursquare to update twitter with your location! so annoying to your followers
I'm not going to say who it's from, because I like and respect the person who sent it to me. And clearly we follow each other on Twitter. But what they DM'd me above is 100% wrong.
Know your audience.
I have been experimenting with FourSquare, as I do with numerous technologies and websites, because to experiment with something is to know it. So I've been getting to know FourSquare lately – mining its database of information about people and places, checking in to locations in various ways, and so forth. And sometimes I blast my location out on Twitter.
Now, the person above doesn't like this. That's fine. But their mistake is assuming that all my followers feel the same way. I tweeted:
Just got DM telling me my FourSquare updates on Twitter are annoying. Also annoying? GETTING ADVICE ABOUT HOW TO USE TWITTER
Now, maybe that's a little mean, but it makes the point (and it's funny… never underestimate the funny). Shortly after, I got a DM from a different person:
for the record, I like the updates
Clearly, different people in my audience have different opinions about my content. That seems like a "no duh" kind of statement, but I think that many people, getting the first DM above, would change their behavior, thinking that they broke some social norm. There are very few social norms, and even when there are, so what? Often, the most innovative people (like, say, Guy Kawasaki and his AllTop site and related social media accounts) are the wrongs who tweak or break such norms and do something against the conventional wisdom. I am experimenting with FourSquare so that I understand it inside and out, just like I did with Posterous, Twitter, and other things. That's how I know I can/cannot apply it to challenges I face in my personal or business life. I read Mashable.com and other blogs, and the content is good, but just because 99% of people are using FourSquare in a certain way doesn't mean I have to. Thus, when experimenting, your audience will see you do different things. As long as you're happy with what you're doing (and you are not outraging everyone who pays attention to you), you'll be fine. It'll blow over. Trust me. So, know your audience and stay true to yourself. Sometimes when you're being creative and trying something new, people don't like what you're doing, or they might not understand it. But other people will love it. And still others, new audience members, will be drawn in. Your audience can change a little over time, because you change a little over time. If you aren't changing, experimenting, probing the limits of behavior, you will never be innovative.
for the record, I like the updates
Clearly, different people in my audience have different opinions about my content. That seems like a "no duh" kind of statement, but I think that many people, getting the first DM above, would change their behavior, thinking that they broke some social norm. There are very few social norms, and even when there are, so what? Often, the most innovative people (like, say, Guy Kawasaki and his AllTop site and related social media accounts) are the wrongs who tweak or break such norms and do something against the conventional wisdom. I am experimenting with FourSquare so that I understand it inside and out, just like I did with Posterous, Twitter, and other things. That's how I know I can/cannot apply it to challenges I face in my personal or business life. I read Mashable.com and other blogs, and the content is good, but just because 99% of people are using FourSquare in a certain way doesn't mean I have to. Thus, when experimenting, your audience will see you do different things. As long as you're happy with what you're doing (and you are not outraging everyone who pays attention to you), you'll be fine. It'll blow over. Trust me. So, know your audience and stay true to yourself. Sometimes when you're being creative and trying something new, people don't like what you're doing, or they might not understand it. But other people will love it. And still others, new audience members, will be drawn in. Your audience can change a little over time, because you change a little over time. If you aren't changing, experimenting, probing the limits of behavior, you will never be innovative.
March 24th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
Hold on a second, Mark. There is a difference between committing an action because your audience asked for it, versus doing the action because you want to do it.
March 25th, 2010 at 11:12 am
I think I have done enough things to irritate Twitter followers to write a book about it. I sent over 9,000 updates in the month of May of 2009 (I am striving to hit 200 updates during the current May). Some people loved it and some hated it. Based on the numbers, more loved it than hated it.
I am never afraid to polarize an audience with a couple words or deeds. If I had to be sorry each time I offended somebody I would have to just totally shut up. I would not have any language left to use beyond if, at, the, that, be, by, to, and maybe a few number words.
I will even do things just to sort out the knuckleheads sometimes. I mentioned something just the other day that somehow addressed my great love for cigarettes. All of the sudden there was a handful of people who stopped following my Twitter feed. Screw ‘em … more cigarettes for me!
The way I figure it is this: I don’t try to please everybody, and that pleases some people very much. I never really respected people for kissing my butt and walking on eggshells around me. I suspect most people don’t respect that very much if I do it either.
I think I have heard about every possible angry rant a person could make up about Twitter by now. Try asking some rude lady if she is hormonal sometime and see how that goes over. Heck, since you mentioned him, I even got under Guy Kawasaki’s skin a couple times. If he denies it, I will just whip out the video of my son “pwning” him again.
In the end, what makes you unique is what earns you friends. Who really wants friends who complain about the color of their shirt?
By the way, just to get even for all those darn tweets, I think I will set out to become the Foursquare “Mayor” of this here blog. Ha! Kidding!
Check in at the kitchen sink you want to have some fun. Somebody will nag you for it, but probably only the hormonal ones.