another quick post to thank some people who have made twitter an interesting journey for me in 2009.
i joined twitter to build a personal brand which i thought might help my consulting work. it helps to be known in the industry. i’m not sure how far ive succeeded in that mission, but i have “met” some people here who not only helped me understand the medium better but also interestingly, myself. people who have made me think, change my outlook towards certain things, discover new realities and make peace with certain facts. so here’s to you all.. hope you have a meaningful 2010.
@startonomics who knew me from my initial days on twitter. leo continues to be extremely special.
people i truly consider to be friends here – @thecomicproject and @manuscrypts. manu is perhaps the only one here who pushes me to think. tcp perhaps knows me the best here.
my best conversations on PR have been with @beastoftraal and with @codelust on media in general.
communications and marketing pros who engaged with me @Anita_Lobo @jessie_paul @Frank_Strong (hmm just noticed they all have underscored their id!)
rockstars who were more accessible than i imagined them to be initially @twilightfairy @rajeshlalwani.
@prolificd whose nicest follow friday showed me a side of myself i had not paid attention to.
at times when i seek sanity on twitter, i look at @argus48 and feel all is well with this part of the virtual world.
one person who makes me feel guilty each time i see his tweets because i could not live up to the trust he placed in me when he included my first post in his newsletter – @chrisbrogan
the first conversation on twitter was with GM’s @cbarger he helped me understand social media slightly better
someone i am extremely fond of and have very high hopes for @venkatananth
the one and only @softykid who continues to charm me with his child-like innocence.
@SachinKalbag who (unknowingly) helped me take one of the most important decisions of my life. he also made me change my opinion about journalists in general. as did @nixxin @SmitaPrakash @rohind @ananthkrishnan and @KanchanGupta
i am thrilled that @abhi2point0 continues to light up my timeline with his dazzling smile. i am also happy that i have finally started talking to and learning from him.
the superstars @aravindadiga and @jhunjhunwala who were always nice to me. @jhunjhunwala is the only ‘star’ here who does not act like one at any level.
@Netra and @ashumittal, two people i have personally met. there’s no one more talented than ashu and nicer than netra.
the PR trio that gives me much hope for the industry @mad_nad, @timepass, @Elizabeth_Chen
one group that never failed to cheer me up even in my darkest moods – @amitvarma, @krishashok, @bigfatphoenix, @prempanicker, @rameshsrivats – i am truly in awe of each.
two classy ‘internet marketers’ ive observed and learnt from @ashokbanker @flyyoufools
@nithinkd the only one i speak to on and off about absolutely random stuff.
i have learnt the most on the communications industry through links from @rjauhari @bhatnaturally @vijaysankaran @parthajha and @vedantvarma
my twitter guru – @sreenet he has patiently answered some of my weirdest questions.
@2xyada – perhaps the least known of all has helped me with his reality checks.
finally, if i could just follow one person on twitter, it would be @b50. he is responsible for slowly shattering almost all my ideas on what not to do on twitter. somehow when he does them, it always makes sense.
i have shared some magic with almost every single individual (barring @GuyKawasaki!) i follow on twitter. and those who engage with me. it’s my inability to keep track and keep up that stops me from following more. but i have come to realise there is so much goodness here. and it is wonderful to know you all.
wishing you a great year ahead. cheers!
Surekha Pillai
PR Oh - it's not what you think! 
Nice post. Its a similar case with me. Found many lovely people on twitter. Will follow couple of the people from this post. Will come back and comment again. 🙂
Wishing u a happy new year. Have fun 🙂
Comment by Sanjay — December 31, 2009 @ 6:57 pm |
thank you, sanjay. i see you have been dabbling in cartoons and having fun. good stuff. hope you have a great 2010!
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 1, 2010 @ 10:21 am |
Thanks for visiting my blog. Was in a hurry last time I posted the comment. All I can say is that in the whole post, One really awesome tweep was missed. Let me add her here she is known with the twitter name @surekhapillai
And yes @AshuMittal is my all time fav on twitter. I complimented her several times. Day isn’t complete without her pic of the day tweet. 🙂
Its all fun to follow @jhunjhunwala . His tweets have so much sense of humour.
Looks like I can have a similar blog post now. Will restrict my comment to this.
Keep up the good work.
Sanjay
Comment by Sanjay — January 1, 2010 @ 3:36 pm
Surekhaji, You are the only one who thought of writing an article on personal e0xperience in twitter. Wonderful! No one would think it is hurriedly written while reading this piece.
Have a great new year!
Aam admi of India
Comment by Aam Admi — December 31, 2009 @ 7:29 pm |
thank you aam admi-ji. i was in two minds whether to post this or not. glad i did 🙂
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 1, 2010 @ 10:23 am |
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Surekha Pillai, Surekha Pillai. Surekha Pillai said: hurriedly written – posting it anyway. happiness in 2010, my twitter friends – http://bit.ly/5lCoYi […]
Pingback by Tweets that mention happiness in 2010, my twitter friends « PR Oh – it's not what you think! -- Topsy.com — December 31, 2009 @ 7:54 pm |
That almost read like an Oscar-acceptance speech! But a neat one all the same. Great to know you too in 140 character sized pellets. And have an awesome year ahead 🙂
Comment by Shyam — December 31, 2009 @ 8:10 pm |
ha! yes, since no one has been nominating me for any of the ‘twitter indian of the year’ awards, thought i’d just post my acceptance speech here. i have enjoyed my interaction with you the most and i look forward to knowing you better this year.
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 1, 2010 @ 10:26 am |
follow your tweets regularly..though we have’nt interacted much on Twitter..but your posts are insightful and your questions probing…
and this is a wonderfully written ode to your friends here…
have a fabolous 2010 and more power to you..:-)
Manu
Comment by gloliter — January 1, 2010 @ 1:01 am |
thank you so much manu..glad you saw it the way the it was intended. i hope you have a blockbuster year ahead!
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 1, 2010 @ 10:35 am |
I enjoyed reading through your blog. I too believe that a friend is a friend for life. I find that there are many people I have been following and I interact with regularly, but they are not following me. As a result I can not send them a direct message. This shows that they are not concerned. I look as a friend as a living being and not just a name on twitter. There are times when you want to discuss some things in the form of direct messages and not the public timeline. If you can’t send a personal message, the friendship becomes meaningless. You can’t go around telling someone on the public timeline “Please follow me.” That is the major drawback on twitter that I noticed. By the way I am following you but since you are not following me, I can not know you as a person so we remain strangers. I realised that there is no point having innumerable followers nor is there any purpose in following people without any meaning. I cut down my followers from 204 to 99 by blocking many of them who I do not interact with. Similarly I unfollowed a lot of people who neither reply to me nor I can I send them a direct message. The number of people you are following and the number of people who are following you needs to be balanced, unless you are a celebrity who wants more people to follow you and have no time to follow anyone.
I know twitter is a public space where people are free to follow anyone they please, but when you build up a rapport with someone, you want to be able to communicate directly and know them as individuals.
These are my personal views probably I may be wrong but that is how I feel. I am glad you know the people you follow. That is the way it should be. All the best.
Comment by Manoj T — January 1, 2010 @ 3:57 pm |
thank you for this comment, mr tripathi. i understand where you are coming from. it is also a bit embarrassing to explain why i have not followed you. it should never come to this and i apologise, but since you have raised this point, kindly allow me to explain. most of the people i follow on twitter help me learn and grow in my profession and understand the communications and media landscape better. that is because when i joined twitter, it was purely for professional reasons. however i realised a pure professional stream can get boring sometimes. along the way, i have followed some interesting people who were either referred and recommended by others i follow. and when i find someone constantly and productively engaging. or when something about them caught my attention. @AshuMittal’s photography, @b50’s humour, @softykid’s innocence and so on. however i have tried limiting this number because i fear it would make me a bigger twitter addict than i already am. i need to tell you how difficult it is for me not to follow certain people despite finding them extremely interesting because of this reason alone. i also do not follow any celebrity on twitter barring @PritishNandy who i follow because he is also a media person.
i do not expect those i follow to follow me back. infact there are people mentioned in the list above who followed me back very recently after months of my following them and there are still some there who don’t even know i exist. it does not stop me from following them because either i find them interesting or i learn from them. having said this, i would be lying if i said i havent unfollowed anyone for the same reasons you have cited – a few, i have. similarly, and understandably, i have also lost a few followers due to this very reason.
what you say is absolutely right for people who join twitter to meet and know more individuals. it is a great place for that too, but my reasons to be here are slightly different. i hope you understand.
thank you for dropping by and raising this pertinent point and giving me an opportunity to explain. by the way, i loved a recent DP of yours with two girls whom i assumed were your daughters 🙂 hope you and your family have a truly great year ahead.
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 1, 2010 @ 7:05 pm |
Thanks Surekha for your prompt response. I know that it is not a must to follow everyone who follows you, if it was, it would have been designed in such a way that it would happen automatically. Designers of Twitter have wisely kept the key with the tweeter and one has the option to follow, unfollow or block a person from following.
I am not worried as much about people I follow not following me back, as it is their free will. I was more concerned about not being able to send them a message without clogging the public timeline. I do not interact with too large a group of people. I may be following some 100 odd people but I actually interact with just about a handful of about 20 people. Your not following me was not really an issue because i have hardly interacted with you. I think I may have sent probably one or two direct tweets to you over the entire period. Where I found a stumbling block was when I wanted to send a direct and personalised greeting message to a few people who I was interacting with on a regular basis, i.e. 2-3 or even more tweets every day,I was not able to. I realised that they were not following me. There was no way I could send them a message except as a public tweet.
Probably it is a shortcoming in me that I start treating people i interact with on the internet as living human beings (which they are) and not just names on the screen. Many people like to stay anonymous and do not open up publicly. That is where the direct message comes in handy where you can discuss things and exchange notes which you do not want others to know. Someone whom i am following sends me a direct message and I have to reply back in the public space because they are not following me becomes embarassing at times as i may not want to give a reply to the query in a public space. It would be incorrect to tell someone “please follow me then I will reply” I would not like to ask someone to follow me if the person does not really want to. At times you really do not realise that you are not following a person who you are interacting with regularly, although I always try to follow a person who has sent me a direct tweet and I always respond, but not everyone does it.
I realise that one should not take twitter too seriously nor take the friends made here too seriously, as they are here today and gone tomorrow. Life of a tweeter is pretty short. if you stay away for a week, people forget you. There are so many social websites i have been part of, made so many friends who became really close, then I moved on. Now i don’t even visit those websites and have forgotten all about those people. Perhaps tomorrow I will outgrow twitter and not turn back to look at it again. Life is like that. It is always dynamic. Life moves forward not backward nor tarries with yesterday.
Comment by Manoj T — January 1, 2010 @ 8:10 pm
Foot note. Yes the girls in that old pic are my daughters. That was a 6 year old pic. Now one is married and the other is a lawyer.
Comment by Manoj T — January 1, 2010 @ 8:24 pm
Manoj, to continue from Surekha’s explanation, even if it sounds utterly silly and dramatic, do not expect any returns, as the Bhagavad Gita says, out of Twitter. Give as much as you can and I can assure you, you’ll gain a lot. As for the DM problem you had, it is a simple matter of requesting a DM privilege by asking for it, where it is absolutely essential. Do remember here that when you do so, the first instinct of the other person is to see your tweets and decide whether you’re worth that privilege – do you think your timeline will be relevant/ interesting enough for that person?
Comment by Karthik — January 1, 2010 @ 7:49 pm |
I’ve been meaning to write about my Twitter experiences since a long time, but I guess, this is the perfect space and the opportune moment to share my observations. So here goes:
1. First up, you can send DM’s to those who don’t follow you. Use this command- twitter.com/direct_messages/create/username – where username is the handle of the twitter user you want to send your DM to. The Twitter DM structure has issues. Sometimes I can’t send DMs to even those who are following me. But once you use this command to send a DM, the contact is permanently added to your DM contacts list. So this shouldn’t be a problem anymore. However I am not sure if this works well with Protected Accounts.
Also if it is absolutely necessary, I ask people to follow me so that I can send them a DM. But that was before I knew this command. I once asked someone and once the DM thing was over, I politely asked them to unfollow me. Whether they do it or not, I leave it upto them.
2. I realized this later that everybody on Twitter takes their own sweet time in following someone back. The parameters for this judgement vary from person to person. I know a very popular friend who follows back anyone who follows him. Then there is this friend whose follower to friend ratio will 10:1. Both are good people, good friends – just that the way they use twitter is different.
I for example have a few rules when it comes to following people. When someone follows me, I read a few of their tweets(if I have time). I take a cursory glance towards the followers to friends ratio too, if it is more than and nearly equal to one, I follow them back immediately. Else I wait till they initiate conversation. If they don’t interact, I let them read my tweets, I don’t block them. If they do interact, and the conversation is even remotely good, I follow them and so on.
Also I unfollowed a few good people because they had automated feeds on their twitter page, horoscopes, news feeds etc. When they stopped it, I followed them back.
The only point that I am trying to make is that it takes time. A lot of it. Sometimes even months.
I followed a movie reviewer for a long time. Then one day we had a conversation at 4 in the morning and he followed me back. We haven’t talked since then so he might as well unfollow me now, but it doesn’t matter. Same goes with @ashumittal. I was a huge fan of her photography skills, interacted with her, RTed her links because each and everyone of her photographs was splendid and worth sharing with my friends and followers. She followed me back after quite a while and we have been very good friends since. I am on her People-I’d-like-to-meet-list and even though I haven’t made any lists yet, I know that I’d love to meet her in real life too.
The point here is that neither quality conversations/interaction nor a huge follower count can dictate whether someone will follow you back. We take time in deciding who is our friend and who is merely an acquaintance in real life, the same thing is valid for Twitter.
3. I once cribbed about the fact that people unfollow me after a while without bothering to inform me. I found it rude. If you want to unfollow me, say so and lets mutually kill the connection – or so I thought.
It was kiddish of me to think on that lines, I realized this later. If I unfollowed someone for any reason, I found it very difficult to break this news to them. Because unnecessary explanations/conversations will(might) follow leading to overall bitterness(and spamming on my timeline).
It was then that I understood that silently breaking these connections is good. Because my timeline is my territory. I choose what should be there. It is entirely my prerogative. I can change my mind whenever I want without having to explain my actions – like in real life. Cruel yes, but comfortable.
4. I follow people for two reasons – one if I find their content interesting, in which case I don’t expect them to follow me back, I can do with a one-way interaction.
You might not believe me but there are some people whom I don’t follow because I don’t want them to follow me back. Because they follow some 100 or 50 odd people and I tweet a lot, so I don’t want to end up spamming their timelines. I used to send a DM to such people, in case they followed me, explaining that they should reconsider the follow lest they regret it later. But I have stopped this exercise because it takes everyone a while to realize whether my tweets are meaningful or not. I need not explain this, they’ll find out eventually.
Then there are people whom I follow because they have been following me and they interact on a regular basis. I may not love them but I follow them anyway. Over a period of time, some of them have become very close to my heart. But when someone from this category unfollows me, I unfollow them immediately. Because the very basis of our friendship has been destroyed. I use services like friendorfollow.com to stay informed on these issues. *sounds stupid but makes sense to me*
1000 words, I guess I should stop now.
Sorry for this mammoth rant disguised as a comment but I needed to get this out of my system and this looked like a good place. To be frank, there is no one-size-fits-all theory of using Twitter. But the more we talk about our experiences, the better we understand Twitter’s potential in bringing about change(for the good or for the worse).
Lovely post this. And the previous Twitter Ramayan too(though I must admit I haven’t finished reading it) 😀
And yes, New Year wishes your way too! Happy 2010!
Regards.
-@tantanoo
(P.S.: Pardon the occasional tangents in the comment, digressing from the topic is a family tradition.)
Comment by theregoesathought — January 1, 2010 @ 10:37 pm
to karthik: ha! ‘bhagavad gita’ and ‘DM privilege’ in the twitter karm bhoomi 🙂 jokes apart, sometimes the DM option helps in many ways. for instance, pointing out an error. i once DMed an editor – whom i am not in touch with now – about a typo in his tweet about swine flu which he referred to as ‘swine fly’ by mistake. it made the serious tweet rather hilarious and could have ended up becoming a joke. i could do it only because he was following me then even though he neednt have – it’s not that i was adding great value to him. this is just an example of the advantage of following. experts like guy kawasaki and chris brogan follow all so that their followers could DM them. so in my opinion, DM is hardly a privilege. it’s just a convenience and sometimes also helps one not look like an ass. it’s a matter of preference i suppose, some follow many back because they can handle that traffic. some, like me, simply cannot.
ive also had instances of people who didnt follow me back DMing me a question (not a plain response but a comment or an opinion). usually in such cases, i simply respond with a ‘i’m unable to DM’ and include my response. in my opinion, again there is no need to explicitly state ‘i cannot DM you because you are not following me’ because sometimes the other person perhaps does not realise it. i have also DMed a couple of times to people i don’t follow to simply respond to a question which i dont expect to be a discussion or i dont think others need to read. of course when they still don’t get it, they deserve to be told.
this is turning out to be yet another interesting discussion, eh karthik? 🙂 (or making mountain out of molehill depending on how one sees it!)
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 2, 2010 @ 10:53 am
tantanoo – you have amazed me with this post because when i read your comment, i feel that i could have written it. i went through all that you mention here. infact, i still wish i could just shake hands with a few people i follow and go our ways because there is no engagement, no interaction..but i continue following them out of politeness and wonder if it’s the same with them as well.
similarly, when some ‘superstars’- self-proclaimed or otherwise – follow you, you feel you HAVE to follow them back. i have refrained from doing this too frequently now.
finally..whoa on the DM-those-who-dont-follow-you trick. you know just about everything, don’t you!
loved your comment, i feel bad and guilty it is hidden in the comments section. i hope you can put it out as a separate post somewhere. thank you for making the effort. have a great year ahead and hope we can work on that world’s worst ppt idea this year 🙂
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 2, 2010 @ 11:05 am
Lovely post.
Comment by Mahafreed — January 1, 2010 @ 5:05 pm |
what a lovely surprise. thank you mahafreed, hope you are having a great year 🙂
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 1, 2010 @ 7:06 pm |
Accessible,always; Rockstar, hardly!:)
It has been a pleasure interacting with you Surekha. If you hadn’t joined Twitter last year, it would have perhaps taken longer for us to get acquainted. Thanks for joining Twitter.
Look forward to meeting you.
Cheers
Rajesh
Comment by Rajesh Lalwani — January 1, 2010 @ 9:45 pm |
thanks for the comment, rajesh. i completely agree, twitter has helped me meet and engage with peers and that is something i really cherish about it. look forward to meeting you as well 🙂
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 2, 2010 @ 11:09 am |
Hey, 2009 was indeed a great year for me as a person and also being on Twitter was awesome.
It was awesome not because we follow someone or someone follow you.It was awesome because you all guys were around and Surekha you made it special in one or other ways.
Got a chance to say a thank you in my own small ways for being there.
Alone i can smile but togather we can laugh …. and 2010 will be even better.
Take Care
Netra
Comment by Netra Parikh — January 2, 2010 @ 3:48 am |
you are one of those few people i rarely interact with on twitter, netra. but you have become extremely special. there is an amazing warmth about you that thaws even the most cynical like me. thank you for this lovely message 🙂
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 2, 2010 @ 11:12 am |
Surekha, you are one person who is just too good to be true. When I interacted with you over Twitter, I couldn’t have imagined it was possible for you to be any nicer in real life, but guess I was in for a big surprise. Lots of love and I hope I can live up to your generous words in the post. Hoping we meet again soon!
Cheers,
Ashu
Comment by Ashu Mittal — January 2, 2010 @ 10:57 am |
you know what, when i started out on twitter, i didnt think i’d ever meet anyone in real. one of the reasons to be on twitter was also because am a sociopath in real life which didnt do me much good in an industry which is perceived to be all about networking. the truth is i was petrified when i met you and netra. i wondered if i’d want to run in five minutes, whether you guys would leave in two! whether we would have anything at all to say to each other. whether we all would be bored to tears. surprisingly, none of that happened. while netra acted as a great ‘glue’ i think you and i would have been just fine too. i really enjoyed my meeting with you. and your photographs talk to me. thank you for the kind words and i hope to see more of you this year!
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 2, 2010 @ 11:22 am |
Didi, wattay post… The best new year post i’ve read so far. The way you have narrated your twitter friends,simply amazing. Wish I could also write something on similar lines (though it wont be half as profound as this is).
If there is one person, I would want to meet in real from twitterworld…it would be YOU :)…smeone who never ceases to amaze me.. be it your tweets or DM or posts…very humane, very inspirational.. wish u a wonderful new year.. 🙂
p.s:thank you for the mention
Comment by Startonomics — January 2, 2010 @ 11:56 am |
love it when you call me didi, leo. you are the only true twitter companion i’ve had from the beginning. i continue to smile whenever i see you in my timeline. ayyo korachu excess aayi poi praise 🙂 thank you leo and i hope to meet you someday.
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 5, 2010 @ 11:20 am |
First congrats.Unlike most of the people you know what you have joined twitter for. But to suit your needs, I feel you should follow most of the people back. Use a client like tweetdeck/seesmic to filter them in different groups..So that you are not burdened with excessive info. But yes, you might be missing out on some very imp info by not following. There may be some good marketing/PR/consulting people out there who wont show interest in you just because your profile says “I dont interact with many people”. You might never know those folks on twitter who are currently doing MBA from great institutes, and might know about consulting.Anyhow some pretty great feedback can come from channels you never expect 🙂
Comment by Shantanu — January 2, 2010 @ 11:59 am |
thank you for these comments, shantanu. very useful. and great feedback did come from a channel i never expected 🙂
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 8, 2010 @ 1:19 pm |
Hi Surekha
What a wonderful way to start the new year!
I have relished my twitter experience like you.
From a fellow sociopath, ex PR pro and ever the optimist 😉
Cheers,
Anita Lobo
Comment by Anita Lobo — January 2, 2010 @ 8:09 pm |
I’m so sexy! It’s but natural that you adore my presence .My impressive biceps,my gargantuan pot belly protecting my 6 pack abs and being the World’s 1062nd richest man make me a surefire follow on Twitter and now you,the half faced woman have acknowledged the fact.
Look how my comment alone has brightened this blog and spread my wisdom onto all those who might even smell a hash tag of this blog.I really am awesome!
Comment by Rakesh Jhunjhunwala — January 2, 2010 @ 11:55 pm |
you made my site crash with your heavy weight presence you awesome man you.
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 8, 2010 @ 1:20 pm |
Toast to the lady who explained twitter world to me and still continues with it..oh so effortlessly!
May 2010 shower all the love, joy and happiness 🙂
Liz
Comment by Elizabeth — January 2, 2010 @ 11:56 pm |
hey liz, and it’s that explanation which triggered my setting up an account! thank you and hope 2010 is turning out well for you!
Comment by Surekha Pillai — January 8, 2010 @ 1:21 pm |
*Apparently I can’t reply to a reply.*
There is a little correction. The trick that I mention isn’t working anymore. Due to a surge in Spam DMs Twitter has disabled that feature. Sorry about the confusion.
However that command will come in handy when you notice that a person you follow is not listed in your DM contacts.
Regards.
Shantanu.
(@tantanoo)
Comment by TanTanu — January 15, 2010 @ 10:02 pm |