Social Media Throws Common Sense and Manners Out the Window

I just got a notice from Twitter that an "Automated Mailing Service" has now started following me. I suppose they mean that they want me to start following them back? An automated robot junk-mailing service wants me to start following them? Are they kidding? Why in the world would anyone follow a automated junk mailing service?


Maybe they got my mailing address confused with the mailing address of my kitchen toaster? Maybe she'd be interested in junk mail generated by a robot. I'm not.  

L7 - SH*TLIST

Today the rules on manners and how friends, acquaintances and strangers alike are treated have been turned on its head.


Social Media, as a supposed source of bringing more people together faster, has also brought along with it a distinct lack of common sense and manners 


In the race to accumulate as many fake friends and followers as possible, tradition and common courtesy have been thrown out the window.


It used to be that little things that we took for granted as to how our privacy were to be respected are  today viewed as relics of the prehistoric past. Facebook, Twitter and the rest of the Social Media landscape set the rules as to who matters and who doesn't in today's world.


As if having thousands of "friends" or "followers" most of whom you've never met (or even many who you paid for) actually matters to anyone excepting the narcissist living inside of one's self.


The rules of common courtesy used to dictate silly things like don't call people up at home after eleven pm... Eleven? I remember when it was nine pm!... They also emphasized the importance of an introduction from a mutually trusted and respected friend... Now, if by some chance someone get's your email address, you become fair game for a litany of junk mail and memberships into clubs and associations that you've never asked for nor, in many cases, have you ever even heard of!


I get tons of mail from Facebook and Linkedin (don't forget Twitter) notifying me of this or that. I don't mind the birthday notices or notices for events that I signed up for but I really hate the notices that congratulate me for becoming a member of some community that I didn't sign up for.


Someone has met me once... That, in some strange way, let's them think that gives them the right to sign me up for their community they've started on Facebook... Well, it doesn't. In fact, that puts them on my sh*tlist.


Next time I write about this sort of bad behavior, I will begin to name organizations. Not that it matters what I say, but it's bad PR.


It's 2011, sure. And the rules of the games have changed slightly due to the Internet. But there's one rule that I doubt has changed in 2,000 years. People might know it, but then again, people today don't read books. So let's me explain it to you.


In the bible in Luke 6:31 it says, "Do unto others as you would want them to do unto you."


Since you go and sign me up for communities and clubs without my permission, I'm sure you will warmly welcome all the clubs I sign you up for? Say, "Clubbing Baby Seals Association, " "Nazi's for Peace," or how about, "The 10,000 Coupons a Minute Club?" That's the smash success club that guarantees sending you, robotically, over one million coupons by email every 3 months so that you can save!


No?


OK. Then have some manners and common sense. Please don't join me up to your Social Media, or Twitter or Linkedin, Facebook, whatever community without asking me first.


Hopefully your parents did teach you better manners than that.

Twitter is Like a Spam Sandwich! No One Actually Reads Twitter

Here I go again, railing on Twitter. Twitter is like a Spam sandwich; no likes to eat Spam and no one likes to read Twitter.


Last week I complained that Twitter has turned into a cesspool of people Twittering about sales crap.




Way too many people are posting (in a dishonest and sneaky way) about something that  takes you to a site that asks that you sign up or buy something. 

The most absurd (and by far the most irritating) are the ones that say, "Get 1000's of new Twitter followers." Then when you look at that person's Twitter profile, you see that they only have two-hundred followers or so.


How can they say, "I got 1000's of new followers" etc., etc., blah, blah... When they only have a few hundred? At the link, it tells you that it costs, for example, $500 dollars for 200 "new friends." I thought only rock stars and people like that had paid friends (read: entourage). Why in the world would anyone want to pay for "friends"? What good is it to follow someone who you have zero interest in excepting to add a "1" to the numbers of followers you have?


If I have lots of followers, does that make me popular?


In the past, I've complained - and showed proof - that 60% of all Twitters users quit in the first month (uh, that means that way more of your current followers to your Twitter account have not opened their Twitter account in over 30 days - this also means that Twitter has retained only 10% of all followers after one year). 


I've proven that Twitter manipulates their trending numbers. 


I've also proven that Twitter is dishonest about when their service is down.


I also really don't like how many people today are using Twitter - in a dishonest manner - to try to find business and sales leads. I've written before that using Twitter or Linkedin for sales is fine, but you have to be upfront and honest about what you want... Tricking people to click a link is a stupid way to do business.


Today, I want to show you that many people agree with me and show you that actual readership of Twitter is seriously down and could be crashing right before our very eyes due to the fact that Twitter is just full of people hawking crap like "Get 1000's of followers on Twitter" or "Make $1000s of dollars off of Twitter sitting at home" etc., etc.


This guy has a good example on his blog at Blogation:

Twitter is the ideal medium for spammers. They set up scripts to follow as many people as possible and then hope that those people are using an “auto-follow” program and will then follow them. I’m one of those suckers that auto-follows – when I started using Twitter, it seemed to be the thing to do. After about one week of auto-following, I was getting several hundred messages a day that could just have easily ended up in my email spam folder. To prove this point, I just logged on to my “TweetDeck” and looked at the last ten tweets I received. Here are some of the samples:

Learn all the stuff the Twitter Pros won’t tell you about! [Link]

Quick Ways to Make Money Online [Link]

Need more room to promote your product or service? Do it on [Link]

MAKE MONEY ONLINE (EASY ONLINE MONEY) WORK ONLINE [Link]

The above is pretty self-explanatory. Twitter is fast becoming like the back pages of the Marvel comics I read when I was a kid. I am expecting, any day, the Charles Atlas Tweets telling me how I can become a beef-cake in just 7 days....

I have also written extensively that you have to give away good, useful and free information on the Internet if you want to get followers and a strong readership base. I also showed why a blog beats out Twitter any day of the week.


Like many others, I want to use my blog to give away free useful information. I have told people how to get free airlines tickets, free pizzas and food, all sorts of things. In a few weeks, I'll be the first in Japan to tell you how to get free vacations to Malaysia.


I use Twitter to drive readers to my blog.


You know what? Even though the numbers of readers to my blog is skyrocketing, the numbers of people coming from Twitter to my blog is rapidly declining. Why? I strongly suspect that it is, as one astute reader wrote in;


Twitter is my least favorite of all the social networking stuff. I have it connected to my Facebook so I just use it as a one-stop way to post any updates to my blog or to link to new stuff I write. I never "network" with Twitter either. It's a one-way form of communication for me. Honestly, I've never known an influential or important colleague to EVER read Twitter. Some of them POST on twitter, but none of them read it. 


I think he's absolutely right. The influential people I know (the few) do not read Twitter. They use it to sell services or goods.

CLICK ON IMAGE TO SEE LARGE SIZE

Businesses take note: Notice the huge disparity of visitors from Google compared to Twitter. 

This shows a massive difference in the quality of visitor. Google visitors had to search for me. 

On the other hand, I had to search for Twitter visitors.

Twitter is it's own worst enemy. People say, "Get thousands of followers!" or, "I'll follow you, you follow me!" But, let's be honest with each other, do you read Twitter? I don't.


Think about this; people will surf the Internet or Facebook, but no one surfs Twitter. Whenever I Tweet something, if there is not a message right there at the top (amongst the 1000's and 1000's I have received in the last 12 hours), I certainly am not going to go back and see what others have written.


It is a waste of time to do so.... Especially when all they ever want me to do is to get 1000's more followers. .... Why would I want 1000's more followers who - all they want to do - is sell me something and they don't read Twitter either....


The excitement about Twitter reminds me of the early days of Amway. Everyone was excited and everyone was doing it; a few years later, reality set in and, well, do you know anyone who does Amway anymore? I don't.


Do you know anyone who reads Twitter? I don't.


Come to think of it... Who does read Twitter? 


Reader comments welcomed.

I'm a Twitter Quitter!...

This is the third time that I will write about Twitter. It is also the third time that I do not have flattering things to say about it. Twitter is quickly becoming synonymous with frustration. Twitter will never even come close to taking down Facebook.

Today, again, Twitter is down and not in service in Japan... Again. Not only is it not in service, their excuses for why it isn't working keep changing.

I wake up earlier than most people do, I think, and I go on my computer and do the things I need to do; check my e-mail; see how much money I lost that night... Write. Whenever I write my blog, I always use Social Media to promote what I have written. My favorites to use are Facebook, Mixi, Myspace, Pick and Twitter.

You know what folks? I have never once had any irritation with Pick, Mixi, or Facebook (sometimes Myspace irritates me) but Twitter frustrates me far too often. I've come to expect that there will be some sort of trouble with Twitter. I never expect any trouble, with, say Google.

That's the way the Internet is supposed to be. Twitter? Problems at least once a week. Sometimes two or three times.

Not only is Twitter frustrating because I cannot put enough text into the short space allowed but also because Twitter experiences technical trouble far too often. Today is the fourth or fifth time in the last few weeks that Twitter has not worked properly. Throw on top of that Twitter admitting that they manipulate their "Trending" and it makes you wonder "What good is it then?"

I became a bit suspicious about the last time Twitter claimed that their "Service was over-capacity" as I had noticed that Twitter kept changing the excuses as to why the system was down. One time the screen would say, "Over-capacity" the next moment it would say, "Technical error." They've done the same thing today.

How is it that one minute Twitter says that the system is "over-loaded" - meaning that "we are too popular for you," (you know, like the prom queen would actually attend your birthday party!? Harrumph! Absurd!) then, a few minutes later, the screen says something completely different? This time they say it's a problem of technical errors (I believe that!)

Which is it Twitter? Over-load or tech problem? Either way, get your story straight. Some people might think you are confused... Others, like me, might think that you are amateurish and can't get the story straight... Er, well, people like me think you are lying - to put it bluntly.

Lying on the Internet is bad business no? Or do you lie because you want some fat-cat idiot company to give you more money? Isn't that really bad business?

You already committed several cardinal sins by manipulating your "trending" topics (For proof and admission, See here) so your credibility is already questionable. But lying about your service (again!)? That is just low-grade and no class.

Check it out. Here what Twitter landing page says at this moment:

It says, "Twitter is over capacity. Please wait a moment and try again. 

For more information, see Twitter status."

Folks, it is now 7:10 am Tokyo time, I have been trying Twitter since 6:30 am and this is still going on. Poor work Twitter! And, like I said, the fourth or fifth time, at least, in the last ten weeks.

No, Twitter. You are not that popular in Japan at this moment in time and at 6:30 in the morning.

But, then again, like I also pointed out, Twitter commits the ultimate sin of lying about the problem. Twitter, you are not over-capacity. That is not true. You even admit it with the Twitter status link above.

Check it out... I want more information. So, I click "Twitter status" what do I get?

This one says, "We're currently experiencing a high error rate on Twitter. Our infrastructure and operations engineers are responding to the incident."

Heck, Twitter, that's poor. I remember about a year ago when Google was having trouble with their G-mail. Sometimes it wouldn't work correctly for, oh, say sometimes ten minutes and then they had it up and fixed immediately....

You guys? Well, it's now almost an hour (at least one hour)...

This really sucks Twitter. No wonder 60% of all Twitter users quit using Twitter within the first 30 days. twitter can be incredibly boring and the service is poor.

I can honestly say that I have just about had it with you guys too. The way this is going, Twitter, while maybe not dead, will be just like Myspace or something that a few people use for a storage garage to keep their junk... I really predict Twitter will be a real dog by 2014.

As for me, just sign me, Twitter Quitter!

Twitter Sucks.

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Mike Rogers, Marketing Japan, Mixi, Facebook, Mike in Tokyo Rogers, Twitter, Google, G-mail, Twitter over-capapcity, Twitter high error rate, Pick, Twitter Quitter, Social Media, Japan, Myspace