Ravi's Rants

Rndaom, Yet <Well Formed/>

Twitter: @Replies Rock, DMs Over-rated

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What’s the the most powerful feature of Twitter?

It’s definitely the ability to send an “@” reply to anyone on twitter – without their permission.

Now “great tools come with great responsibility” (yup, just made it up 🙂

Spam people on twitter, and you will get blocked, labeled a spammer, folks will hate on you, and word can spread very quickly. So obviously, you don’t want to spam folks and screw up your brand and reputation.

The “@” reply is so powerful that you can basically send a “tweet” to anyone who has an account on Twitter. Did you know that you can send a direct message to anyone from Bill Gates to Beyonce Knowles?

How cool is that?

Just remember, all “@ replies” can be seen publicly by everyone on Twitter.

But Twitter DMs (Direct Messages) are “private” tweets. They are seen only by the recipient. But before you can send someone a DM, they must be “following” you first.

Now there are Social Media experts who will tell you to simply “follow” everyone who follows you.

Now why would I want to do that? Just so that they can send me a DM?

Hey, if they must send me something in private, then it is probably important enough for them to go to my web site and send me an email. Or call me. Or @reply me and ask me for a way to contact me privately so we can take it offline. After all, if it’s that important, then I’m sure it deserves more than 140 characters.

And if I am following 17,541 people, then my twitter stream is going to be moving so dang fast, that it makes it practically worthless!

I only follow people, whose “tweets” I’m interested in.

I follow people because I want to know what they’re saying.

I want to know that they’re thinking.

I want to know what they’re reading, writing, selling, ranting about.

So to blindly follow everyone who follows you, makes no sense.

So here’s my take on this:

* Follow only those whose messages (and/or their timeliness) you’re interested in.
* Auto-DM’s and Auto-Follows are for spammers
* Feel free to use the @reply to butt-in to conversations in a relevant, non-spammy, non-commercial way
* Add meaning to a conversation, add value, and grow your network

Your impending “online rock star” status then can’t help but follow.

What Happens When You Get Too Good At Marketing

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WARNING: SHOCKING LANGUAGE FROM CUSTOMER BELOW

Ok, so maybe the title was a little dramatic, but still, I didn’t know I was *this* awesome at marketing 🙂

Over the weekend, when I thought of giving away my best-selling book on Amazon for free on the book’s blog, I never imagined that my copy writing style & marketing prowess would bring out such strong emotions in people… 🙂

So, on one of the email groups that I’m a part of, I announced that they could get my book for free. And apparently, one guy wanted to just buy a digital copy right away. And when he couldn’t find a “buy” button on the blog, here’s what he wrote:

“You have no Fucking idea how to sell – you are a third world CUNT – when a prospect has already made a decision to buy you should provide the click button to buy – you have failed – because you – do not believe that you can succeed – am I right cocksucker?”

Now that is an EXACT copy-paste from his email.

Now here’s my dilemma:

I was so furious initially, that I wasted most of my day yesterday plotting revenge on this guy, and how to ruin his career and online reputation. I wrote up an entire blog post spending several hours, detailing every email exchange we had. But didn’t publish it.

See, on one side, I wasn’t sure if going ahead with my revenge saga would do me me any good at all. Too much time wasted non-productively, too much negative energy – the usual “law of attraction” stuff.

But on the other side, jerks like this can’t go on without facing any consequences, and go on like business as usual after such a racist rant.

But then peace prevailed. And I have decided to let go.

But feel free to comment below and let me know what you think.

(Here’s the offer that started this all: http://NBLEB.com/blog/ )