My Journey in Writing, Ranting, and Woodworking

I like Google Plus, but the days of ‘Circle You, Circle Me back’ have started.  I’m getting inundated with new people who have added me to their circles.  It sounds like a good thing, but really, it isn’t.  70% of them have ‘Circled’ 1500 people and only have 187 people who have circled them.  If you have been trying this, your aren’t fooling me.  You don’t care.

There is an unwritten rule on Twitter, which says, ‘Thou shall not follow greater than twice the number of people who have followed you, lest you look like a spammer.’  The observant reader will note that I spent one evening following a bunch of people I didn’t know.  All told about 200 people.  But they were all people who happened to be followed (read circled) by cool kids I know from Twitter.  I haven’t done it since and it appears about half of those people, didn’t circle me back. I’m fine with that, they are interesting, and eventually, if I interact, they might.  But even if they don’t, it doesn’t matter to me.

It was a quick way to play around with G+ and I was tempted by the ease of getting new people.  I did it in small numbers though and this let me see what they were like.

The people who are ‘circling’ me like a wagon train under assault, will eventually take me out of their circles.  There may be a few who say hello, or write a haiku which makes me giggle, and then I’ll add them to my ‘following’ circle.  (yes, not a very clever name, I admit)

What is different about how I approach Google Plus, from my slash and burn (read block and report) mentality with Twitter, is that I don’t care how many circles I am in.  I do care how many followers I have, on Twitter, and I want to make sure they are all real people.  That is why I block.  Social Media is important, especially to a struggling author.

My year and a half of building @ExtremelyAvg has been a success.  When I launched HWDA on Saturday, I sent out DM (Direct Messages) to 24 of the 1750 people who follow me, and asked them to help me out.  Twelve of those people did send out a message to their followers.  In addition, another 24 people who saw either my tweet or theirs, RTed the announcement about the launch, which led to the announcement being sent to 139,144 people.

I consider that a success.  Since then, additional tweets have gone out to an additional 75,000 tweeple.  The reason people send out my tweets when asked, is because they are friendly, and engaging.  I’ve sent out their tweets.  We help each other.  It is how it works.

The people who are trying to amass big numbers of ‘circled’ are doing it for one reason…vanity. Building relationships takes work, a bit of humor, and a willingness to help.  I won’t follow you back, just because you circled me, but say hello, and I just might.

[Note:  To the ‘normals’ who might have wondered into the blog tonight, the constant interchanging of ‘follow’ and ‘circled’ might seem confusing.  It isn’t to us nutters who love Social Media.  If you should meet a Social Media enthusiast, away from their natural habitat (behind a keyboard), just smile, nod and move slowly away, as we frighten easily.]