OH NO! THEY’RE NOT FOLLOWING ME ON TWITTER OR FACEBOOK

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I always make a point to thank friends when they do a favor for me.  It takes a few extra seconds, but my mother taught me the importance of a heartfelt “thank you” & I feel guilty if I don’t.

So when a friend of mine tweeted a link to one of my podcasts, I sent her a direct message to thank her.  Wow, I was surprised to discover she wasn’t following me so the direct message bounced back.  For a moment I got my feelings hurt.  But then after a moment of reflection, I determined that wasn’t fair to her or to me.  Did this mean she didn’t like me?  That doesn’t make sense.  She was kind & supportive enough to recommend others listen to my podcast.

Fortunately, I have lots of Facebook friends.  I get scores of requests every week to join their Facebook fan page, attend their favorite functions, & contribute to their causes.  Because I choose to ignore many of these requests, does that make me a bad person?  Should my friends be disappointed in me?

Recently Phyllis Neill, my partner, & I sent out an e-mail announcement asking our connections to subscribe to our e-mail newsletter.  Many people “opted in,” but naturally many didn’t.  There’s an option to “opt out.”  Of course, there’s really no reason to opt out prior to subscribing since you won’t get the newsletter without choosing to do so.

But who would go out of their way to “opt out” when it wasn’t necessary?  Low & behold, the person who opted out was someone who was sending me his newsletter & I e-mailed back to unsubscribe.  I guess he figured, if he’s not going to read mine, I’m not going to read his.

Should I consider subscribing to everyone’s newsletter & joining everyone’s fan page so I can make sure they still like me?  I guess trying to do the right thing was a lot easier before social media.  This is David Sher your WeMentor Guy saying it’s not what you know, but whOO you know.