Enough Already

I was lucky enough to be able attend a conference on soical media yesterday where Chris Brogan ,co-author of Trust Agents, was the key note speaker. (where lucky means I got out of my cube) I knew there would be alot of tweeting going on, because that was how I learned about the conference to begin with. So I started following everyone slated to speak at the event.

Now I'll be honest, I don't have to much to give on twitter. I use it mostly for selfish reasons. I follow people who either teach, inspire, or make me laugh. I am completely selfish. I want to learn, learn, learn. If you follow me all you might learn is that running 12 miles this morning seemed like an easy idea last night.

I arrive at the conference and make note to myself that I need to get a laptop because all the cool kids, and even some of the uncool kids have them. We have/had one that Mister used for his version of gaming - watching sportslines and placing phone calls and I'll just leave it at that. It got the black screen and death and we never attempted to revive it. Most of my time is spent at home or in my cube at work and since I don't really travel anymore no laptop has been no issue until yesterday.

If I had a laptop yesterday I would have been able to unfollow one of the presenters who seriously tweeted every 30 seconds. She gave me a twitter headache. Her avatar, which was a picture of herself, showed up so much on my blackberry that I couldn't stand the sight of her either virtual or real life.Strong reaction, I know, but I couldn't wait to get home and unfollow her. It was the first thing I did when I walked in the house. I also didn't like her presentation, I felt like she was talking at us instead of to us. In her defense, I think anyone using social media or studying social media may be a tough crowd. I think the thing that draws us to this form of media is the realness. We want to feel connected, we want to feel included, we want to feel you are real.

It was an interesting crowd yesterday. Lots of marketers wanting to learn how to use social media to make money. I think most don't get it. Talk to me, educate, be real and you'll probably get my money. Come out the gate looking for my money and numbers and you've already lost. We can spot a phony a blog away and unfortunately there were a few in the room yesterday.