Can you really keep up with 3000 people, or more?

I’m a huge Twitter fan…but that fan-dom was threatened when I realized I was increasingly “selling” myself and not having an authentic conversation with people. And that they weren’t having one with me. People I had promoted heavily and believed in, who had responded with a retweet or direct message here or there had never returned my follow.

That means they’ll never see this post. They’ll never get involved in a conversation with me. They can’t…

Companies I’ve called out to on Twitter repeatedly with questions have never responded. Even when they are Twitter apps! They aren’t having a conversation with me…they can’t.

Why? Because of the simple numbers of people we follow on Twitter. Mine is la little more than 1000 (and I review my followers and who I follow about monthly). But try to “listen” even casually to 1,000 people.

Sure you can look for @YOURNAME HERE but this is like being at a dinner party just waiting for someone to holler your name!

Hollah!

I don’t think that’s what all us authentic engaged folks intended to do when we started getting excited about Twitter.

But I’ll be honest. That’s where I go first. Who has mentioned me? Partly vanity, yes, but partly to see if someone is shouting out for me at the party. But what about that great conversation that two of my best friends are having off to the side…I can’t see it. There are two many people at my party.

I can’t genuinely follow 1,000 people. I’ve been trying to shrink the number via “lists” and groups on Hootsuite, but even then it feels too hard and too clique-ish to keep track of.

Facebook’s newsfeed is becoming more attractive (there. I said it).

Then, of course, there is the hard cold reality that Twitter still doesn’t seem to have a plan to monetize and they’ve flatlined in signing up new members.

What will YOU do if Twitter goes bye bye birdie?

Wow. There is a freakin’ firestorm of conversation about the social media/online world and some of it is unpleasant and still true.  Some of it is unpleasant and probably not true.

Nathan Hagen wrote Social Media is a Virus.

Chris Brogan has written a couple of angst ridden posts like this one.

And then there is the ongoing skewering of SXSWi.

Funny. I did a Google search “social media dead” (of which I have written also) to look for more fodder  and posts go back as far as 2006! Appears since the dawn of online communities, someone has been ready to pronounce them dead.

Oh. Well.

Now, I think we are seeing more of a turn because people are MAXED OUT emotionally and physically from trying to do everything suggested to market their business. They are following too many people they care nothing about, many of the Internet celebrities we truly love are all saying EXACTLY THE SAME THING, and the “cool kids” (said celebrities) egos might be growing just a wee bit large because they don’t want the icky kids at their table now that they’ve “arrived”.

I still love some of those cool kids but I’ve noticed a few who, lately, don’t seem as warm and fuzzy as they once did. No judging. When people are clamouring for your attention it can get very old and very obvious. Disdain soon follows, right?

I went to SXSWi, making the foolish faux paus of being in a color other than black (seriously?) with a terrific headcold that made me miserable to be around. I LOVED IT, though I still felt small and invisible. Now the cool kids are saying it’s no longer cool. Which we’ve been seeing since 6th grade when the sneaker du jour was suddenly a major geek mistake. Have we not grown up since then?

I have my doubts about social media, but having been helped tremendously by it recently, I also deeply love it. I hope to take a tour to meet some people next year in a beater conversion van (downsizing now…but there are these cats I never wanted…). Not seeing a lot of people because I only deeply care for about 20 online. But a few key, funny, generous folks and clients.

And what about money? I started blogging and never realized people were monetizing. I didn’t know what that was. But, you must do the writing and the interacting for the love of it first, and for the money second. People are far too savvy if it is JUST about money (and there are a lot of expensive conferences that serve no purpose but to teach you how to do this).

So. I don’t think it is a safe bet to announce social media dead. Wheezing a bit, maybe, but the honeymoon period is over. Now we gotta REALLY figure out what we want to do with it.

I want to hang with really deep thinking, sexy, spiritual, funny bleeding hearts. How about you?

[FULL DISCLOSURE: After years of following her and often quoting/linking to her, she recently became a client. THAT is a whole other conversation. But long before that happy occurrence, she was a significant part of the inspiration for my blog's focus: authentic, relevant, organic business practices.]

Not everyone I talk to here will meet all three of those attributes but Jeannette most certainly does  and is the reason I ALWAYS wanted her to be my first interview.

• Authentic: she is up-front and clear about her struggles with relationships…and foster animals
• Relevant: she started Law of Attraction coaching a year or two before Oprah broke The Secret and made LOA common terminology
• Organic: she built her incredibly loyal following by caring, by interacting, through incredible generosity

In addition to coaching, Jeannette has a variety of popular information products (e-books, cds). This year saw the unveiling of Good Vibe University: a full-service membership site that is crammed with content and every day reveals what a brilliant and loving group of individuals have chosen to interact with Jeannette on this mission of hers.

So, let’s talk!

Hey Jeannette! How long have you been The Good Vibe Coach?

Was there a period of time that you were working a day job while you built your online and coaching business?

That was the original plan, but it didn’t work out too well!  The job was so exhausting and time consuming that I didn’t have the energy (and certainly not any positive energy) for building my coaching practice.  So while I did go through two coach training programs while I was still employed in the corporate world, I didn’t take building my business seriously until I actually gave notice.  And that’s when good things started to happen.

How long have you been blogging? How has that impacted your business?

It’s funny, because I used to swear that I would never blog.  Ever.  Mostly because it seemed everyone else already was, and I didn’t want to just follow the herd.

But I did start Law of Attraction Playground on Blogger in spring of 2007, soon migrated to Good Vibe Blog on WordPress, in which time blogging has become one of the favorite parts of my business!  It satisfies several personal core values, including connection, authenticity, passion, freedom and fun.  It’s allowed me to connect with other like-minded folks and to build a community around the topic I’m passionate about.  Not to mention it is becoming, over time, a nice vehicle for highlighting products and services, too.

Was there a particular moment or post where you thought “uh-oh, I may have something here?” (jump in followers, increased rank, etc?)

I have had a few ”Yay, this is working!” moments when there would be a new record number of comments (or in the beginning, even a comment from someone I didn’t know would get me excited!), or when someone would ask for paid advertising space, or when the incoming links started growing.  Mostly, though, it’s been a gradual evolution of success – no obvious or overnight milestones or wins.  I think that’s part of the trick to staying engaged, because the success isn’t always easy to spot.  It kind of sneaks up on you over time – at least, that’s been my experience.

How many hours per day/week do you spend building your online presence?

I’ve got a feeling that actual number might surprise me.  I don’t formally track it, but my best guess is, between the blog, Twitter, and Facebook that it probably averages under an hour a day.  Some days more, some days less.  I don’t have any set rules about how often or when to check in, I just follow inspiration and do what feels good.  I will say, though, it took me a while to get in my good groove with twitter.  (I used to live there after I first discovered it!)  So I’m feeling much more balance with it all.

If another solo practitioner of some sort asked for some of your lessons on using social media as a business tool, what would you say?

Don’t do it if you’re only engaging it to make something happen for your business.  If you don’t genuinely enjoy spending time on social media, it will come across to others and won’t help as much as something else would that you enjoy more.  People are attracted to passion and enthusiasm and authenticity.  If you can’t be that with your social media, don’t waste your time.

If you were starting over, what would you do differently?

I would be less afraid of making mistakes; in fact I would embrace doing something wrong in favor of not doing it at all. I wouldn’t have worried so much about how it’s “supposed” to be done, relied less on the “experts” and more on my gut.  And I would make a point of enjoying the whole journey more.  It really IS the best part – It really is the best part, you know.  The building of it, the part where you’re not sure what – if anything – is coming from it all.

In the online/social media/blogging world, what are your pet peeves?

Someone trying to convince me they know what’s best for me.  Being “sold” to and fear based and scarcity-based marketing.  Turns me off every time.  I probably miss out on a lot of great content because they’re relying on traditional methods to make the sale.

What do you love, love, love about what you do?

That I’m in charge!  That I get to make my own mistakes, I get to try out something different and do it my way, I get to talk about whatever I want, and that I get to do it alongside other brilliant, fun and inspiring creators!

What do you think it means to be authentic?

For me it means not pretending, not saying or doing something just because it’s what’s expected or what I’m supposed to do or what sounds good to others.  It means honoring my intuition, telling it like it is even when it’s not pretty, and not succumbing to external pressure to do it different.  It’s a real-ness that allows for the kind of genuine connection that just can’t be beat. 

Follow Jeannette on Twitter @goodvibecoach.

I wrote a post for the previous incarnation of my blog about believing Twitter would die. The pursuit of numbers was becoming increasingly obscene to me (a behavior I kept having to check in myself) and I was, and still am, convinced that it is about the quality and not quantity of your online relationships that matters. Then Naomi Dunford wrote this and I began to feel a bit embarrassed.

And now I’ve been even more reminded of the capacity of strangers to support you.  I do have a tiny little Twitter/FB family out there and they are amazingly generous people. I think it is because I am most drawn to individuals who are REAL ( I do get tired of hearing myself say “authentic” especially when Oprah says it so much). I worry I come across as an online stalker at times because, when I’m excited about someone, I will promote the hell out of them. I’ve done it with Pam Slim, Jeannette Maw (who is now a major client and no, I never saw that coming), Danielle LaPorte, Kelly Diels and now, my first couple of boys are about to get it.

I simply believe in the goodness and talent of these unbelievable folks.

Yesterday, after having struggled for 5 days with this broken, hacked blog and an insufficient backup and really poor tech support from Netfirms (no link on purpose), the Twitter love came oozing out of the woodwork. It looked a bit like this:

KellyDiels @kellylivesay and oh honey, I’m so sorry. @websiteweekend’s site has lots of tips on security. and eff eff eff eff eff. so sorry hon.

shawnmummert @kellylivesay If your site is well-indexed by Google, you may have cached versions of them online, if you don’t have other copies.

safetycomfort @kellylivesay Hope the recreation process goes really well, and that you’ll be back up and running very soon now. Hugs x

GrowMyAfro @kellylivesay ah, gotta love caching. Whew!

websiteweekend @kellylivesay How uptodate were your backups?

There were emails from Kelly Woodbridge and Eric Hamm too. And, in the end, I was able to salvage ALL of the content except for comments.

In the meantime, three nice men came and dug my car out of the snow (ok, it was for money but still) and today (after being dug out yesterday), my neighbor helped me again.

Lately love has come to me in unexpected ways and social media played a real part in this.

Please follow the above people if you don’t already. Please. They are good. Really good. And talented.

(This site isn’t fully reconstructed yet. I’m using Jing to take screen shots of each step so I won’t wonder what color my background was if it ever gets lost again. I’m learning more about security and Wordpress and database backups than I wanted to…but it is all ok…because of the love. )