Awhile back, in an apartment building where I lived, I saw something very strange. A person had a living green plant situated outside their door in our windowless hallway. It sat there for days. Then, as I was getting ready to leave, I noticed something even stranger. The person had added a little plaster column outside their door and had put the plant on there as if it was a little porch. It looked really pretty, and it almost seemed like a good idea, but eventually the column and the plant disappeared, probably because the person realized that plants need sun, not just fluorescent light, to thrive.
This has been on my mind of late because I too had an idea that I thought was really good, but lately I’m being proven wrong. As I’ve mentioned here before, I hand-pick who I follow back and who I don’t. There are a few things I look for.
1. Do you have a picture of a human being, or do you look like an egg? I can’t assure myself that the person in the picture is you, but a picture is much more encouraging than a pastel egg.
2. Do you have your bio filled out? I’ve learned to distinguish between fake bios and real bios, so don’t think you’ll fool me that way.
3. What are your last few tweets like? Are they all RTs of your own stuff? Are they all tweets of your own blog posts? Or are you talking to people?
For many months now – a year in fact – these methodologies have really done well for me. But, much like a super virus, spammers always seem to get smarter, and I readily admit, I’ve been fooled by a few of them.
But I still didn’t follow YOU back.
Now what’s that all about?