I’ve had a number of conversations recently about people retweeting someone’s praise and how that just irks others.
For most of us this isn’t anything new but for those more-fortunate, the tweet-stream typically is something like this:
@TwitterPraiser: “Wow! @JohnDoe is soooooooooooooooo amazing at social media! God Bless You!”
or something to that affect.
Then, @JohnDoe retweets that tweet so that all of his followers will see the public praise and be in awe:
@JohnDoe: “RT @TwitterPraiser Wow! @JohnDoe is soooooooooooooooo amazing at social media! God Bless You! // Thanks man, you too! Social media rockzzzzzzzzz!
Ad nauseum (literally).
Thoughts?
I personally can’t stand this type of tweet for more than one reason. Something about it just bothers me. I don’t mind if someone retweets something funny or self-effacing or in the form of an obvious joke (sarcasm works too) but the overt and highly-dramatic praise-tweet is annoying.
Perhaps that’s just me. Let me have it in the comments…
Adam C. Erickson says
I personally cannot stand it either. There are numerous companies I stopped following because 90% of their tweets were just retweeting mentions of themselves. It comes across as very egotistical and really adds nothing to the conversation on Twitter. It’s just noise, and we already have far too much of that.
@realpb says
first.
agree with you jsad.
it’s sad. (and not in a good way – like j-sad)
David Burke says
Amen. The best is when the person retweeting their own praise “claims” to be humble. LOL. “When you think that you are humble you probably aren’t.” Great stuff on here. Thanks!
JayCaruso says
I wrote about this once (You claimed to be guilty of this! Haha) and the re-tweeting compliments is really lame. I said it comes with a caveat. If you and I had lunch and you tweeted how awesome I was, then I would re-tweet and on the back end return a compliment (particularly if it was like the first time we met. If you and @dewde were doing it now, I’d un-follow the both of you 🙂 )
But I can’t stand it when people just retweet a compliment they’ve gotten and just let it hang out there. “Look at me! Look at me!” They do that and no matter what their avatar is, I picture them looking like this guy:
http://tremendousnews.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/01/2883012011_b77b90bab9-1.jpg
Stacey says
No joke. Doesn’t the Bible say something about humility somewhere? Oh yeah, Philippians 2. What’s ironic is I taught on humility last Friday at our online Bible fellowship. I wish I had seen this earlier, it would have made a great illustration.
david says
agreed. imagine we told everyone verbally – “jon doe told frank doe that I rock and that my book is out of this world!” ya, weird
but if I was marketing, well, maybe – it’s such a blurred line in this social media thing
Maurilio Amorim says
I know someone who has re-tweeted his own tweet. Yep. That’s what I call a social media whore.
Adam Lehman says
Not whore…
but social media masturbation maybe….
Michael Hyatt says
I agree. It makes you wonder if narcissm is the new norm.
Michael Hyatt says
Oops, I meant narcissism.
Tom says
Forget fishing for compliments, I guess. We’re now putting compliments on a pedestal.
I honestly do wonder if people get the arrogance it exhibits and , if so, why are they okay with that?
Stacey says
Look at Peter in Matthew 18 when he tries to get a pat on the back from Jesus for being willing to forgive someone seven times (as opposed to the normative three times). My thought here is that some people want recognition from mankind that they are willing to forgo humility to do it. Retweeted compliments like this are just a new method of doing it.
Adam Lehman says
Stacey. great thought.
Also, +3 jesus points for using scripture.
Tyler says
YES! I totally agree. It drives me crazy. Makes me judge the person (which is wrong too).
The only space I see it moderately alright is with non profits who want others to know that their followers see value in what they do, but even then it is probably too much.
joanna says
I don’t mind if it is occasional and includes thanks for the compliment, but to do it often is a bit too narcissistic
Andre' Barnes says
Hey Joanna:
I argee with you. Just as long as it is not the ONLY way they tweet too! What happened to “Context over Content” Guys???
Adam Lehman says
I unfollow almost anyone who does this.
Graham Brenna says
I agree with you. Just rubs me the wrong way.
Donna Maria Coles Johnson says
I agree. But I am guilty of having done it, mainly because I saw other people in my field doing it. I never felt quite right about it so I stopped. It feels much better to simply thank the person in a private DM if they are following me, so that’s how I handle Tweeted compliments now.
Ben Cotten says
It irritates me when an individual does it, but I see no problem with a business or church doing it. I see it as no different than posting testimonials on your business website. Of course, that can go too far. If all that you are doing with your business or church twitter feed is retweeting praise then that’s stupid. I’m just saying that I think the rules are different for individuals as opposed to a business entity.
Katie says
I agree with everything said here. I do @ reply to say thank you. RT when complimented or mentioned by others is spammy.
Kirsten Lamb says
Totally agree with all previous comments. However, for tweeters who tout social networking as the hottest way to market themselves or their company, not RTing a compliment kind of makes their twittering efforts pointless. They’re in it for the publicity and building a fan base, not building relationships.
Ben Forsberg says
I completely agree that it is quite annoying. Pride, however veiled, is always annoying.