The Tyler Hayes

DISCLAIMER: I am very blunt, sorry if it offends you!  I don’t try to be crass, just informative, albeit opinionated.  The examples I used in this article are just that, examples!  All the names I’ve mentioned are friends (or at least acquaintances) and I respect them all highly, so please don’t think this article is an excuse to bash.

This rant mostly has to do with Twitter and Digg, though any social media practictioners or observers might gleem a thing or two.  The title can be read more than one way, so let me clarify what I’m getting at right away: I think people promote themselves too much. It’s too easy for us to promote ourselves too much.

I’ve been thinking lately (that’s the first sign of trouble).  Mostly, I’ve been thinking way too much about all the constant promotion and self-promotion we do on Twitter/Digg/other social media sites.  A perfect example came up today regarding a new interview with a very popular designer (”Designer A”) on Twitter by another great designer (”Designer B”).

Even though I retweeted the link right away and I dugg the link right away as well, I’ve counted easily over a dozen more retweets and have receieved more than one email “shout” (Digg’s sharing system) from multiple people (sometimes more than once from the same person) asking me to retweet/Digg the interview.  An example of the RT:

RT @DesignerB: PLEASE HELP! Digg this article http://tinyurl.com/xxxxxx great tips from one of design’s biggest Twitterers.

This brings up two points:

1. It would be nice if there were a system to filter if we’ve already tweeted or dugg something, but that’s for another post.
2. It’s way too easy for our self-promotion and promotion of others to get out of hand.

So, let me ask you an introspective question: Why do you Digg?  No, REALLY, why do you Digg/Twitter/etc.?  I’m not talking about the normal levels of participation which most users take on, I’m talking about those users who choose to forget courtesy (let me be clear, those people are NOT the designers I mentioned above, again that is just to exemplify how easy it is to retweet, shout on Digg, etc.).

Questions to ponder before you share more than once:

• Why do you promote yourself so much?  No, really, why?
• Was your first tweet/shout/whatever not enough?
• Does the content you’re sharing really merit that much attention?
• Do you think that people aren’t smart enough to judge your content when they first see it?

Let me point something out:

• If you retweet, you do it for a reason.  It’s either a) to help yourself look better and more resourcesful, or b) to help others, through which you make your self look better and more resourceful.
• We all have a tendency to get caught up, it’s human nature.  We designers/nerds/geeks/you/me especially have this problem, as the Web provides a constant stream of new things.
• You may not be as special as you think.  I’m not trying to be mean, just realistic.  You DO have the right to tweet your opinions, but you don’t have the right to annoy others and clog up their Twitter and Digg inboxes.

It’s NOT a bad thing to help yourself (especially not others), it can often be a good thing.  Also, tweeting the same thing more than once is perfectly acceptable, as long as you have patience and space out the tweets.  Use your best judgment here, sometimes hours are OK, but sometimes weeks are better.

My point is this: we all (myself included) need to start exercising a little more common sense and etiquette on these new services.  As my grandpa says, “If I’ve said it once, I’ve said it a million times”: the Internet has morals and ethics, too.  It’s a good chance those morals and ethics are similar, if not the same, as the real world.