Writers Love Bob, But Hate Dick, Are You Grower or a Shower?

Thanks for that retweet, Dick

[Warning: Dicks and the faint of heart may find the following offensive] We all love a great retweet, especially by Dick- you know, that guy/gal who strives to influence you using social media? Their reasoning really doesn’t matter, but it makes Dick feel so good to share loads of information with you they’ve pilfered from the internet- no, not information they’ve created, compiled, and presented on their own, but instead, your work, your efforts, and your product. That’s really nice of Dick to share the love, but what has Dick really done that contributes anything? Nothing unless the definition of influencer is feed reader.

I’ve been watching Dick on Twitter share and share, and following the links they’ve shared, but never is there a comment from Dick! Dick sometimes even bitches and moans in public about your content and then goes out of his way to ignore your thought origination and subsequently creates flaccidly written articles on the topic without attribution.  What’s so influential about that? Did Dick do anything influential? No, Dick didn’t. It’s like Dick just gave it the ol’ in and out!

Bob’s influence is bulging

Bob on the other hand retweets very little, maybe one or two retweets a day, and when I click through, what do I see? Bob bulging with information in comments, asking questions, and sharing experiences and sometimes mixing it up, what Bob is doing is being influential by adding girthy value.

Bob typically has few followers (normally less than 1,000), knows most of his followers, and can often name their blog and their topics, Bob actually cares about the conversations he/she seeks to influence, he even demonstrates his prowess on the same subjects and links to the content he’s shared, expounding on thoughts and ideas- impressive moves, Bob!

Statistically speaking, growers are cooler than showers, and much more inspirational to other Bobs and growers. In fact, a single reaction from Bob can leave other Bobs and growers excited to grow the conversation even more!

In 2010, let’s hope we see more Bobs and less Dicks, because influence has nothing to do with size.