Comments on: Can Social Media Give You an Overinflated Ego?

By: jamiefavreau

jamiefavreau — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 06:58:41 +0000

Great post. I don't get it but then I have never been the popular kid on the block either. I think there is a tipping point of street cred for some reason with a larger follower count. Does this make it right? No, probably not but maybe you are perceived as having a larger reach?

I am not sure. I lose people left and right due to me being real and having a never ending passion for the Detroit Red Wings.

Just remember who your real friends are because in the end they are the ones who are going to be there for you in the end.

By: ISTE 2010 – Reflecting on my Own Ego-driven Rant « The Construction Zone

ISTE 2010 – Reflecting on my Own Ego-driven Rant « The Construction Zone — Thu, 08 Jul 2010 13:05:53 +0000

[...] Dawn Foster in Can Social Media Give You an Overinflated Ego? [...]

By: Ike

Ike — Sat, 19 Dec 2009 02:05:06 +0000

Never underestimate the ability of shallow people to fill a void in their lives with something equally as vacuous.

By: Ike

Ike — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 21:12:05 +0000

There’s another impact you see with large followings, and that’s becoming “captive” to your audience.

There are many in the upper echelon of their niches who are burned out and have little new to say – they honestly need a break. But they are loathe to take one, for fear of “losing” that audience they had worked so hard to build.

If you find yourself beating your head, and straining ulcers because you absolutely MUST post something today, then you are a prisoner of your own following.

By: Tomboys

Tomboys — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 19:40:09 +0000

How can anyone possibly get an inflated ego over social media? Just the thought of that seems very silly to me.

By: Allen Mireles

Allen Mireles — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 15:30:26 +0000

Great post. However, the people who are vulnerable to ego-inflation-by-follower-or-fan numbers are probably also vulnerable to ego inflation offline as well. There are many people who are active in social media with huge numbers of fans and followers who are humble, sincere, well meaning and focused on providing value. I could name some of them but you’re probably already following them, reading them or working with them now. I don’t believe that because someone has a large number of fans or followers they are necessarily egotistical (although, I could also provide you with a list of those people–who are probably some of the ones that helped inspired this post).

An associated issue, I think, is the speed with which we tear people down in social media and the often vicious nature of these attacks. That would worthy of examination as well. It’s one thing to be candid, straight forward and even blunt in critiques and observations, but what I refer to are the posts and comments that are mean spirited and even hateful.

Social media done right (IMHO) adds value and shares insight. Unrelated to the numbers…perhaps in spite of them. Does it hurt any of us to be generous and even patient with each other? Here’s a thought: for 2010, we could try moving forward in that vein and celebrating the good work being done in social media–even from those with thousands and thousands of fans and followers.

;)

By: pdebois

pdebois — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 09:30:31 +0000

I like Marc’s point, because it’s an analytics approach. For websites, analytics gurus like Avinash have stated that few people come to a website to take the actions intended by the website owner. So it is no wonder that few Twitter followers mimic similar stats of disengaged, zombie traffic.

It is a bit wonderful to get more traffic for a blog, but the key is engaging the traffic enough to make a sale or sign a form.

By: Chris Franklin

Chris Franklin — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 08:50:51 +0000

You are telling it like it is, Marc.

By: zaibatsu

zaibatsu — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:21:52 +0000

Uhhhhh, I’m the guy with 96k followers.

I have a bit of an ego, okay huge ego.

But, it’s not because of my follower count on twitter. I’ve always been a bit over the top. Love me hate or hate me I try and talk to everyone. With that said, I see people with 1 million, 2 million and more followers and they just don’t get twitter. @Alyssa_Milano only has 500k followers, but she gets it. She fights for causes, talks to the normal twitter folk and is a really nice person.

I’ve recently dumped 40k spam/inactive followers, because it more about quality vs. quantity.

I was into the numbers game, but relationships and people are king in the twitterverse.

Like I said, I’m just a guy lovin’ social media.

By: Susan Scrupski

Susan Scrupski — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:06:13 +0000

Great post. Follower lists are not leading indicators of anything. I’ve been quoted often saying, “I deserve every porn star, PR flack, and motivational life coach I have.” Really, people. In 2010, I hope we all begin to get over ourselves.

By: Danny Brown

Danny Brown — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 04:04:53 +0000

What’s Twitter? ;-)

It’s a valid point, and I’ve seen way too many folks with an increased sense of importance for it to be just coincidence. Mind you, I do believe that most people bring their offline persona to the online space, so it makes you wonder what a lot of them are like away from their social spaces…

By: poorwebguy

poorwebguy — Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:20:12 +0000

Ego can be a major weakness. It’s possible to lead someone around or manipulate them through an overinflated ego.

By: marc meyer

marc meyer — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 22:16:17 +0000

Good post and dead on..here’s the reality as well and we’ll use twitter as an example. If you have 5000 followers, half of those are spam and only half of that half are actually utilizing twitter to any degree. take that half and multiply it times 1% and you get the amount of people that are actually reading your tweets in real time. the bottom line is there is nothing really there for your ego to stand on, regardless of what you claim to be in your bio…the cult of personality in social media is greatly over exaggerated..

By: Dave Semple

Dave Semple — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 20:41:45 +0000

I suspect that the inflated ego is required before one fully partakes of social media – especially if it’s twitter we’re talking about.

While it may not be so obviously phrased as thinking “Bugger me, I’m wonderful”, the implicit assertion in spreading one’s views so widely is the belief that these views are worth spreading – whether the subject under discussion is politics or poetry or one’s bowel movements.

By: Michael G. Hurston

Michael G. Hurston — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 19:25:15 +0000

Twitter and Facebook followers don’t really mean anything to me. I have significantly more followers and friends online that still don’t visit or read any of my websites…not really sure why they’re there honestly…they don’t comment on anythign I write either…

By: Casie

Casie — Thu, 17 Dec 2009 18:08:33 +0000

I feel like this is extremely common, especially in the search marketing and blogging arena.

The way I try to think of it is this, if I said to my friends or anyone in the general public really, “I have 15,000 followers on Twitter/subscribers to my blog/facebook friends/etc”…what would that mean? Absolutely nothing. I would probably get laughed at.