I just read a very nice note from an acquaintance/old friend on Facebook. It was one of those notes that had me nodding as I was reading it. It took me about two minutes and I was just about to close the tab on it.
I paused. ‘Why am I not telling him so?’ said a voice in my head
‘Why bother? Would it make a difference?’
‘What if you had been in his place? ‘
‘Touche. No excuses then.’
I spent an extra minute thinking about what I wanted to say and did. And at that moment, I realized how much of an effort contributing takes, particularly when you know the person.
A close friend of mine had an interesting theory about social media. We were discussing the modern ability of building followership thanks to blogs, twitter etc. His insight was that you can only do that if you have more new/online friend followers than existing friend followers. You will grow the moment the ratio tips.
Interesting, isn’t it?
His rational was that existing friends friends who like the content you create are less likely to do things that help your presence – retweet, comment, share, like etc. Essentially, existing friends are happier reading versus contributing. And that’s not only because it takes effort. There’s just some social baggage that tends to hold us back..
Today, I fully appreciated the wisdom behind his point. I also know that, even as a new/online friend, the switch to contributing was a tough jump.
And I thought I’d write in to let you guys know that I really appreciate the effort so many of you make to write about your meaningful experiences, learnings and stories in the comments. The past month or so has been a real treat with a few comments on every post and I work hard to make sure I keep up the commitment from my side too. Even on days like today when I’m behind on my email, I work to make sure that I have replied to every comment.
It’s my way of saying ‘I love you guys too!’ :-) And again, thank you. There are few things that equal the excitement of getting a reaction on something you share – your additional thoughts, points of views, criticisms, thank you’s – they all count!
I also thought about a note I received from a regular reader of this blog over the weekend. She mentioned that she always sets out to comment but is always stopped by company policy that makes Disqus/social media inaccessible. I bet she’s not alone. Thanks to those of you who write in every once in a while sharing your thoughts. Those emails never fail to make my day. (Of course, I’m hoping you guys will take your phone out and comment in the future.. haha.)
The final thought that came to mind was about the golden rule. We often think of the golden rule when we think of things we should not do. We shouldn’t do to others what we wouldn’t want done to us, after all.
I find that I very rarely think of it in terms of things I should do. And, like today, I found that that small question inspired a small change in behavior, a rush of gratitude and then the post for the day.
Must do more often.
A Learning a Day 