There is a man I have huge respect and admiration for. Not sure why because I know very little about him, other than what is published on his own blog site. Then something happened, and I felt betrayed and abandoned. He unfollowed me on twitter. Ouch.


Why did it hurt so much? Simple really: in the past nine months have I have become self-absorbed in a world of social media and deranged sense of ambitious self-discovery thinking that social media would save my self-purpose and self-esteem. It had become important to follow people, be a member of this group, a fan of that person. And I wanted to be followed.

To be rejected by a simple unfollow, is tantamount to being dumped by text message. As I dug deeper and reflected on this I realised the opposite (I was sent this link by the same guy http://www.bluegrassromance.com/twitter-reset/ which did help explain things). This unhealthy obsession to be popular with infinite strangers is a peculiar function of the Web 2.0 world that now reverberates around our lives. I needed to be set free of this. Being unfollowed has liberated me.

Focus on the things that will make a difference. I am no Lance Armstrong – his use of twitter could change the world. I blog badly, tweet inconsistently, and suck at Facebook. So they mustn’t be my core competencies, I guess. As a consequence this may be my last blog, ever. Or this may be where my blogs just get better. But I’m not going to obsess over who’s following me, or who wants to be my friend, or who I need to follow to build up my numbers. And I’m certainly not going back to online gambling (another function of being made redundant last July [Harvey Smith wave to SSE plc]).

This big guy better move on. I’m middle-aged for fuck’s sake. I’d better start doing what counts. Nurture the relationships I have and cherish.

Thank you for liberating me.

Turns out that after three interviews I didn’t get a VP role in a high profile company that was looking for an interim manager for six months . Limited feedback, only to say that I was more IT than software development, and that they were not sure if my management style would be a good fit. Interesting, seeing as I understood it to be a senior role where detail was not the key driver (or so I was briefed...). After three interviews where the rapport was good it is hard to understand what it is about my style they don’t like. I won’t ponder over that for too long, but I will reflect on Seth Godin’s blog of yesterday:

Craftsmanship
Find a calling and then deliver.
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as Michelangelo painted or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.’” – Martin Luther King, Jr. HT to Andy.

(BTW that is what I call inspirational blogging – only six of the words are his own!)

I wrote a short blog on Christmas Day (read it here http://url.ie/4fjs ). It wasn't meant to offend, but it has received a lot of flack (read the comments!). In fact I have just re-read it and it is quite inoffensive. If anything it pays respect to Jon Morter and his campaign and the good it did. Jon actually replied to me on Twitter, and did not seem fazed by my blog. So it seems that some of his Facebook campaign's followers take it a little bit more seriously than he does.

Guys, this is all about Market Forces. The market will decide, and has decided what will be No1, the leader, the best product, or whatever. Marketers have known this for decades – that is why they have marketing! The X-Factor, Cowell, SyCo, ITV are huge marketing machines. Jon Morter proved that Facebook is also a huge marketing machine. The marketing machine(s) influence the Market Forces. The Market Forces decide the outcome.

In fact, when Jon was on BBC's Breakfast he himself said that Joe McElderry would have the number one spot for the New Year. The consequence was that the forces of the market made it so.

So here we are Christmas Day. Great stuff going on around me all day. Watching the clock so to put on the TV for Top of the Pops – because that is the Christmas tradition. We already know that X-Factor finalist didn’t make the No 1 spot, but that shouldn’t stop it from being the one hour of TOTP a year that we enjoy.

Jon Morter’s Facebook campaign was an interesting one and his short-lived point was successfully made. But has he ruined Sony BMG? Has he ruined Simon Cowell? Has he ruined Joe McElderry’s future career? No, no, and definitely no! If anything Morter has succeeded in boosting the fortunes of the first two, as record sales were boosted for both sides of the race through his Facebook campaign. As for Joe, he loses out on the coveted accolade of a Christmas No 1, but will probably be No 1 for the New Year. He is already no1 in Ireland. He won’t earn any more or any less, because that’s how this machine works. Rage Against The Machine probably won’t make any money out of this either – they probably sold or mortgaged all future rights to their back catalogue years ago.

So who is the winner here and what’s the point? Morter’s point was to scupper the X-Factor’s assertion that it can produce a Christmas No 1. Well he succeeded there, but that’s where it ends. You don’t have to hold the number one spot to be successful or make money, it’s the total weeks in the charts and more importantly total sales that count (ask Robbie Williams about his best selling hit Angels!). UK charity Shelter is a winner - £64,000 raised for their benefit through the campaign. Fair enough.

The real winner has to be Facebook - the power of social networking to influence consumer behaviour being admirably demonstrated. Viral marketing spreading the message abundantly, getting serious airtime.

And, even with my unrefined and unmannerly affection for punk, hard rock, and rap, The Climb is the better song.

30th DECEMBER UPDATE:

Joe McElderry is No1 in the UK Top 40 for the New Year!