Being Internet Famous

I know most people who attended Fitbloggin are working on their recaps right now, but something else has inspired me and I need to write about that first.  (I'm not ready to write my recap anyway.  Too much to process still. I'll get to it later this week.)

Unlike many of the people who attended the conference, I was only there to "meet" my Internet friends for the very first time and get my fitness on.  Many of the attendees were there to promote themselves or learn how to promote themselves. That's not for me, and this weekend confirmed that.

Sure, I use the Internet for attention.  I'm an introvert who is also an attention-whore. I want people to pay attention to me, but on my terms, and I like that on the Internet I can get all that, plus there is no touching or eye contact involved.  But that's just me.  I don't have business cards for this blog.  I don't have a sponsor. I'm not part of any groups. I don't have a logo. I don't own a web page or have a fancy email address with my blog name in it.

Frankly speaking I find the whole concept of "celebrity bloggers" annoying.  I have unfollowed so many people becausee all they do is "Race Recap", "Product Review", and "Giveaway" posts.  I get nothing from that.  Well, maybe some of the race recap stuff is interesting, but if that is ALL someone post it's an unfollow too. 

(I don't know how to type out the rest of what is in my head without sounding mean.  Please, if what I am about to say applies to you, don't take offense to it, I mean no harm.  If it works for you, and makes you happy, that's great. Have fun with that.  It's not for me, and I'm just explaining why.)

I'm on the Internet because I like it here. I want others to like me and I want to relate with people who have common interest as me.  I don't need 6,000 followers on Twitter or 100 blog hits a day to feel good about myself. I mean, don't get me wrong, it would feel awesome to have that much attention...but I would only like if for a VERY short time before I became overwhelmed.

How do people even keep up with all that?  I barely have time to read my timeline as it is and I follow over 300 people.  How can someone keep up with the tweets of 6,000 people? And how can you even have relationships with those people? I like making connections, having discussions and interacting.  If you don't interact with me, I don't follow you.  And I don't follow people who annoy me.  I don't follow people just because they follow me. I mean, why should I? It's my Internet, I can do what I want with it, and I don't feel bad about that.  I also don't follow people with a large number of follower/follows.  (I make a few exceptions to that rule. I follow a few chefs, and a few bloggers who are generally interesting but don't interact with me but I don't interact with them so it's balanced out.)

I listened to a discussion about how to promote yourself online.  She mentioned some tips on how to get more followers. "Simple tricks to get yourself out there."  My thought on every single one: "Yep, I would unfollow you in an instant. That's annoying."  No, hashtagging every damn post doesn't help you.  No, mentioning brands won't get you noticed by me. Retweeting your daily blog post every hour will not get me to read it. Writing about a product you received for free (and probably begged for) and obviously will love does not get me to buy it.

I feel like a lot of the people out there that are promoting themselves because they want to be "Internet famous" are missing out on a lot of what the Internet has to offer.  They are also missing out on a lot of great people too.  If you want me to like you and follow you DO something that I like and interact with me.  Practice what you preach. Live your life and have fun with it.  Post about what you enjoy.  Make me laugh.  Make me think.  Share yourself honestly.  Be the person on the Internet who you are in person.   

Here is what I can promise to my devoted 12 followers of this blog and my 300 followers on Twitter:  I will not bombard you with hashtags unless I'm doing it to be funny.  I won't try to sell you anything I got for free and was paid to tell you about.  I might buy my own domain name and get a fancy logo. I will not get business cards for my blog/twitte account. I won't beg for followers.  I will follow you back if you actively participate in social media with me.  I will tell you honestly if you ask why I unfollowed you.  I will jump and giggle like a tween meeting Justin Bieber's mailman when we finally meet in real life.

And that my darlings is all I have to say about that....for now....

#LOVE #XOXO