Laugh At Yourself and Connect With Your Twitter Followers

Twitter is a social media outlet that connects all types of people from around the world. With little 140 character excerpts of our lives, we are able to give a little bit of light into our world and what we do on a daily basis. So the situation arises…if you are not marketing a blog post, ebook or some other form of online expression…what the hell do you say?

I tried something out the other day that had fantastic results, so…like any good blogger…I have to share the experience.

Every now and then, I like to tell on myself. You know as well as I do that no one is perfect. There are times where we look back what what we have done during the day and thought…”what was I thinking?!” And at that point, you just have to laugh at yourself.

I have always held true to the idea that you are not allowed to laugh at someone else if you can not laugh at yourself…and that is where this story starts. Wednesday morning, I woke up to find out I was out of deodorant. I had the option of scratching myself up on what was left on the stick of Old Spice High Endurance (sounds STRONG doesn’t it?), or I could use my wife’s nice smelling “made for a woman, but strong enough for a man” stuff. I bit the bullet and used my wife’s.

About half way through the day…I realized that I still smelled like a girl. I had been messing around on Twitter all morning and thought…it is time to tell on myself a little bit and see if anyone notices. In a nice little blast out into the Twittersphere, I typed the following line:

Not going to lie. I smell like a girl today. Ran out of deodorant and had to use my wife’s.

When you throw lines out on Twitter like this…it really gives you an idea on who is listening. The responses were hilarious! In all reality, it was some of the most fun I have had on Twitter to date and it was at my own expense!

Here were some of the responses from my @robbsutton account.

  • LOL – I needed that. Just don’t run out of clean underwear. 😉
  • dont worry, I’ve also done that b4
  • That sounds humbling.
  • lol so u smell like lavander !!! Nice
  • Just admit that you like the smell of your wife’s deodorant! 🙂

And some responses from my @mtbby198 account. (remember…this a 99% cycling based crowd):

  • You didn’t shave your legs too, did you? 🙂
  • been there!
  • Shave your legs and I’ll buy you dinner!
  • He already shaves his legs… Roadie
  • Strong enough for a man!

As you can see form the sampling, I got a great response from ripping myself a little bit and it actually opened up some conversation with Twitter followers I hadn’t really conversed with on a more personal level yet.

By stepping outside the normal “social media” box and showing that you are actually human, you are able to connect with people and bring more of yourself into your web adventures. I know I’ll end up making fun of myself some more after this little experiment.

Have you ever ripped yourself on Twitter or found another “out of the box” way to connect with followers?

Slightly Embarrassed Image by Jayel Aheram

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11 comments

James@BicycleDesign November 6, 2009 - 9:00 am
Ha, ha...it is funny to see which tweets end up generating the most responses. For me, it is not always the ones that I expect.
Robb Sutton November 6, 2009 - 9:59 am
Same here James. Thing I think people will latch onto...often don't and then off the wall just random stuff will take off like wildfire...it's crazy!
Elie Kochman November 6, 2009 - 9:42 am
I was amused by your post - I guessed which one you were referring to before you said it. You need to be able to laugh at yourself, and others will laugh along with you.
Robb Sutton November 6, 2009 - 10:01 am
Thanks Elie! Did it again last night. I came down to spend some time with my wife and she asked me to make her some hot chocolate. My mind was racing about a new idea I had so I ended up putting an empty cup in the microwave for 2.5 minutes. There were some funny responses to that one too!
Rhys November 6, 2009 - 10:09 am
I've noticed this too! I think it shows that even huge massive big make money online probloggers are human at the end of the day. Hell, I connect better with people who post about sport (me and this fairly successful affiliate marketer usually end up talking about the football & bitching about each others teams) Blogging is people driven, at the end of the day, if you're yourself (and can have fun with it), you'll connect with people :)
Srinivas Rao November 7, 2009 - 10:54 am
Rob, That's pretty funny. I think authenticity when blogging is really an important thing (thanks, that's my next blog post :)). What is amazing is that sometimes we hide behind our computers and write, yet the human side of us doesn't come out. I've noticed that people really want to know what's going on with us and this is proof.
Robb Sutton November 7, 2009 - 10:09 pm
Great idea for a post! One of the great things about blogging vs. a standard website filled with information is the personal aspect. It creates a community around the site through honesty.
Mike November 7, 2009 - 12:18 pm
I do the same thing....when I forget to turn on my coffee maker or try to get the coffee filters out of the microwave instead of the cabinet...I tweet about it. It's been a great way to get talking to other people outside of the usual circle I tweet with.
Robb Sutton November 7, 2009 - 10:09 pm
That is what I have found to be the greatest asset too...connecting with people that I haven't in the past.
alaJoAnn December 23, 2009 - 1:53 am
Amusing post, especially the reactions. Good example of how fun spurs interaction.
C.A. Simmons August 3, 2010 - 12:45 pm
So so true! lol. Some of my best conversations on Twitter have been as a result of me ripping on myself or an @reply to someone else. Out side of sharing links, I now try to have like a 60/40 mix of personal stuff to promotional stuff ratio. Maybe I can get that to 70/30 but I'll master getting this 60/40 thing down first.
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