Let’s be honest, us “social media experts” are a bit arrogant. We work in a world that has been around for years, but is seemingly new to most, giving us a certain level of commendable expertise that few others have. We also collectively truly do create the fate and reality of companies in our space – without our input and sometimes quiet guidance of behavioral do’s and don’ts, most social networks die quickly.  There’s a certain amount of applaud and “thank you” that those of us who work actually monetizing social media for clients deserve from the “others” that simply get to goof off all day on Facebook for free.

But on the other hand, we certainly are a snitty bunch with overinflated egos and attitude problems.

Hang out on Twitter for a few hours after you’ve (thankfully) gained more than a few followers and you will begin to see the true community that drives this micro-blogging site and makes it truly hum.  It’s like an electronic high school really – with the differences in class and caste, and the behaviors and uses of Twitter vary with each subgroup. Oddly enough, most of the “social media experts” that write books on the subject (read: get paid to speak, not to actually have ever managed social media for a client) tend to spend most of their tweets sharing quotes and news stories.  The celebrities are split into two groups: ones that say really mundane things that we adore like reading People Magazine and the ones that attempt to use it as a platform for social change (yet don’t follow anyone back.) Most of the companies on Twitter are talking at you in a way that is basically an advertising bastardization of this social tool. The “professionals” seem to think that passing along news articles all day long is the sole use of Twitter – and sadly most of them are about 3 hour behind everyone else.  The MLM crowds spam you constantly and create one or two fake “real tweets” between spam to fool people. (Who? I’m not sure.)

And then there are the nerds.

The nerds (I use the term fondly,) are the ones that I believe are the real social wizards. They are the “social media experts” more so than the aforementioned authors. Many of them log more hours than anyone else on Twitter. A great many of them are doing valuable client work, creating the tools we use in social media every day, and forging this industry. They connect all hours of the day and handle multiple streams of consciousness and conversation at any given time while juggling work (we hope.) And they all consider themselves the rulers of Planet Twitter.  Often times, you see them fighting for title of king much like beauty queens – tearing everyone down in their path publicly (while acting under the guise of being “helpful”) in order to make themselves stand out and seem more crown worthy.

Pay attention. You’ll see tweets like “take your chatter to direct message” or “why are you telling me what you ate for breakfast?” You will find instances of people publicly ridiculing someone for not using a URL shortener, cursing, sharing promotions, and tweeting while drunk. And they aren’t just shouting their opinion, they are frequently adding to their beating words like “you can’t do that” or “you aren’t supposed to do that” or “you’re using Twitter wrong.”

The reality is that there isn’t really a wrong or right way to use Twitter. We all have our opinions on the subject. (I personally believe that if you aren’t having any two-way conversation on Twitter, then you aren’t being social and therefore likely not optimizing the tools power.)  But those that hang out the most control the reality – and they want you to know so. There’s no official rule book, use book, or directive from Twitter (like there is on Facebook with regard to Fan pages, etc.) telling you what to do with the tool. It’s the reason most major media still have no clue about the sub communities and what really happens with active Twitter users (yet they all have accounts now so they can talk at us – occasionally.)

I believe some of the angry banter is the cyber equivalent to heckling, and some of it is truly arrogant overstepping from some that somehow think there are official rules of engagement and that they are assigned to police the tool. I see a lot of it coming from people that in ‘real’ life would never speak up to anyone. I also see a lot of it come from people that in my own opinion aren’t very adept in social – on or offline. But at the end of the day – it’s the collective crowd of active users that do create and manage the community, which includes the bylaws and social etiquette rules. It’s the beauty of social media, really. But, the next time someone tells you that you’re using Twitter wrong, remind them that they aren’t the ruler of your world (or of Twitter) and to back off. (Or, shove them in a locker.)

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