Ditch the Pied Piper
May7Written by:
2010/05/07 08:13 AM 
I’m sure you all know the story of the Pied Piper. The Pied Piper of Hamelin is the subject of a legend concerning the departure or death of a great many children from the town of Hamelin, Germany, in the Middle Ages.
Whatever the truth behind the legend is we can learn a great many things from this story. One of which I would like to point out.
In the story of the Pied Piper, you have what might be termed a Charismatic Influential Leader and a bunch of unsuspecting innocent followers. Followers who eventually met their death.
What's that got to do with Blogging and Social Media you may ask. Well just think for a while. How many people in the Blogoshpere, Social Media world have large amounts of followers. How many people are you following. The question that you need to ask is why are you following these people.
I can only speak from my experience and my opinion on this matter. But my gut feeling is that we should ditch some of these so called famous and influential people we are following.
Don’t follow because everyone else is following
One of the worst thing you can do is follow someone because everyone else you know is following him. learn from the pied piper. The crowd is never always correct. The problem is the bigger the crowd the more people follow and the bigger the crowd gets. It’s a never ending circle. Ditch The Pied Piper.
What are you getting out of it?
Why are you following Joe Soap? What benefit is there in following Sally Shampoo? Is it because you have an interest in cleaning materials?
What I hate is people who just want to sell me something and all they do is advertise, market and spam. I want to follow someone who can help me and someone who has something of value to offer.
Follow because you have something to offer
Too many times we do not engage those whom we follow. There is no interaction. We follow them, subscribe to their RSS feeds but that's as far as it goes.
Don’t think that you cannot offer ‘the greats’ something. Get involved with people who not only can offer you something of value but who you believe will benefit from your skills and expertise.
Follow a leader
Yes we have all heard this before, but we fail to act upon this advice. Not many people who have a great following are great leaders. They have just stirred the crowd up into a frenzy. Perhaps they are like the Pied Piper who has some magical flute that they use to put their followers into a deathly trance.
A leader leads by example. He has no need for gimmicks and fancy words. The world is littered with false leaders. History shows us the mayhem that will follow if we bow down to them.
Follow to take over
One of the best reasons you can have to follow someone is to take over their role one day. To become a leader in your own right. To learn from them so that you can enhance and better not only your blog or website but yourself.
Learn from those who you follow. Keep their good points and throw away the bad. Your goal should be that one day you will have a following like them. That you will benefit and be of help to those who follow you.
One day you will not only take over the role of your leader, but as a leader you will be ten times better.
Conclusion
Following someone for the sake of following is so wrong. Clean up your act. Throw out the old and weary and that which has no benefit to you.
Then strive to become better than those who you look up too.
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