Last week, the the hot topic in Finnish Twitter has been #digitalistgate. The discussion in short went like this: in his tweet, Antti K. called stuff shared with #digitalist hashtag as nonsense articles. Viille T. who is hosting the hashtag replied with underrating “you are some wordpress star from nowhere”, “with your 300 followers” and “you seem to be quite simple.” Verbal cross word might have ended here, unless Ville T. threatened to call to Antti K’s boss. The consultant’s communication seemed completely out of control, even though he is supposed to be a professional. What went wrong?
The net was supposed to democratize the debate. Now we know that is not necessarily the case. However, we must at least try to take on an equal attitude towards debaters. The claims should be refuted with arguments not on grounds of person or amount of followers.
Marketing and brand building has long been a increasing nuisance on Twitter. It seems that behind this particular gate is also a heavy brand guarding. Fortunately, Twitter conversations and hashtags can not be private property.
On the other hand, in social media you shouldn’t be oversensitive. Not everyone will see things from the same point of view or take you as seriously as you self. Criticism comes, and some comments should just be ignored. In this case, though, the online expert just keeps digging away. It”s a grave mistake.