To retweet or not to retweet – that is the question

We all know that Twitter is the hottest thing these days since Britney Spears shaved her head. You don’t have to tell us twice how valuable and important being in the social media space is for an individual, brand, or company.
We also all know that there are a lot of people out there getting it all wrong. We’ve seen it before – the guy who follows 26,000 people who just followed you that claims to be a “marketing guru” or “social media expert.” The DMs or tweets that say “Get 10,000 followers in three days if you click here!” Or even worse – the auto-DMs that say that very same thing.

The other day, I was perusing my Tweetdeck stream like I usually do, when a tweet caught my eye. Here goes:

Let’s take a moment to assess the situation. This guy, who follows 7,400 but is only followed back by 7,100, is an “internet marketing coach” and “social media consultant.” Those terms crack me up when all one needs to do to become a “social media consultant” is read everything Mashable has ever written.

But seriously, he will teach us EXACTLY what to say on Twitter? While I appreciate his enthusiasm to show others the way, it baffles me that people need to be taught what to say. Yes, there are things to learn when it comes to Twitter language and establishing your voice. There are even studies out there about what phrases and words statistically become retweeted more often than others. Fast Company just put something out the other day that was a good read. But to tell someone EXACTLY what to say takes away from the entire purpose of establishing one’s brand or voice in the social media space. You are no longer authentic and true; you are essentially a robot and just want more followers. You lose the value of staying true to yourself or your brand and tweet solely for the sake of tweeting.
So to all you “marketing gurus” and “Twitter specialists” out there: next time you position yourself in the marketplace to help people with social media, how about actually helping them and teaching them how to re-purpose their established voice for the land of Twitter and then let them take the reigns?