Thumbs down on the thumbs up emoji?
Is there a place for "thumbs up" on social media platforms?
I wanted to ask you an opinion on something that I’ve recently noticed while engaging followers on my social media platforms.
It involves the good ol' thumbs up symbol.
The other day I was catching up on my Linkedin connection requests, and had quite a few to go through.
As I was writing a “thanks for connecting, how can I serve you?” introductory email to each, some of these new connections contacted me via direct message.
Performance coaches, marketing managers, TEDx Speakers, and an author of 2 books - these are the types of thought leaders that were reaching out to me.
Yay, new people - my people - I was very excited to engage!
Normally, I end my introductory emails with a positive goodbye, something quick and simple, but, always with words.
About 70-75% of these folks followed up my goodbye with a “thumbs up” emoji, and left it at that.
For some reason, the “thumbs up” goodbye irked me and left a somewhat sour taste in my mouth.
I felt like I was being abruptly dismissed amid a sea of other activities in their lives, as if they ready to swiftly move on to their other tasks for the day.
I get that feeling, but still, it left me questioning how invested they are in getting to know me.
Don’t get me wrong, I love emoji’s (and thumbs up "likes," too).
If you take even 5 minutes to zip through my various social media platforms I use emoji’s to punctuate most of my engagement in my own posts, as well as others.
The key point here being that I leverage emoji’s to PUNCTUATE, not REPLACE my actual words and sentiments.
It’s the same philosophy I employ with image content - it punctuates and enhances my thought leadership, not replaces and renders it moot. And that line of thinking is what I preach to every client that sets foot in front of my camera.
With that in mind, here’s my question to you:
Am I crazy for feeling dismissed? Or, is this practice nothing more than the new etiquette for properly ending conversations while engaging on all social media platforms?
I’m open to hearing from all sides on this and appreciate your response!
PS - For those of you who aren’t in the know, I mail out these blogs 3x a week, and lemme tell you, they’re a real party, so, if you’d like to get in on this, sign up for it here and I’ll throw in a free gift for you...because I care, :)