Thursday, March 5, 2015

What We Are Learning About "Cyber-Life," the Hard Way!


I awoke this morning and, as usual, checked our Twitter account, @DalmatProd. It's been the same routine for the last couple of months. Perhaps unlike a lot of Twitter accounts, we don't sell anything, we're not big stars. What we are is a group of good friends who have all been or still are in, emergency series, that have been working for over 20 years to bring a program to television that will faithfully represent the fire-rescue service. So why Twitter? Simply to get our name out and to posit our strong beliefs in fire and personal safety.

Way back when we started this endeavor, we decided on several tenets of our company:
1. We will answer every phone call or email.
2. We will always represent the fire-rescue with honor and professionalism.
3. We will always respect and honor the memory of those who came before us and those who paid the ultimate price to be a part of the fire-rescue service.

So when I checked our Twitter account this morning, there was a new follower. And now, in the much more complicated cyber world in which we live and communicate, we always try to respond and thank a new follower and return the favor by following them, if we're not already doing so. Thus, I send our "Thank You" tweet and clicked on her "Follow" badge. 

When I did, a browser pop-up appeared telling me that I've been restricted from following any more Twitter accounts. Why? Did I break the language rules? Did I libel another user? Perhaps I missed thanking a new follower? Nope, that's not it.

Twitter has certain rules that, since we all read the complete Terms and Conditions when signed up, says somewhere that I am at an imbalance between how many followers we have and how many we have followed! There is some sort of balance that Twitter requires as if our little company may tip the Twitter scales askew, throwing the entire system out of balance.

As I write this post, @DalmatProd has 178 followers and we're following 2,001. Would we like more followers? Absolutely! Are we promoting our Twitter account? Yes we are, in every way affordable at this time. All our letterhead, emails, etc., promote our account. All we can respectfully ask is that if you are a member of Twitter, please look us up at @DalmatProd and "follow us." If you already do, please tell your friends to follow us.
Thank you!

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