The more “important,” the more engaging

In 2011, I went to the Verizon store to swap my AT&T iPhone 4 for a Verizon iPhone 4. The sales person got pushy. “But did you know this Motorola has a better camera? It has a swappable battery! It’s cheaper and easier to use.” He pitched me on CPU and GPU power, screen size, and expandable storage.

The sales pitch and pushiness was annoying.

That afternoon, I emailed sjobs@apple.com with the subject line “Verizon Needs Help.” In the morning, I had a response in my inbox. “Thanks” it read. Tim Cook was CC’d. Later that afternoon, I received an email from Verizon’s COO apologizing for my in-store experience.

I’ve only been back on Twitter for a month, but one thing I’ve already noticed: the more “important” somebody is, the more likely they are to engage and respond to me as an internet nobody.

Paul Graham, Ken Beck, DHH, Jason Calacanis, Mark Normand and others have all responded to tweets I’ve sent.

And I’ve also noticed the inverse. The people who smell like they’re yearning for a blue check mark? Crickets.

People try to emulate other successful people. Sometimes, this means guessing that “successful people don’t have the time to talk to people with less than 100 followers.” And then they mimic this imagined behavior.