That the lower case ‘n’ and the lower case ‘h’ can look almost the same, to a not quite awake proof-reader’s not fully open eyes can be a curse or a blessing. The thing is, it was intended as a joke. The fact that I mis-spelled Holly Jahangiri‘s name in the tweet I got 20 folks on an Empire Avenue mission to tweet, in the opinion of some just made it funnier. I set out to see how many of the Empire Avenue folks who took my 1,000 eaves would send out this tweet for me:
@HollyJanangiri I DO believe in #prunebutt. (@libdrone made me say it!)
Those who know Holly may recognize that Prunebutt is a character on her blog, sort of in the way I am trying to make Mr. Everything (and still to come Ms. Efficiency) characters on this blog. Folks like my friend Liz (get that Hello World post down so I can link to your blog, Liz!) who know what they are doing on Twitter quickly realized that with her name mis-spelled @HollyJanangiri is not a real Twitter handle. For some folks, like my buddy Hank, the fact of the typo (which I publicly admitted as soon as Liz pointed it out to me) made the joke even funnier.
As with most everything I do, there really is a lesson here for folks who are trying to promote their B (blog, business, bullshit, buns, whatever). And the lesson is of course, humor sells. I set up this mission so that in order to fulfill it folks had to actually copy and paste what I wrote; the click through went to My twitter profile where some of the folks who clicked it followed me. I gave away 1,000 eaves to 26 users and fully 19 of them posted that exact tweet. A twentieth user modified the tweet to use Holly’s actual name and handle. And one of the first 19 posted a follow up tweet with the name and handle corrected. Given that it required more action that just clicking, that I got a completion rate of almost 77% seems fantastic to me. That folks will probably Still be laughing over this little episode after this post is published is a bonus.
So if you are trying to promote something (such as yourself) in the world of social media, try to always remember you could do a lot worse than going for a laugh.
Libdrone's Thoughts and Musings 
You’re getting many miles off of the promotion! I am LOL’ing as a read this post! Of course, it’s what we’ve come to expect from you Alan, you are truly a wordsmith.
Wordsmith . .. hmmm that word doesn’t work for me though, prolly because I suck at writing, I think I shall deem you . . .Doctor Word. Because not only do you help to maintain the health of words but you also heal the words that have been stricken ill from miss-use !
Yeah, that’s it! Take it from a non-writer and seldom reader, lol.
lol, Hank. I’d be happy to be called a wordsmith. It is I believe a classic and honorable appellation for one who writes.
Your backgrounds always make me hungry
hee hee. Maybe I should get a job selling desserts 🙂
I was not part of the 23% non-completion rate of your previous mission! Love the background1
Thanks so much for stopping by Eleisia. And no worries, I think everyone who creates missions realizes they will never get a 100% completion rate.
My first time reading you, will have to follow more. Thank you
Thanks so much for stopping by, Gayle.
Haha, I’m numbingly incurious sometimes, I never clicked on the handle. I only found out about her real name when she started following me yesterday.
I, for one, have embraced our new prunebutt overlords.
I’m honestly not sure how much or how little I am a slave to My muse (whom _I_ would never call Prunebutt). The character works very well for Holly, though, and I frankly admit that it was her relationship with Prunebutt that gave me the ideas for Mr. Everything and Ms. Efficiency.
Wise man. Best not to get on @prunebutt1’s bad side. (I blame Alan for the fact that the angry dust bunny even has a Twitter account, now – he was happily snarking away under the bed with the more benign dust bunnies and hadn’t even discovered the Internet until y’all invoked his name like Beetlejuice.)
He says, “Tell Ryanz to stop kissing my dust bunny fanny and go write something. Or take a pitcher, but that’s a different Muse and I couldn’t be bothered.”
::shudder::
Well, just between us Holly, I will confess that I created MY characters because I realized that I was not capable of Not talking about them and that making them characters in My story was far better than well, any other alternative I could conceive of.
don’t get it, must be a language barrier
I’m so sorry my writing just doesn’t seem to work for you, Elza. (I’d understand if you stopped visiting and trying to read me.)
Wow, Alan, that’s hilarious work! Was there any response from someone using that Twitter handle? LOL! Good deal for 77% follow through 😉
Glad I was able to return the chuckle to you, Nakeva 🙂 I have been pleased and amazed at how easy Missions have made it to drive traffic and comments to this new blog.
I doubt there IS anyone by that handle, but I can only imagine @prunebutt the imposter’s reaction if he ever logs onto Twitter again. Prunebutt is not pleased that he has to be @Prunebutt1 – I told him that meant he was #1 and he told me to go suck a vacuum hose.
What a twist.. LOL Thanks for sharing! Good to know and to keep in mind..
Thanks so much for stopping by, Alex. Hope your week is going well.
Great post. Thanks!
Thanks for sharing, and, yes, great background
Thanks. I’m on a secret mission to get people to eat their desserts 🙂
Hmm… advancing the cause of Diabetes, are we?
Me and Ms. Paula Deen, Prunebutt.
Thanks for the update – interesting stats – my mission complete rate stay 80% plus without humor – straight direction + simple tasks + 1,000e
Silly humans. Nice cover, Libdrone – a little reprise of the “I meant to do that!” meme? Nobody’s buying it, of course. They’re just too polite to point and laugh and say, “Joke’s on you!”
Holly JaHaNgiri – It’s “photograph,” not “pitcher.” If you must put words in my mouth, at least make them tasty, crunch, and properly seasoned with the right letters. Didn’t your fourth grade teacher teach you anything about properly quoting and citing sources?
Now, if you don’t mind, it’s a cold and rainy morning. I’m going back to sleep. In some author’s warm, abandoned bed. To dream of redlining her pathetic scribbles with her own Red Pen of Death. I feel a sneeze coming on. You might wish to stand back; ever see what happens when a dust bunny sneezes?
Oh dear. Holly told me I had beetlejuiced you into existence. This may get sticky.
“Sticky” is one thing an angry dust bunny can do without! I prefer “fuzzy” or “snarled,” myself.
mmmm. It seems to me that “sticky” is the main way products like Swiffer allow folks to rid themselves of dustbunnies like you, Prunebutt 🙂
Silly Swiffer-uppers. Your little lint catchers are no match for the fuzzball.