People like being noticed, it’s true. No matter how shy or humble we are, we like it when other people notice us. I know this for a fact.
When I used to work in downtown San Francisco I would walk from the train station to my office and there were days when I just wondered if I was on point. On point with my outfit, on point with my do… Just generally, on point.
Well, with everyone else around me laser-focused on getting to the office or getting to the nearest coffee shop for their morning jolt it was hard to get feedback from the other busy professionals.
However, there were different routes I could take to get from the train station to my office and one of them was up a street where there was perpetual construction and just generally a lot of people (who apparently didn’t need to, have to, or want to get to a desk job in some office somewhere in corporate America) loitering around.
So on the days that I needed a boost of self-confidence I’d walk up that particular road to get to my office.
I know the feministas out there will probably despise me for saying that I did this but I did do it, so there…
I did it because I knew I’d get feedback from the construction workers and loiterers, and let’s face it, sometimes a girl just needs to know that she’s looking good from someone who doesn’t feel obligated to say it because they love her. That was my fix and I loved getting it every now and then.
Recently my friend Jared Easley wrote a book called Podcasting Good to Great: How to Grow Your Audience Through Collaboration and one of things he talked about in the book (and had actually told me about even before he wrote the book) was the power of noticing people and being a “noticer”.
“Noticing” is such a powerful concept, being that everyone likes to be acknowledged.
One of the things I like most about Twitter (though I was a long time holdout) is that it’s so easy for me to notice my Etsy people. There’s a lot of noise out there when it comes to being seen on Etsy and being heard on Twitter so one of my favorite things to do is to notice other Etsyians.
It has fast become a favorite pastime of mine to troll around on Twitter and Etsy looking for shops to shine 
the light on. It brings me joy to give other people joy by noticing them and acknowledging them in the midst of the maddening crowd.
Try it sometime…
Yes, it might seem counterintuitive to what the purpose of Twitter may be i.e. getting your thoughts and opinions heard and noticed by others, but for me, it has made my time on Twitter much more worthwhile.