So I used the term “holistic” in reference to how I choose my diet and food. In this case, “holistic” means, according to Princeton, “emphasizing the organic or functional relation between parts and the whole”. What I mean is that I consider all of my various needs, like health, vitamins, satiation, happiness, effort, etc. I try to eat low-fat, whole-wheat as a rule, and have lots of veggies and fruits, and only one serving of meat a day. But because I used the term “holistic”, I now get some wacko naturopathic and homeopathic store following me. (Link here, which I’m not putting a href around: http://twitter.com/WellWire) I feel… oddly skeeved. This is a real problem, in two areas.

The first area is that the person just randomly started following me, completely ignoring the context of my use of the word, or who I am. They ignored the fact that I had never professed a single belief in homeopathy, or naturopathy or any such category of ‘woo’. I even mock the History Channel for such stuff. But of course, to sell these products, the guy using the word “holistic” is your exact target!

The other area is that they took no time to cultivate a relationship. Too many people just follow, and expect to be followed back. This is reminiscent of “reciprocal linking” back in the early days of Google. Webmasters expected that if they linked to you, you should link to them. It was just an obvious attempt at gaming the system, which is happening on Twitter as well. They didn’t send me a message. They didn’t say ‘Hi’, they didn’t… anything. Just clicked follow and moved on. What a way to sell! Make your customer feel like they’re just another notch on the bedpost. Its simply bad sales. You have to make the customer feel valued. Even just a few minutes the first couple of days would earn you a loyal customer.

But luckily, my posts mocking WellWire, and using the word Holistic, got me removed as someone they follow.