There are a couple of folks I follow on Twitter because I genuinely want to hear what they have to say because they’re interesting and thought-provoking.

But, just recently, they’ve gone into sell, sell, sell mode and their pearls of wisdom are being drowned out by the constant din of their sales messages. It’s getting so bad that my finger now hovers over the ‘unfollow’ button whenever their latest update pops up.

The irony is that these peeps operate in different areas of marketing across the UK so they should know better. Maybe they’re using some new uber-marketing techniques to create so much noise that I can’t do anything online without being confronted by their marketing message? If so, they’ve succeeded.

But, that success has come at a price because from my perspective the online rapport has evaporated. I no longer look forward to seeing what they have to say, and care even less.

I don’t care what special offers they have today. I don’t care how many new business enquiries or followers they’re getting each day. I couldn’t care less what news they regurgitate without putting their spin on it.

I want the old them back. I want them to tell me interesting stuff again. I want them to enrich my life, brighten up my day and remind me again why I was such an ardent follower of them in the first place. I want to feel like I belong and be part of the banter of a two-way dialogue and not to be on the end of one-way sales broadcasting.

How do you tell people with big egos to pack it in and get back to being good at what they do?