Who are You Following?

Part of what I do for a living is consult with Small, Big, and Individual clients on “On Line Reputation” and Management, my job is to have eyes and ears everywhere in the Social Media world and various platforms and to investigate-vet for the credibility, integrity, authenticity of profiles-people-companies.

I recently shared an article by Percy Lipinski who talks about his time of working for CNN as a ICNN reporter and being there when a ICNN Reporter bought $$$ hundreds of thousands of fake views and what that did to the moral of other ICNN Reporters and how CNN dealt with it etc…  I also had the honor of interviewing him on the subject matter as well which was quite fascinating.

As I get numerous emails from my Social Media Tribe,  my staff, the people I have investigating and vetting for me, I thought I would share some tips.  I will NOT be calling out or naming individuals yet, instead giving you tips on what to look for and what to avoid.  At the end of the day whom you associate with, within Social Media not only affects You and Your brand…. It also affects your friends, associates and those around You.  Your Ripple Effect -think of it this way, if You are friends with and are commenting on a person’s wall who is sharing false information, doing black hat tactics to drive their social media scores up, or scamming people, Your tribe, Your friends then because they TRUST You, will then also like, recommend and or do what that person is doing too!

Example:  I recently had a client who saw someone they knew and trusted, then liked and commented on a post from someone who claimed that if you disconnected your Klout Account and then contacted Klout and complained your Klout score was too low that they would bump your Klout score by 10 points.  The person’s post was claiming that they could TEACH You how to get your Klout score up by 10 points within up to 72 hours. (Now I am paraphrasing here).  Unfortunately, for my client, who then emailed me and said I am sooo sorry, I did ____, and then of course proceeded to tell me they had contacted Klout and found out it was NOT true, and now they were having to start all over. I asked why they just didn’t inbox me first, and their reply was, I saw, so and so like and comment on the post, so I thought it was true.

Now let’s get to some tips, these tips apply across all of Social Media Platforms:

• Don’t automatically friend somebody because they have hundreds of Mutual friends, go check out their page, see what they are posting.
• Click on their PROFILE picture and see if there are comments like, why are using a fake picture, or that is not you, I have seen that picture elsewhere etc.
• Check their photo albums are there more than only ONE picture of themselves, are the images consistant.
• Before following anybody’s advice on disconnecting your platforms, buying followers, following people blindly ask yourself, what will that do for You or Your business?
• If You want others to Trust You, You are going to have to Model that behavior.

Example: Empire Avenue Missions: If you want others to do Your missions with integrity, give Clear instructions, give incentives for them to do your missions with integrity.  Don’t say in your mission description, “I report and block thieves”.  Instead say, I buy additional stocks in people that complete my missions, I send out Thank You tweets etc…

*Before spending lots of money on Social Media tools ask yourself,  how will this help me and or your company?  Anyone telling you they are spending $$$ of dollars on Social Media tools a month or telling you to buy this or that may only have their best interest in mind. First, find out the size of their company, what their reputation is, what does their fans and tribe base look like, what is their ROI- Return on investment.

*Another thing to look for is sometimes people post mis-information or something just to irritate You,  just to get LIKES and COMMENTS, to drive their Social Media scores up, so just ignore it, don’t comment, don’t like it, just leave it alone.

And… I am going to end with the below as this as this is an never ending topic…

If You see a friend, co-worker, someone you care about, associating with someone You know to be a scammer or doing black hat tactics, then Please do for them as you would want them to do for You. I do not recommend that you inbox people and call people out, that is not the way to warn or protect those you care about.  Just email them and say hey I would love to catch up, let’s have a phone call and then you can discuss what is on your mind.  At the end of the day that person will take what you are saying as Feedback and that You were only looking out for them or… they will take it as criticism and feel You are making them wrong or stupid. For the most part people don’t like having egg in their face.  However… Think of this…

Example: What if… You had a next door neighbor who abused your child, would you just never say anything because you didn’t want others knowing your child got abused and you were embarrassed or would you want to do something to make sure no other person got hurt.  Yes, this is an extreme example, however, having a business, brand, reputation ruined is no small matter when it comes to your financial success and supporting you and your family either. I have seen a lot of businesses lose a lot of $$$ over many things in my life.  

Some Do’s:

• Share quality content that informs, empowers, and inspires others.
• Be authentic, share yourself, show your personality, your passions, and let people know what you do for a living without over promoting yourself.
• Include others on your pages, promote others quality writing and information.
• Give incentives and ample Thank You’s.
• Ask quality, thought provoking questions that engage others.
• Create an empowering, trustworthy, passionate Tribe of fans and supporters.

Enjoy your Social Media, it is an incredible world where You can meet some amazing people and form some incredible business ventures and collaborations.

To Your Success ~ Carly Alyssa Thorne