You hear a lot these days about fake
news. Like false advertising, and fake people it all boils down to
the same thing; you're being lied to. Social media gets blamed for
perpetuating the trouble, but social media really isn't the issue.
For a variety of reasons, people convince themselves that it's OK to
do things they know are wrong...to put food on the table, to further
a career, or to advance a cause, etc.
As far as news goes, there used to be
trusted news sources but not so much any more. News used to be just
that, news. Now it's hard to tell news from marketing and now that
consumers are more aware, all news seems suspect. If it's really
important, a story has to be double checked before sharing it because
you feel like a dope for sharing false reports. We create laws to
curtail such behavior but of course, it doesn't stop it. It just
provides recourse sometimes.
Traditional marketers just don't know
where to go with social media. For a while they were hoping it would
go away and were completely dismissive of it, but now it made a man
President (that probably otherwise wouldn't of had a chance) and that
was only with the second largest brand of social media, Twitter. You
got to respect the power of it in keeping a politician down to 140
characters per message, and he won?
It's so much easier to come up with a one sided campaign for a specific audience. Engaging your audience used to be reserved for hard sell specialists. Also, it used to be that marketing would
promote a product and if there was a problem with the product, how
the company handled it was pretty much kept on the low down. How the problem was
handled didn't go out to the masses and didn't necessarily affect the entire brand. It might get reported to the
Better Business Bureau or a newspaper, but it was often forgotten
after a while unless you were looking for it.
For consumers social media is
considered a reliable source for information. Customers can review
not just the product, but the overall experience and even individual
employees. People who are researching a purchase are drawn to
negative reviews. By many, they are considered more reliable. We all
know that reviews can be paid for just like actors are paid for doing
commercials, but the theory here is that no one would pay for a bad
review and it's human nature to see how the company responded. When
handled correctly you couldn't pay for that type of advertising.
Facebook is the number one social media
platform. It's possible that this brand gets a bad rap from some
people because of the word “friend”. Certain expectations come to
mind when it comes to the word friend and that's really not what
Facebook friends always are, especially if a person is only using it
for business or to deliver messaging. Facebook allows you to sort
your friends, but it's still really confusing for some. Sales people
like Facebook because they want to be considered a friend, since
friends are supposed to be reliable and trustworthy. Fake friends and
fake people are a problem though for some of us. When you emotionally
invest in something and find out it was not even real, it leaves a
bad taste.
Fake people on social media are really
easy to spot. You know these people are not reliable as an
information source (or a possible friend) because the messages are
always impersonal, repetitive and almost always, they are in a sort
of advertising mode. After a bit even if the message they are
conveying is a good product or service, you skip over the message
because you already know what it is and why they are posting it. Most
of us skip over those posts, especially if there's no interesting
picture to pique your interest. Really good social media marketers
know that they have to be subtle and precise with their messaging. In
this last few years, even used car salesmen have changed their
tactics for this very same reason. Even if you were in the market for
a car, you were avoiding the salesmen.
Nonprofits have developed some of the
most aggressive of social media/email campaigns. They tend to be very
subtle at first in order to get your email address. Then horror
stories and guilt campaigns arrive in your mail box in order to get
donations.
It's tough to weed it all out,
especially for people who are looking for relationships. Very often
you will find people who agree with everything you say. At first you
might think that it's wonderful, but they have their motives. No two
people agree on everything. It's best not to engage in anything more
than a casual relationship until you've had a few disagreements. Do
keep in mind that a disagreement doesn't have to be a fight. If you
can't find something to disagree about, red flags should be sounding
off. Whatever they could be hiding might be a whopper of a secret!
Keeping it casual may keep the drama to a minimum, although some
people live for that drama especially in their teens and twenties.
This is why dating sites are so popular.
Take heart, even some of us who study
people have been fooled by dogmatic fake people. As long as you don't
take social media too seriously and recognize the signs of fakes and
sales pitches, social media can be a safe place to talk and get to
know people from all kinds of backgrounds and a great place to find products and services in your area.
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