This is Part 2 of a series on spotting Twitter parasites who will leach off your visibility and suck the life out of your personal network.
In Part 1, I talked about brandjacking and hash tag opportunism. If you’re looking to build a credible reputation online, to attract leads based on integrity and quality, then those tactics will definitely defeat all positive efforts.
Perhaps it’s human nature to try to pull fast ones… I witness it everyday on the freeways of Southern California with single riders illegally zooming through the carpool lane and insane dudes in Monster trucks using the slow lane as their high speed passing lane.
It takes discipline and a dose of spiritual well being to not try to butt to the front of the line, that we’re all going to arrive at the perfect time, and that rushing for short term results isn’t always the best path.
With that philosophical framing, let’s take a look at some other “Worst Practices” happening on Twitter. My hope is that by writing about these, it will become evident how to deal with the situations or better yet, drive you away from even thinking of steering from your moral compass.
Retweet Hijacking
Right around Mother’s Day, I caught wind of a conversation on Twitter revolving around social media guru Mari Smith and how someone had “hijacked” one of her Tweets.
A person on Twitter spotted one of Mari’s Tweets. Mari has over 35,000 followers so I can only imagine the temptation this person had to creep into her stream and leach a little visibility.
Her original Tweet endorsed a site as a great option for a Mother’s Day gift.This person retweeted her… then replaced the link she intended with HIS link for HIS company. (Actually the company he works for… it’s total drama, but Mari explains the whole ordeal and how it had an amicable ending on her blog).
Rightly so, people were pissed off and the guy who did the retweeting wasn’t exactly gracious when he got caught. It was a lesson in human nature and a very fascinating trainwreck to watch unravel.
All parties involved seemed to have settled things, but it does force us to examine any retweets we get. If you send out a link, then someone retweets you, be sure to click on the link and see it’s what you sent out.
If you get Retweet Hijacked, you can learn a lot by reading Mari’s reflections on the situation.
Product Pushing
My friend Maria Reyes McDavis publishes the most HONEST pieces about marketing, social media, and crap that she’s tired of witnessing. I admire her willingness to step up and call things like they are. I love having people in this world like Maria- she can really go mano to mano with issues and doesn’t give a rat’s patootie what anyone thinks. Go girl!
In a recent post, Maria got down hard on people who take advantage of social networking relationships by pushing their products- products you’ve expressed ZERO interest in- through social “recommendations”. Maria’s post referenced a ton of junk she’s gotten on Google Connect from so-called “friends.”
I wish I could just encapsulate Maria’s rant, but then you’d miss that ‘tude she throws in there to get the point across.
Read Maria’s post (complete with damning screen shots) by clicking here.
So far I’ve covered 4 Twitter Parasite lame tricks in this series:
- Brandjacking
- Hash Tag Opportunism
- Retweet Hijacking
- Rampant Product Pushing
Kinda feels like email 2002 doesn’t it?
Does this make you think twice about things you do in social networking? Are you feeling paranoid that maybe you’re a prime offender without realizing it? Are you reflecting on the ethical impact of your marketing and interactions?
I’d love to hear your thoughts.
thanks!
Nancy
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