I had just dropped my daughter off at school this morning. As I waited at a traffic light a woman was making a left turn heading in my direction. I noticed she rolled down her window despite the rain that was falling. Immediately my mind went to “She’s smoking.” I was right. Next I went to the inevitable “She is going to toss that cigarette butt into the middle of the road” because in her nicotine choked mind that is not littering, She did. She then made the turn toward me and I saw the child in the back seat in a safety seat and I said “Wow, I need to pray for that poor kid.”

You see the whole idea of smoking is filthy to me. I can say this because I once smoked (for about 10 years) so I am not some inexperienced windbag spouting off about this. I know how dirty, disgusting and unattractive the habit is because I have done it. I know it so much so that I can see and predict behaviors of this group of people to the tee just like I did with this lady.

Same goes for social media. There are dirty tactics, tricks and habits that are employed that are indicators of predictable behaviors of many in the social media realm. See if you have seen these.

You are now being followed by ……

For some reason I have not turned off these e-mail alerts. Maybe it’s because the influx of these followers of mine on Twitter is light. Why is it light? Mainly because I am not on it 24 / 7 and I don’t do anything to goose the numbers. At any rate, I would say that in 60% of the cases I can predict what my new follower is up to. How? Well, when you are followed by GHT63iKT (Jim Smith) it doesn’t exactly inspire warm relational thoughts. Nope, this is just another spam account that is out there for their spammy reasons.

The go getter ……..

This is the person who has the Tony Robbins approach to social media and comes of as so insincere that you can’t decide whether to despise or pity them. These people are generally after your wallet so they are not exactly the prototype of a real social media user.

The Social Sychophant ……….

A sychophant is defined as a self seeking, servile flatterer; fawning parasite. While this is a harsh view, there are some people who are high up the social media food chain who have incredible minds but ruin their delivery through this kind of behavior.

The sales guy ……….

I have to be very careful of this one personally because I am a career sales person who is finding the world to be a very different place as a result of social media. If someone ends up doing business with you in part due to your social media interactions and you felt it was a natural progression then that is good. If, however, you feel as if someone ‘befriended’ you then sold you something then kind of ‘went away’ then this is a bad use of social media. No chance for a relationship there, just a commission.

There are more and they can be investigated at a later date or in the comments if you would like to add or subtract from my thoughts here. Remember this though, if you are doing something in the social media world that is not with the best intention you are likely telegraphing every next move just like that woman who didn’t litter by tossing that cigarette butt out the window in front of a crowded intersection of cars and that poor child of hers. You will be found out. No one can keep dirty habits and secrets forever.

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