Invasion of the Opportunists

Erica — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 02:19:26 +0000

I’ve been thinking about writing a post on Twitter Spammers for a long time. Well actually a specific Twitter Spammer. But since I never think it’s a good idea to go around name calling (it’s bad for you, and it gives too much attention to the person in question) let’s approach this in another way.

My friend Brian Solis has a personal policy of never saying anything negative about a specific person. If you ask him about someone that he dislikes, he says: “I won’t tell you what I think about John Doe, but I will tell you what I think about people like him.” Subtle and yet direct at the same time. Plus no one can ever claim he said anything negative about John Doe. It’s a win-win.

So we’ll leave my specific Twitter Spammer unnamed (mostly because I don’t want to give her the google juice)…but I will say what I think about people like her.

Why Does This Matter?

There is a disturbing trend happening on Twitter. The Opportunists are popping up everywhere. Opportunists are people who follow trends or fads, and try to Get Rich Quick by tricking innocent people. They try to capitalize on the Talent and Hard Work of the people who came before them. They pretend to be something they are not – and if no one calls them on it – THEY GET AWAY WITH IT. I’ve said for a long time that Perception is Reality. This is especially true in Social Media.

So I’m writing this post as a call to action. Not just for my own community here in Houston, but for the hundreds of communities all over the World who are dealing with Spammers & Opportunists of their own.

You’re A Twitter Coach – Wait…Strategist?

So now you’re probably wondering what a Twitter Spammer/Opportunist looks like. Well for starters, their Twitter bio states that they are a “Twitter Coach”, “Twitter Strategist”, “New Media Thought Leader” or some variation thereof. Okay – I’m not exactly sure what a Twitter Coach does – and I’d actually be willing to buy that…except the people making these claims have been on Twitter for less than 6 months and don’t really know the first thing about Social Media, Technology, Public Relations, Marketing, Advertising, or even Psychology. The problem is – they’ve never actually done anything but claim to be experts. If you ask them about The Clue Train Manifesto they stare at you blankly, and if you mention Plurk or Pownce they think you’re speaking a foreign language.

There’s nothing wrong with being late to the party (we can’t all be early adopters). But it’s not okay to substitute the knowledge and hard work of the people who paved the way as your own. And it’s definitely not okay to claim credit for things you didn’t do, or to pass off other people’s work as your own. Especially when you’re trying to get paid for it.

Real Influence

The second way you can tell a Twitter Opportunist, is that they talk about their follower number A LOT. They talk about how they went from 100 to 16K twitter followers in 4 months. And then they claim that this is Organic Growth, while at the same time trying to sell you a program to increase your twitter followers or worse a Twitter for Profits Course.

They think that influence has something to do with numbers, and yes sometimes that can play a part. But real influence has very little to do with follower count, and much more to do with deep relationships that are built over time. In fact, some of the most influential people I know on twitter have less than 100 followers. But they can pick up a phone and with one call make unbelievable things happen.

Twitter Opportunists treat their Twitter Followers like cattle. The more heads the better. They think that this buys them protection or leverage. And they are wrong on both counts. As my friend Jeremy likes to say:

“Sure, build an ‘Elite Power Account’, but don’t call yourself expert, maven, guru, or coach. Spamming Twitter does not make you a Premier Thought Leader. It makes you an Idiot. A paper millionaire with a fistful of Enron stock. The numbers are impressive, but have no value outside of impressing people who don’t know any better.”

It’s like that old saying, “Fool me once shame on you. Fool me twice…wait you can’t fool me twice” (you know it’s a problem when I’m stooping to quote Bush). But seriously, Influence and Social Capital aren’t just buzz words that can be thrown around willy nilly.

So What Can You Do?

I’ve done a lot of soul searching on this issue, and I’m going to give you a list of things I think we can do to help manage this problem (I’m not naive enough to think it’s going to go away). But first, I want to tell you why you should do something.

The question I keep asking myself is why haven’t more people called her out publicly for her behavior? Is it because they are scared of her, or because they don’t want to give her more attention? Probably no on the first count, but possibly on the later. And then I was talking to one of my bestfriends Tara Hunt and she said that the real problem is that in “Proper Society” it’s not okay to call people out or embarrass them in public. That’s just bad manners.

She’s right. It’s bad manners. But if we all stand around being “proper” and trying to “rise above it” – we’re going to wake up one day to an even bigger mess then we are facing right now. Then we’ll have let the Opportunists win. It’s just like standing by and watching someone get bullied – but not stepping in to help. Only we’re the ones getting bullied!

Well – I say enough is enough. So here’s what you can do to help us save Twitter (and any other Social Network or Real Life Network for that matter) from the invasion of the Opportunists:

Block Them. In Twitter there is a text link in the right sidebar that says “block”. Use it. If enough people block someone on twitter they are removed from the system.
If you see someone taking credit for something they didn’t do, telling a half-truth, or bold faced lie – Call them out. Send them an email first, but then if they continue the behavior call them out publicly. If enough people call Bullshitake (yes I’m quoting Guy cause I love him) on these people, they won’t be able to trick the people who don’t know any better. Think of it like doing your civic duty to keep our community safe & secure.
Tell your friends. One of the things I’ve been guilty of in the past is not protecting my friends from people I knew were Opportunists. I would make the assumption that they were smart and would figure it out for themselves. And they usually did – but a lot of times it was AFTER they had already been burned. So if you know someone has the wrong intentions, is an Opportunist, Spammer, or Social Climber – warn your friends.
UPDATE: Thanks to NickW for reminding me of this point. Email Twitter with your concerns. If you love this service – send them a message and let them know that you’d like to see them take more action on their end. And when you block someone – also send their name to spam@twitter.com. And if you do email them – be sure and mention this simple UI change proposed by Andrew Hyde: A Simple UI Change to Make Twitter Unattractive to Spammers

The moral of this story is that together we have a much stronger voice then any of these Spammers with their inflated twitter accounts, we just need to use it. My friend Angela told me tonight that a lot of people are in my corner, and knowing that gave me the courage to write this post. Let’s use our voice to give every member of our communities that same courage.

UPDATE: Other Posts You Might Find Useful on this Topic:

ReinventingErica.com » guy kawasaki

Invasion of the Opportunists

Why Does This Matter?

You’re A Twitter Coach – Wait…Strategist?

Real Influence

So What Can You Do?

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