Social Media Politics Can Suck You Dry

Great discussions this week on twitter and in the words of my awesome husband and business partner, Rick – (he’s trying to bring this back) …..”things that make you go HMMMMM”. So here’s the deal, we have the concept of “social capital” down —>you have to put in, in order to take out; the more you give, the more you receive; be genuine and transparent for people to trust you……yadayadayada

But what happens when your goal is to take out before you even begin to give? Will your social capital never be regarded as pure? There was great conversation started by Matt Dollinger about Social Karma and yes it got a little weird (I even think I heard the twilight zone music playing in the background at one time). We came to the conclusion, although it’s still in the air, that Social Capital is a way to quantify your presence and the depth of your involvement whereas Social Karma goes so much deeper than that:

We took the conversation off-line (the 140 characters were so anti-zen) – and that’s when a light bulb went off in my head.  There is so much talk about being genuine and doing things for a greater good without expecting anything in return, but to tell you the truth, most of us are here to make money and to improve our business.  This doesn’t mean we can’t have fun in the process and show our personalities, but I’m not Ghandi or Mother Theresa – I volunteer my time, I raise money for charities and truly believe in the Universal Law and Power of Intention – but my time here has a goal and I have strategies for business as should you.

Your social persona should be the guiding factor in your social media strategy.  I would love for these huge cult-like coach figures to behave differently on-line…..but let’s be honest, why should they be any different?  I would love for celebrities and public figures to be more personable, I would even love for politicians to be more real.  Bottom line is that Social Media gives people more reach (hence the video above) – it’s up to each person to decide what kind of interaction they want to achieve with their audience and furthermore, it’s up to the audience to decide if they want to keep listening or move on to the next person who is actually making an effort to engage.

Sadly enough, and this is where Social Karma comes in, we can also manipulate our on-line character, mislead our audience, put up a false front and create a fake public persona.  When discussing politician’s use of social media, this is what Daniel Rothamel said that still resonates in my mind:

OUCH!!!  just because you are out there pounding the social media streets doesn’t mean you have uncontaminated goals, it doesn’t make you righteous or ethical.  I do however have hopes that those of us who have been here a while, will have the power to sniff out the counterfeits.  We, as an audience, have the power to turn the charlatans off.

The day must go on……now off to deal with deceptive mortgage brokers, scheming Realtors and superfluous appraisers.

**original article on AgentGenius.com**