In 2013, Hasan Syed paid $1,000 so that his complaint about British Airways, which had lost his father’s luggage, would be seen on Twitter. The promoted Tweet attracted so much attention that the airline was forced to take action and publicly apologize for not responding in a timely fashion.
Then, you may remember my mentioning of Gary Vaynerchuck’s video, in which he berates a CEO for stating that grievances from customers with a few followers are irrelevant. Here is a quote from the companion article he wrote:
You could have 100 followers, or 1,000,000 followers, all it takes is for one tweet to be noticed by one person, and the word-of-mouth plumbing that social networks are can take care of the rest.
Social media gives people from all walks of life a voice that they are willing to use. Every little thing you do or say will be scrutinized, analyzed, and criticized. And whether you want it or not, the resulting feedback will always leave its mark somewhere.
There’s another side to that coin.
When it comes to the online world, you never truly know who is watching and the impact your message and content may have on others.
Unless they tell you directly, of course. Or unless you take measures to track your personal identity and make sure there’s nothing weird going on. Aura is one tool to use. Another one is Finteza which tracks suspicious traffic patterns.
But even with all the tools available today, it is next to impossible to catch where your personal content travels online.
The good news, though, is that a tree cannot grow without a seed (and proper soil and watering). You can always control what you put out there. So, use that power responsibly.
Image by Chris Sansbury from Pixabay