When Good Intentions Go BAD! #Creep

People need to understand that when we give our information to all of these companies and platforms, that information is in public hands. I can't speak for other people. When I USE this information I'm looking to develop strategic relationships and to show how this information can be used to connect with like-minded people in social media. If I can help someone in New York find customers right outside their front door, is that information not valuable for people especially business owners? 


If you know me, you know I spend a little bit of time on social media. And for a while now I have been blown away by some of the tools that are out there on social media. On earlier posts, it's no secret, I believe twitter is the most POWERful tool. Twitter is also the platform that I LOVE the most. You can meet and greet tons of people and "search" for people related to your interest, professions, and passions.

I have learned about sooo many interesting and useful tools on social media that it's nuts! I couldn't believe the things one could do and people to identify in social media. I have been currently brainstorming and using certain tools to use in an e-book that I'm currently working on (I may have to somewhat rethink parts of it). 

Before twitter revamped their policies, you could find who, where, and what people were tweeting about on your street! If you're neighbor's kids were tweeting from their smartphone you could know what they were going to be doing that night and with who they were hangin with.


I have had a relationship with a few people on twitter that I wanted to test my theories of social media precision marketing. I wanted to use all the public platforms to perform searches based on info that they posted. From there I was able to find more information than I bargained for. Knowing this individual was in the service industry, I wanted to show her a few platforms she could use to directly engage with customers profile of her 'best customer.' I had asked this individual to DM on twitter on a previous post or if I could look her up on Facebook. I was denied. I think, certain things should be kept off social media. Besides, twitter is too short for what I need to get out sometimes :)


Knowing I could have used another platform, I just thought someone would find it flattering if I sent a card and asked to DM on twitter. BOY! WAS I WRONG! Here's the card I sent. This is the other side Here's what I will share, most people know twitter is searchable. Here is someone who I previously asked where they worked in NY and there could be a chance that I could stop by. She willingly gave me this info, but did not want to DM me. Is it me or am I just missing something? Here's why I had sent the card. Knowing New York has tons of foot traffic and she is in the personal services industry (read her profile). I wanted to show her that I had learned tons of stuff that she could use and apply in her business. I figured I could help her "BLOW HER BUSINESS UP," with social media. Unfortunately, one persons message can be heard 10 different ways by 10 different people. I guess after her stream of tweets, flowers are definitely out of the question. Had I been able to stop by the bar where she is employed, because I do know people on that side of city. Would I be a creep? Knowing she posts this information regularly. SMH!


We always hear about privacy issues on line. We probably don't explore or attend to the issues at hand enough. I will say this; from my point of view, what you post is public info. Social platforms have in their hands a lot of our information. Don't believe me? If you tweet, post on facebook, yelp, tumble, stumble, checkin, like, flickr, watch tube, or just sign up. You can be found. Pretty quickly too I might add. It's really not hard. Worse, if you tell the world you're going out of town or going to work in these tough economic times. Don't be surprised if something you possess is taken from you or worse your house gets broken into. Social media tools have just made it a lot easier. It's a good thing most of the people using it are using it with good intentions. Think about this. How many times have you gotten something that was a marketing message that didn't have a return address? Is that so uncommon? Guarantee if you look up my address you'll find it with ease. 


Personally, I like to see the good in people although I know there are some not so good people in this world.  If anything, I hope that you can learn something from my situation and obvious misunderstanding. People will say good things about me, others will say bad things about me. It's not the attention I wanted. But people are talking! The Truth is, that's the world of social media we live in.


Danny Fortes 

Danny Fortes is searchable just like everyone else in the social media universe. This is one situation and result he had not anticipated.  :)

Twitter Tip Tuesday; B.E.

Using twitter the first few times I remember typing out some tweets and following a few people of interest. For the life of me I can't remember many of those people. I do remember being surprised to find others that I knew who were following me.  Now I realize, then I had no clue as to what I was doing. I remember even thinking to myself this is stupid, why is everyone talking about this. I'll say it again, this is stupid... why is everyone talking about this.

Millions of other people had already realized the value in such a POWERful tool. Me I just was frustrated and out of frustration I simply gave up and labled it stupid because I understand the tool fully or realize it's value. A friend once shared w/me... if you ever want to learn anything, chances are there's a book already written about it. Boy he was right. So I went to the bookstore and bought a book about
twitter, if you read my bolog you already know this.


There's millions of conversations going on at one time. When most people learned that you can pinpoint and connect to your customer on social media. Droves of people and businesses wanted in. In case you haven't noticed, over 70% of the US population is on facebook and twitter is still growing at an obscene pace. The things people like and buy, where and who they associate with, what they're talking about is all out there. The same with twitter, just in 140 characters or less. Everyone wants to be where the eyeballs are and so do the businesses. Unfortunately, social media platforms as a whole have turned into an absolute pitch fest in most cases. Why? I have people trying to sell me stuff and they haven't even asked my name or learned one thing about me. I sat back and asked myself, do I do this? And after thinking about it. Being TRUTHful with myself I realized...  at times sure. So I asked myself, what should I do to change what I'm doing. I thought back to the social media basics. Know, like, & trust. Be Engaging!

When you meet anyone for the first time, what do you do? Chances are you ask them a question? The powerful thing you can ever do is to ask someone a question. Obviously you can make a statement or pay someone a compliment. Just asking for help, directions, or a simple how are you is the spark that can get the fire started and is the first step in 'building a relationship.' After all, you wouldn't walk up to someone in Dunkin Donuts and say I have this great lead generating system! Their response would be,"who the hell are you" and "wtf would I need that for." However, in this day & age of the Internet and social media chances are she knows someone who could  benefit from using this system.

So why not do things the old fashioned way in a new world. Be Engaging! Say Hi, learn my name and let me learn yours. Take notice of what people are doing. Allow me to do the same if I want to. If we like each other, then let's help each other.  IF we LOVE what we do, lets share it with the world always keeping in mind the 80-20 rule (others/self). So while you're out there; BE friendly, BE passionate, BE nice, and BE you. Hi I'm Danny it's nice to meet you. <handshake>

Danny Fortes is a social media entusiast who is navigating his way through the world of social media one day at a time. You can connect with him on twitter @xDannyFortes