Don't Be "That Guy"

A recent interaction on Twitter left me baffled and annoyed. I replied to a user about a link that he retweeted. He responded with confusion and after three tweets he finally figured out what I was talking about. Turns out he didn't even read the link in his retweet. So of course when I wanted to discuss it he had nothing to add to the conversation. Worse still he told me to contact the original poster if I wanted to discuss the link.

It's easy to jump in to social media and start throwing out links and working on increasing your follower count. However, in social media, just as in the real world, you have to be accountable for your actions. You're only as good as your reputation, whether you're running an account for your business or just for personal use. If people learn they can't trust you to be authentic or accountable then your relationship will be over. Sure you might be able to dupe a bunch of people into following you but the relationships that will actually pay off in the social media world won't be there without accountability.