Don’t Be a Social Media Zombie

Or a Ghost. Or a Vampire.

Zombies! and Ghosts! and Vampires! Oh My! Halloween fever has taken over. But if you think about it, you do see all three of these personality types showing up in social media. Let me explain –

dont be a social media zombie-carriejkeenan-thilllogistics-zombie2Zombie: What is the first thing you think of when I say the word zombie? Do you picture a mindless walker shuffling down the street looking for brains? I know I do. You can spot a social media zombie almost the same way. The Zombie will utilize the simplest way possible to get content out to the streams.

Automation.

When the zombies set up auto Tweets from Facebook (and vice versa) or set up RSS feeds to post to Twitter whenever a new post is published by others, it is always an easy spot. A stream of 15 posts in a row by one person all spread one minute apart. A Tweet asking you to “like this post if” (and often with no link). Or a Facebook post full of @messages and #Hashtags?

And have you ever seen the #TEAMFOLLOWBACK Twitter accounts?

Hold onto your brains when you see them coming and run!

Ghost: Now you see it, now you don’t. A ghost user is one who creates a business account because they
dont be a social media zombie-carriejkeenan-thilllogistics-ghost2 “should” be involved in social media. They soon disappear into the internet ether never to be seen again.

Ghosts are also seen (or not seen.. as it were) not replying to comments. Customers (past, present and future) are out there talking about brands. Talking about and directly to you, asking questions, complaining, and sometimes even saying nice things. Like Alex Forrest, social media can not be ignored. Social media – especially for business, needs to be used. If you commit to creating a social media presence, you need to commit to using it.


dont be a social media zombie-carriejkeenan-thilllogistics-vampire2Vampire:
These content stealing blood sucking fiends take your hard work and give themselves credit. The worst Vampire is a content scraper. They take the content right off your blog and post it as their own. If you do not get permission & give credit – that’s plagiarism. This happened to Peg Fitzpatrick over the summer – and she did something about it.  Note: Some sites like Business2Community and SocialMediaToday do syndicate, but they have permission to do so.

This has also been known to happen with photography. When looking for images to post in a blog you can’t just do a right-click save-as and call that photo your own. (All the photos used in this post were purchased images from a stock image site)  Be sure to use either original, purchased or credited images with your posts.

The third act of vampirism, is not as serious as the other two mentioned – but it is a big Twitter faux pas. When you are sharing the content of others – be sure to attribute the author. A quick RT @ or via @ the person who wrote or originally share the post is the best form of netiquette.

Those are the beasties that go bump in the social media night and they are all easily defeatable. It is just a matter of effort, commitment and credit.

Vector illustration - Halloween characters icon set

About Carrie Keenan

About The Author: Carrie Keenan is the Social Media Community Manager for Thill Logistics, Inc. out of Neenah, WI. (@CarrieJKeenan. @ThillLogistics) As a professional whose primary responsibility is working in digital media and audience building, Carrie has a lot of insight and information to share about how to professionally represent your organization across the web. Connect with Carrie via: Email | Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn
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10 Responses to Don’t Be a Social Media Zombie

  1. Becca Ludlum says:

    Great post, Carrie! I especially like the Halloween theme 🙂

  2. Carrie Keenan says:

    Thanks Becca! I do like to play with a holiday theme whenever I get the chance 🙂

  3. Keith Croes says:

    I get the theory: “…A quick RT @ or via @ the person who wrote or originally share the post is the best form of netiquette.” But often you’re not sure that the original tweeter was the original author. In which case you’re tipping your hat to a plagiarist: “Thank you, Mr. Plagiarist!” I know! I feel bad that I feel that way!

  4. Loved the analogies! Great post!

  5. Carrie Keenan says:

    Good point Keith. I’m lucky that most of the people I follow do proper accreditation so I am able to get that passed along as well.

  6. Carrie Keenan says:

    Thank you! 🙂

  7. Peter Mutiso says:

    Hey Carrie, Came to your site from B2C after reading this awesome content. I agree with every bit of your arguments. Thanks for sharing

  8. Carrie Keenan says:

    Thank you Peter. I’m glad you enjoyed it!

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  10. Pingback: The End of the Year as We Know It | Welcome to carriejkeenan.com

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