Social Media Marketing: Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media

23. Be Transparent: Trust and Readership Must Be Earned

Pretending to be someone you aren’t is probably one of the biggest taboos in social media. Having someone pose as a genuine reviewer, tweeter, or friend, or using bots to artificially inflate online vote results is the fast track to getting your company labeled as dishonest. Online communities are especially sensitive to this bad form, and when you’ve upset one group, more are sure to follow. Although you might think Marketing 101 teaches honest behavior, a surprising number of “experts” suggest behaving dishonestly.

• Writing fake reviews

• Posting comments under fake names

• Adding hundreds of friends (such as models, sports stars, and so on) to your friends lists

• Implementing bots ...