Fake Networking, Fake Gurus

300 - that's my self-imposed limit for the number of people I follow on twitter. There are some social media "authorities" who recommend capping the number at 150. I find that 300 is very manage-able (for me) considering the mix of people whose tweets I care about.

Michael Fortin has addressed a couple of my pet net peeves: #1 is
Fake networking on twitter and facebook :::

Just like Twitter said when they dumped auto-follow from their native application:

“It is unlikely that any one can actu ally read tweets from thou sands of accounts which makes this activ ity disingenuous.”

Even Seth Godin calls mass-friending as “fake networking.” This applies to Facebook as much as it does to Twitter — or to any other social media application, for that matter.

...#2 MF tackles the band of self-proclaimed Internet Marketing Gurus who want to sell you stuff like blogging advice, a pdf, an eBook - whatever means they can employ to seperate you from your money!

A recent blog post has stirred quite a lot of controversy. It specifically made some stark accusations about a certain number of marketers who appear to be colluding...(Let’s call them “musical-chair product launches.” Oh, and let’s not forget the once pricey product you paid a marketer just a few weeks ago now being given away for free as a bonus to buying from their affiliate link during someone else’s product launch.)

Fortin takes on "#3" in going after the fakers who have latched onto this thing they call "The Secret" - the only secret here is that (JUST LIKE THE BLOGGING GURUS) they want your money too!

...the real secret behind the law of attraction. (via Michael Fortin - click on the links to read his complete articles)

Here’s the problem with the way this law has been abused of late. People who are vulnerable, gullible, and desperate are seeking a magic pill. A quick-fix solution.

So their mindset is now focused on getting help. They are thinking about getting rid of their financial pains. Once they see a course, program, training, or seminar that purports to teach them on how to cure their money ills, they jump on it like bees to honey.

(Or better said, like flies to excrement.)

Greedy new-wage gurus know this all too well. So they package their rehashed, embellished version of the secret, overprice it, and sell it to the unsuspecting masses.

And guess what? Most of the people who will buy it are those very people who don’t need it. These naive hopefuls will spend the remaining cash in their bank accounts just for some magic pill — and the gurus walk away with their money.