My Virtual Blog

There is heated debate in the Social Networking circles about those who completely “outsource” social networking response maintenance to another person or company. Recently, comments such as “I just don’t have the time to do it myself” have been made by those doing the outsourcing. Also, comments like “They pay me to do it, so I do it” came from some in the industry who perform this service and believe this is an administrative task and a way to generate revenue.  Others strongly believe that this is a core ethics issue and misrepresents the intent of social networking.

There is no law against hiring someone to represent your social networking initiatives, so the playing field is wide open to do whatever you like in this situation.  However, remember that your social networking presence is all about YOU, who YOU are and what YOU think.  Nobody else in the world can represent your thoughts, opinions, and personality like YOU can, that is, unless they dictate every word to you beforehand. 

The result is that everyone looking at your online presence will not know the real you.  They may not even like your online personality, as it is represented.  To quote Jeffrey Gitomer, author of The Little Black Book of Connections, “All things being equal, people want to do business with their friends.  All things being not quite so equal, people STILL want to do business with their friends”.

Can you afford to take that risk?  Personally, I think NOT.

What do you think?