News December 9, 2008

Social Media needs disclosure aka you can’t tell the vendors from the regular folk

pauladrum showed up in my Twitter feed this morning commenting about our story on the Intuit Turbotax additional return printing fee increase (sorry, I’m not buying that this will be cheaper for most people). She pointed out that TaxCut from H&R Block didn’t raise prices and includes 5 e-files for free and no charge for printing. Great information! I only wish she’d been up front in both her profile which makes no mention that she’s VP of Marketing for H&R Block as she mentions casually here. The moral of the story is beware of online comments. Even those which are helpful, such as pauladrum, there can be undisclosed bias. I actually really like following the folks who are passionate about their company and are helpful to others. I just don’t like it when their profile is misleading. If you’re shilling a product in public – you’re profile should show it – and listing “Wife, mother, internet geek, social media advocate aka smore” doesn’t really scream “HR Block Employee” to most people. It’s a jungle out there. Yes, a quick Google (and a sixth sense) quickly led me to Paula’s identity – but how many new users of Twitter (or other Social Media) bother to investigate this? If you’re online making comments in support of any particular company – disclose it please.

Tags: Social Networking, Twitter

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About Wayne Schulz

View all posts by Wayne Schulz

Wayne is a diehard Blackberry user and consultant specializing in Sage MAS90 Accounting Software. He lives in Glastonbury CT with his two children. When not helping them with their homework or pushing the latest school fundraiser off on his co-workers, he is active hiking, Scuba Diving and investigating all manner of technology.

Christopher Gavula

Thanks for mentioning this. It really is an excellent reminder. It extends on a rant I posted some months back:

http://www.geardiary.com/2008/05/04/when-good-opinions-go-bad/

My rant was more about misleading “news” articles with hidden or simply unstated biases, etc., but what you say points out that this notion of “doing your research” really should extend to ANY communications – especially ones on the Internet. The point is – KNOW who you are talkiing to and what the motivation might be for their communique.

The Internet makes it much easier for people to operate in a semi-anonymous way. Sometimes that’s meaningless, sometimes it hides ulterior motives. Please – DO the research!
http://www.geardiary.com Judie Lipsett

BUSTED. Good sleuthing job there, Wayne.