I May Not Share Everything I Read, But I Read Everything I Share

Come On. Fess Up!

Don't you wonder sometimes? How does that social media 'expert' do it? They share 100 or more posts a day. They tell you how the info in it is really 'valuable'. They tell you that this is the advice that's going to change your life. According to them, you need to stop what you're doing and read this immediately. It's that important.

Hogwash! 

Here's Why I Say That

They probably didn't read it themselves. How could they? If each article takes 5 minutes to read, and they share 100 of them...that's 500 minutes a day. So they would be spending 8 hours a day just reading the post. For me, that doesn't leave enough time to get my owns stuff done. 

How And Why Are They Doing It

They're using an automated sharing application. What it does is 'looks' for posts by certain authors. When it finds something, it automatically shares it. That way the article gets seen more, because it's in more places. The term that describes that is 'amplification'. Which is basically a way to make the search engines think it's more 'relative' in it's subject matter. 

I'm Not Saying That's A Bad Thing

I'm just saying I don't practice that myself. At least not for other people's posts. I do use that concept for my own stuff. It saves me time from 'reposting' or 'sharing' to my other social media sites. For example, this post will automatically post to my Facebook page.  That's different than automatically sharing a post from someone I don't really know.  Especially if I never read them. A lot can go wrong by auto sharing.

Here's An Example Of What Can Go Wrong

Many years ago, I helped a well known blogger create a group. One of the things that he taught was how to 'amplify' your post. The basic concept was that your group automatically shared each others posts. I said openly "I don't think that's a good idea to do without reading them." He disagreed. Getting the post shared was the most important thing. 

So I Made A Post Calling Everyone A Jerk

So I decided to post something that called everyone in the group a jerk. And guess what. Yup. They shared a post that called themselves jerks. And when I brought that up in an online meeting, they didn't even know it. Because they hadn't even read it. 

That's Why "Sharing Is Caring" Is Bullcrap

Everything doesn't need to be shared. Don't share the things you don't read. Regardless of where they come from. This is why we have so much misinformation on the web now. Somebody sees a headline they agree with or like, and they just share it. All it takes is a few minutes to read it. Fact check the claims in the post, if there are any. It doesn't take that long.

Now that you've read this... feel free to share :-) 

---

Contact Stan Bush

On the following networks: