Twitter gone bad

In this day and age, if you aren’t using Twitter, Facebook and similar social media sites for your business, then you’re missing the boat. One can find articles and research studies by the hundreds that support and prove the conclusion that utilizing social media increase the bottom line profits, aside from being an outlet for tweens to chat and employees to waste time on.

Now, you can’t just start up a twitter page and start tweeting about your day getting coffee, dropping of kids and changing diapers and hope the revenue starts rolling in. You need a plan, a good brand and a product worth purchasing. However, some people prefer to attempt to make money as fast as possible with little regard to morality or ethics such as Kenneth Lay and a little scandal at Enron, but that was before twitter.

Case in point is the events of Saturday, December 1, 2012, in Kansas City. Kansas City Chiefs Linebacker Jovan Belcher shot his girlfriend, mother of their 3 month old daughter, at their home and then drove to the Kansas City Chiefs practice facility and shot himself to death after talking with the head coach and general manager in the parking lot.

KANSAS CITY, MO - SEPTEMBER 20: 

Jovan Belcher #59 of the Kansas City Chiefs 

stands on the field during the game against the

Oakland Raiders at Arrowhead Stadium on 

September 20, 2009 in Kansas City, Missouri. 

(Photo by Jamie Squire/Getty Images)

That was around 8am. Around 9am, someone decided to attempt to capitalize on this tragedy and started a twitter page, @Jovan_Belcher. This page is now removed from the site, but that didn’t stop someone from posting tweets requesting retweets for donations. Never mind the fact this was obvious twitter spam and an attempt to gain followers to promote a twitter page, it was just pathetic. What was also shocking was that around 9am the page already had 1800+ followers. What were people hoping to see from the page? Maybe it was morbid curiosity, but it doesn’t really make sense. With so much positive potential that Facebook and Twitter brings, there’s also the dark side that attracts those interested in selfish and ulterior motives other than social interaction or business public relations. The bottom line is that there is no get-rich quick scheme with online social media. Snapping up a twitter handle of a slain NFL player hours after he shot his girlfriend and them himself will not garner you riches beyond your wildest dreams. More than likely it will result in your page being shut down and you being blocked from social media services.

Getting traction from online social media requires organic growth and sincere interactions with followers and connections. No one in their right mind is going to offer six figures to buy your bogus twitter profile. If they do make you an offer, ironically it will probably be as dependable as the content spewed on said bogus twitter page.