As many of you are aware I spend a lot of time online for both personal and professional purposes. These long hours out here allows me to see a lot of what is going down and up in La-La-Land. I also see trends and games people (and machines) play online in an effort to gain something personally or in profit from others. One of the reoccurring horrors I hear happening recently are the cases of people being “stalked”. Fortunately, there is action you can take to help stop many of these people. The foremost direct action is to require everyone you do not know personally to post a photo before they become a friend, follower or someone you want to be part of your personal/professional circle of social/business networking. I do this, it does work and here is why I do this?
Why a Photo is Required to be My Friend
Yep, the crazies of the world are now bring their dissolving personalities to the cosmos of the Universe of the Internet. They love to create a black hole in the online world. They feel they are needed for them to feel normal. How I combat these people and how I protect the people who trust me by allowing me to follow them is to not allow anyone into my Social Media Circle who does not have a photo of themselves.
See, crazy people must be part vampires since they don’t like to look in the mirror. So they don’t post a photo of themselves. A photo would provide information that leads people to finding them easily after pulling them into their vortex of insanity.
I didn’t mean to get all Carl Sagan on ya, but there are some real sick people out on the internet who enjoy scamming people..and now that has turn to stalking people. I have not run into too many real people, online or offline, who has not experienced some sort of internet scam, scheme, elaborate business opportunity and/or now…stalkers. This has to be dealt with or more people are going to leave the internet. So, what works best?
I deal with a lot of you on a number of levels either through my Twitter chatter, Business Golf Country Club round robins, the ClamBake Cafe chats, my banters on your Blog/uStream/Buzz/Wave/gMail/Skype accounts or naturally on Facebook and LinkedIn. Just to name a few. So I am visible to a broad audience of people, places and machines. This opens me up to having to deal with more probabilities of scams. And believe me when I say I have had my share of scams and I am very motivated to expose the scammers to the real world. This access to so many deceptive people also allows me to find out what is working to combat or shield against these predators of the internet to get into my circle of contacts and victimize them.
During all this time I have been studying the impact of the clash between reality of the offline world and the Alice in Wonderland effect these deranged people floating around the internet have on deterring more people to come onto the internet.
What I have found that truly has stopped the Crap is demanding a photo be posted in the avatar of anyone:
- I allow to Follow Me on twitter
- before I will follow them
- before they can be my friend on Facebook
- be a contact on LinkedIn, FriendFeed,Wave, Buzz, Skype, NING ..
- or any of the multitude of other social networks and applications I have I have an account.
Yes, there are the exceptions but as time rolls on these exceptions become fewer and far between since most real people are starting to realize the sanity of posting of a Photo does ward off sick thinking people.
Yes, I totally agree..the photo does draw a lot of attention and, for the particular case of the Stalkers, it does provide them ammunition to use in their mentally deranged game they play. However, it is that same attention that brings in more sane people into a real person’s social media circle.
I understand the sensitivity issues and the trauma people who have been stalked are experiencing. It truly is devastating and takes a LONG time to get over. However, I also know that the healing begins by not allowing the incident draw the victim into the black hole vortex that these off balance people live in. This is driving people to post a photo of a mountain or a company logo thinking that will hide them from stalkers which for those who do not know they have been stalked works against them to attract real supportive people. Eventually, these people feel that nothing is working online for them and will leave the internet to become part of the millions who are offline bashing anyone who is online as being a scammer.
I’ll get into the debate in some other blog I will post on how many businesses and companies attempt to rationalize why posting a logo or Brand in their avatar is an effective form of social media. This absurdity is also causing problems in their lower level of trust to consumers..but that is all for another agenda.
The reason a headshot photo is so important and becoming required by more and more people is the internet is a visual domain. Trust is the name of the game out here and the lack of a photo of the person who is doing the talking does not build trust. A photo is now required in order for that trust to be built.
People use the photo as their decision maker to who they want to follow or not. Or, who they want in their circle of influence or NOT. They see the photo first to decide if they are clicking on what is posted or ..BAM!..blocking it from their real world.
There are ways around the Photo Required issue that will help satisfy my requirements and soon to be yours. Here are a few:
Posterization
If you are a creative person, like I see most of you are, the Posterization of your personal photo provides a great likeness of you but without the detail that would help someone mimic you. Of course you can go too far with this so don’t get off into the Andy Warhol look because that will work against ya.
Studio Poses
Usually the seriousness of the Studio Pose stands in vast contrast to the publishing of less serious Facebook Poses many of the people being stalked I hear have use. In all of the cases I have studied from people reporting stalkers they used provocative or causal photos of themselves on Facebook. I know Studio Poses are not the most popular style of photo, but it does have some shielding effect for those leery of posting their real photo may have. Believe me in this, the Studio Pose does get better results if you are out here doing social media for your business or for the company you are doing the social media. I recommend the studio pose to be used in the web-site or blog..it really makes for a more trustworthy look if you are wanting to build up a solid following of serious people.
Close Cropped
I use the Close Crop headshot in all my avatars. A closely cropped photo gives the ‘in-you-face’ look that is really not me or reflective of my personality, but it does cut out details of how skinny I am (hahaha) or fat, or the style of clothes I wear (which, DUH!, is golf attire if you need to know). The Close Crop shot is a little bold but it is the BEST form of headshot for avatars. Look around at the top bloggers and business leaders or celebrities..they all use the Close Cropped Headshot.
These are just a few of the ways around satisfying my and many other people’s requirements of having a photo placed in the avatar before they allow you into their inter circle. Yes, I do contradict many of these solutions I have offered you here. For example, in my Twitter Page, and my soon to be launched New Blog and Web-sites, I show a clearer photo of me. The blatant contrast to what I have offered as ways around the photo requirements is based on me wanting to be even more open to letting people see me as I really am. This action I take is purely based on what I have proved to work better than not showing the person behind the blog or website. This allows people to see more of the REAL me so I can build a higher level of trust with those looking for someone they can trust to shot it to them straight.
Plus, I have a number of other secret weapons to battle off the scammers and would-be stalkers. Can’t tell you about what those are or it wouldn’t be a secret would it? I’ll just say I have met some very, very crafty ‘Coders’ who love to cut stalkers, scammers and other lower forms of human beings off at their knees.
I am out here to help you understand how all this stuff in La-La-Land works. As I learn more, you learn more and I truly hope that all this helps you become more open to showing everyone you are a Real person.
Let me know how I can help.
