From time to time things change in the world especially in the way business is done, online and offline.

What is driving the change is a more sociable method of conducting business.  What triggers the need for change was the failing economy.

Unfortunately, many business people, places and things chose to traveling the low road of scamming people. As a result, online deception and spam has increased on average of 400% each year.

For the last 14 years I have published my Social Media Manifesto in an effort to advice the world how I have chosen to accept the internet driven world we all have to live with today. Following is my revised 2016 version of my policies I follow in how and who I associate with online.  I hope this will help you understand me better.

Action I Take

In order to function effectively in the every changing online environment I have had to make more changes to how I socialize and do business online. One of the major decisions I have made is how I personally use social media. In an effort to demonstrate to you how social media is to be used I have developed my Social Media Manifesto.

First of all, how I socialize online is reflective to how I socialize in real life.  It has been proven many times over the past 15 years that Who I socialize with is watched and reflects upon how others see me.  It is in this concern I have with how others see me from who I associate with and associates with me I take a very seriously harder review of who I follow ,who followers me , who is a so called Friend or connection on all of my Social Networks.

The studies I performed  in 2009, 2010, 2013, 2014 and again in 2015, (study performed from spending over 100 hrs interviewing my connections), confirms who follows me, who is a Friend and WHO THEY FOLLOW really does matter to who will follow/connect with me.   Over 90% of the people following me report they check to see Who I am Following on Twitter and Who is Following me before they decide to Follow me.  85% report checking to see who is Friends with me before becoming a Friend with me.

The reason offered for why these people do what they do makes perfect sense and I have adapted their attitude towards who I allow in my community.

The predators of the internet have now found social networks offers them a vast opportunity to scam people.  They do this by rambling through a person’s connections to find their patsies. Most scammers sit and wait in the Contact List and pick from the list you provided who will be their next victim. I refer to those who allow a social network to send emails to everyone in your email contact list asking them to join you on their site as just sending an invite to scammers to join their Spammer Buffet.

I am doing what I can to stop the people who live off other people thru deception and posting of unsolicited pitches for products and services. I will do this by doing a better job of screening who I connect with and naturally who I follow on all social networks.

Maybe what I have outlined in my Social Media Manifesto will help you also.

The Way It Will Be

I offer no apologies for what I have to do to protect the REAL people I have invited to be part of my life. One of the purposes I have for being in a social network is to set an example to others of how social media works. Social Media is driven based on consumer requirements which are lead by first knowing the person who runs a business or works for a company they look to purchase a product/service from before doing business, or even making friends, with that person.

Gaining consumer’s trust can only be accomplished interaction to blog post, tweets or updates on social networks. If this is not your approach to Social Networking, then you probably are not someone I will be connecting with or I would want to introduce to my online and offline networks.

I cherish the relationships I have developed with my Contacts. I treat their choice to connect with me as a privilege.  I pledge to them to not let them down by harboring in my following anyone who produces dribble on any of the social networking sites I am a member. I connect with only people who demonstrate to me on a consistent bases they really care about who they are and what they provide to the Community.

I also serve notice to the residences of all social networks on my frequent use of the Block, Block Report Spam and Delete buttons on those who feel the need to push upon the world unsolicited opinions that are based on hatred or their warped way of thinking. I will use all means to block anyone who is obviously from another planet or who uses an Old School Marketing Plan.

In an effort to maintain my sanity and validate my time spent on online, I have limited the social media content I post to my social networking to primarily Google+ and LinkedIn.  I welcome those who share with me that social media should be performed through organic social networking.  I invite those who enjoy spending their time only exploring possibilities, humor and all things social to join me in my efforts to make a difference.

Following is my:

2016 Social Media Manifesto

My Mantra is:

• To “Keep It Simple to Get Things Done!”.
• I am inspired by the “Big Ideas” and the people that develop them.
• I choose ONLY to work, associate socially and/or professionally with honorable individuals who believe in making a buck while making a difference.

Google+ is my preferred social space.  I will spend 99% of my time and efforts in this space.  Why?  Because it is the social space with the most value and control on the things that matter.

Google+ is the ONLY space that rewards those who take themselves seriously.  Google rewards users by placing their G+ content into their Search Engine for more liked minded people to find.  I found from talking directly to Google Reps they share my attitude towards those who use Old School methods of marketing. Google also listens….it may take them a LONG time to make a change, but they do listen to changes their users feel they need to make to G+.  It is this interaction with their users that has won my loyalty. 

My Google+ Policy:

• I only place in my Circles people who post a photo of themselves or businesses who are verified.
• I do not tolerate the trendy or fad driven applications Google tests or features they develop to appease internal pressure from the yet life experienced (but yet genius) personnel..i.e Autoawesomes and .gif animated files
• I will mute all .gifs posted by anyone in my Circle and will uncirle those who frequently post .gifs
• I will actively report to Google..as everyone on Google+ should… anyone who is attempting to game the G+ platform by conducting business in a personal profile or is purposely out to scam the community.

As unpopular as my stance on Twitter maybe, I have decided to withdrawn my personal daily presence on Twitter and only have a remote level of association through my company SyncLab Media.  Twitter has become a ‘Hit and Run’ community where over 98% of the posts made are part of a self promotion campaign and those who make the post have absolutely no intentions in socializing with anyone in the Twitter community.  As a result of those people, places and things attitude towards social networking a large percentage of real people have lost  interest to using Twitter as a Social Network.

Twitter Policy:

My limited presence on Twitter will be to build a community of likeminded people in hopes they will want to learn more about me, what I do, what I don’t do, along with hoping they become part of the larger community I am building that is not on Twitter. I am not out to play the Numbers Game on how many followers I can gather or how many people I can follow. Those who do play this game do so not because they are building a community but to develop a way to measure their artificial popularity. I use Twitter to build relationships and develop friendships. Believe me, I have far more friends online and offline than I show I am following or are following me. I deal with realities of life and business. So Please, do not use my follow/following figures to base my popularity online.

My Promise is:

I will..

• Only communicate with and FOLLOW someone who I have found to be a REAL person and have had at least three intellectual conversations or responses to my @reply to my post on Twitter.
• Use the 90 – 10 rule in posting Tweets..which means 90% of my posts will be original or @replies with only 10% of my posts having links or Re-Tweets to relevant interesting information.
• Develop an “A List” of people I FOLLOW that I either have met in real life or who I have carried on a spirited conversation on Twitter for more than one post. The others on my Follow list are just as important to me and are Followers I keep track of or have not had a lengthy conversation with yet. Either group should consider themselves lucky since I only Follow people who are REAL people and interest me and my other Followers.
• Not Follow someone who does not post a headshot photo unless I have met them personally or they come highly endorsed from someone I have met personally.
• BLOCK or UnFollow any Tweet that:
  • Comes from anyone who has Over 5000 Followers
  • Follows Over 5000
  • Post ONLY from apps like HootSutie, Tweetfeed, mobile apps or a Web API
  • Does not have any @replies on the first page of Twitter Homepage
  • Has only 1 Update and following thousands with any number of followers
  • Porn Sites
  • Direct Marketers
  • MLM’s
  • or any get rich quick programs based on questionable business models
  • Anyone who posts for posting sake
  • who only post LINKS, quotes or RT’s
  • only posts and does not reply to ANYONE

I will NOT…

• Follow for Following sake.
• Follow Anyone who does not post a
  • Photo of self
  • Real Name
  • Complete Twitter Bio with a link to another non-Twitter site
• Play the ‘Follow as Many People as You Can’ Game
• Follow anyone who uses profanity profusely
• Follow Anyone who @replies to my Tweets in an effort to get me to Follow them
• Use any program or BOT that automatically does anything to generate Followers or Follows Tweets for the sake of following.
• Use any Auto DM

I appreciate the fact that there are many people wanting to Follow Me for whatever reason. For that I am very humbled. However, I do not reciprocate with an Automatic Follow like many misguided people here on Twitter feel they need to do. For me it boils down to quality rather than quantity and I value the relationships I have made with people who are on Twitter to do the same.

I hope I earn someone’s Follow for:

• Who I am
• What I offer
• What I do not offer
• Making someone laugh
• Bring to their attention something really worthwhile
• Connecting them to someone who will make their personal or professional life better

This is how I will use Twitter and I will not apologies with the exception of this one time. Sorry, for anyone who does not agree with how I will be using Twitter. 

Facebook is a different type of animal. Pound for pound Facebook has over the past year proven to be a questionable social network.  The controls Facebook has put into place to filter all content posted to Facebook to be only what Facebook wants it’s user base to see has resulted in me not being present on Facebook personally.  You will find me only using Facebook directly through my company, SyncLab Media.

Facebook Policy: 

I will not be friends with anyone who:

• Does not post a photo of him or herself
• Is Not someone who has a common interest of mine

I will disconnect anyone who I allow to be my friend and then changes their photo to something other than their face. I will not join any applications or games so please do not send me any invitation to join them. I will not join any group or Fan Page that has no relevance to any interest I have or does not serve a purpose outside of someone else’s effort to make money in a way that does not help anyone..or any community for that manor.

LinkedIn historically has harbored more Spammers than anywhere else on the Internet.  However, since 2014 LinkedIn has taken aggressive action to purge it’s user base of people who see Spamming as their Business Plan.  LinkedIn holds true to its efforts to take back the reins of being the largest business/social networking site.  As a result, LinkedIn has become my #2 social network.

LinkedIn Policy:

I will not connect with anyone who:

• Does not think enough of him or herself to post a Headshot Photo.
• Is outside my interests in Golf, Social Media, Video Centric Digital Marketing or Business Operations.
• Is with a Direct Marketing, Multi-Level Marketing, redundant golf scoring/tee time service or Ponzi Schemes.
• Business Name using a personal profile.  
• Who changes their photo to a logo or other photo that is not a photo of the person of the account.

I will not ask anyone to join my network if I feel they would not benefit from being in my network.

I will not recommend anyone if I have not spoken with or done business with them.

I do not respond to emails sent as an overall broadcast to the members of a LinkedIn Group I am a member.

I will not join any LinkedIn Group whose obvious mission is to gather as many members as possible so the spamming can be dished out to the members of that group.

So far, this is my Social Media Manifesto. Hopefully it will help you to understand how to connect to me. I am not out to please everyone and I understand that everyone is not out to please me. However, I will try to please you if you please me with abiding by the rules of common sense. I know that there will be an exception to every rule including the ones I have outlined here. I accept that and look forward to making an exception because it means I have learned something.

Let me know how I can help