Spread of Misinformation and Twitter
I got a little wake up call last night. I got an email from someone I trust – and I have no reason not to trust this person but it became apparent to me in the end that this person had got their information elsewhere.
Here’s the email I got:
REMEMBER: Cell Phone Numbers Go Public next month.
REMINDER…. all cell phone numbers are being released to telemarketing companies and you will start to receive sale calls.
….. YOU WILL BE CHARGED FOR THESE CALLS
To prevent this, call the following number from your cell phone: 888-382-1222.
It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time. It blocks your number for five (5) years. You must call from the cell phone number you want to have blocked. You cannot call from a different phone number.
HELP OTHERS BY PASSING THIS ON TO ALL YOUR FRIENDS.. It takes about 20 seconds.
My reason in sharing this is not to shame the person who sent it to me. I still appreciate her dearly and the bits of emails she sends.
What I do need to share is that I blindly accepted the information without doing my own little search first. So like the responsible citizen I am, I twittered it. I also posted it to avenuegirl.
Turns out this message is an urban legend and no, I won’t be getting a bunch of solicitors calling my cell phone. While this didn’t hurt anything to call and add my number, I had been given a wake up call.
All it took was a simple google search to see the rumor exposed. Someone on Twitter was kind enough to reply to me to let me know that was an old hoax. Gotta love Twitter for that.
The moral of the story here? Always be sure to verify your sources. They may not be trying to give you misinformation, but it can still happen.
My other advice? Twitter rocks. I want to thank @jhnwssr for sorting that out quickly for me, and let you all know if you are not yet on Twitter you are missing out. You can get a great free guide to get yourself started that will give you 7 secrets you need to know about Twitter.
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Don Fleece, Traffic Mysteries, Confessions and Reality
Filed under: affiliate marketing, don fleece, video, viral marketing
A couple of days ago I blogged about Don Fleece and Traffic Mysteries 2 – a new product and unheard of product creator in the IM world. Today is confession time. This was all part of a hoax.
It was an elaborate plan masterminded by Frank Kern to get the attention of John Reese who is the creator of Traffic Secrets. Seems Frank owed John some “payback” for a stunt back in 2006.
Don Fleece is an imaginary guru, the Traffic Mysteries product does not exist, but…
In the story I told about the marketer who did not realize the reality of Kimkins and the points made in checking out a new product and its creator – those are sincerely real and valid.
I have to confess, I was in on the traffic mysteries thing. I knew there was no product in the end or money to be taken from anyone and I have to admit – I was not going to originally add the product to this blog as I have no intentions of fooling the real readers but it tied in nicely with the real story of things that were happening. No one was going to get scammed out of their money.
I am elated that at least a couple of people did get something out of it all. One commenter on the post who I believe didn’t realize the hoax learned some additional techniques in investigating a product, and a fitness blogger was kind enough to blog on the danger to his readers of promoting 3rd party products as well as mentioning Kimkins which really is greatly appreciated.
John Reese has left a comment which I will address privately, as he seems to be a little upset but I will add a public apology here –> John I am sorry for any stress this has caused you and in reality we all love and admire you! –> and would like to assure Mr. Reese there are some really great things that have come out of this exercise.
This particular project was not only an opportunity for me to spread the word on my cause, but turned into one of the biggest networking frenzies I’ve ever seen. I was able to greatly expand my circle of contacts through this excursion and additionally I was able to release a lot of stress that had still been pent up over struggles of the past year.
Within days, a group of us had created an active looking pre-launch forum (I may have knitted quite a few socks), created a “buzz” and managed to get some people believing this was a real product. Some of the methods used to start the stir are available to every marketer out there. Hub, Squidoo, blogging, social bookmarking – all things available freely on the web.
Something that should have been a dead giveaway was the picture used of Mr. Fleece with his anti drule invention. This was in reality a feminine product hanging out of his mouth and I am ROFLMBO as I type this.
Some additional personalities were created such as Fleece’s cousin Vern who was giving video testimonials and was not amused that Wurdmess had questioned the integrity of Traffic Mysteries and Fleece.
Today I am back to another project that is real work, but I would like to thank all the posters who came by, thank you to Frank Kern for the opportunity to participate in something that I have learned and gained much from, and a really big thank you as well to John Reese for stopping by.
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Sign by Dealighted - Coupons and Deals
Sign by Dealighted - Coupons and DealsDid you visit while I was away?
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