In a world where politicians lie, students are taught that cheating isn’t the degradation it once was and celebrities are caught stretching the truth every time a paparazzi camera shutter clicks, its refreshing to find someone who not only espouses truth but dedicates his life to it.

Brett McKinley learned at an early age that truth would be his calling, regardless of what people said.  This philosophy manifested itself in the career of social media manager, ensuring that the websites he monitored were accurate, exact and above all, truthful.  Here are some things he does to do this:

1.   Verify Information – As social community managers, we often share information that others have published and pass it along to our readers.

Its important to be careful and discriminating about the information we share; after all, its our reputation too that’s at stake. Youll want to verify social media content.

Patrcik Meier offers tips for how to do this by by doing a little investigative research such as checking out a sources:

  • Bio on Twitter
  • Number of Tweets
  • Number of followers
  • Number following
  • Retweets
  • Location
  • Timing
  • Social authentication
  • Media authentication
  • and engaging the source by requesting information on their sources

2.   Wonder Out Loud Another good method is audible questioning, wondering out loud as to the questionable content that is being used.

There is a time and place for making conversation, just as long as you don’t misrepresent it as fact.  Just as Dragnet Detective Joe Friday might have said, Just the facts, maam.  Nothing but the facts.

Social Media is one area where wondering out loud enables the manager to verify all the content to be questioned.

3.   Zoom Agents Lead the Way A Social Zoom agent is someone who takes on responsibility for the success of becoming a social business.  They will own the success of the:

  • Engagement
  • Content
  • Approach
  • Strategy, and
  • Integration

As a community manager, you may be the sole zoom agent or one of many for your business. In any event, you’ll need to care deeply about your social communities.  Ideally, you will feel invigorated and inspired and will have a sense of pride about the value of your work and what you’re able to contribute. Community management is a relatively new field and its an accomplishment to be in this role.

Many may quietly disagree, but truth and sound facts are the basis for the success of any social media management of any business profile.  In a world engulfed in the shady practices of the bait and switch, slight-of-hand and dealings under the table, its nice to know that one person is still out there fighting for what is right, what is accurate and what is true.