Black Hat Social Media
‘Black Hat’ is a slang term often used in reference to unethical search engine optimization practices; as opposed to ‘White Hat’. Black hat SEO uses techniques that are effective short term, but probably will result in penalties or a complete ban from search engines in the long run. So what is ‘Black Hat Social Media’?
Black Hat Social Media is:
- Results-driven – focused on quick gains.
- Dishonest - built on fake profiles and deceptive messages.
- Annoying - repetitive keywords in profiles and pointless apps are a turn off.
White Hat Social Media is:
- Relationship-driven – focused on building a quality network.
- Transparent - what you see is what you get.
- Interesting – relevant content attracts like-minded individuals.
Black hat social media is basically what happens when companies try to manipulate social media to their advantage. You can’t manipulate the masses to do your bidding. Perhaps a web crawler or search engine algorithm can be fooled, but real people have more experience at identifying frauds.
Moral of the story: Before you act, ask yourself why you want to take a particular action on the social web. If broadcasting that reasoning on the social web would make you uncomfortable, it is black hat.
