Someone asked me recently, “What exactly do you do, Michael?” I thought for a minute and then said, “Well, Joe, I help you stay away from Natsume Mikamoto Untayao.” It’s not as easy a job as you may think.
You see, Natsume is gathering friends on Facebook faster than dog poop gathers flies. And, many of her “friends” are quite influential. She’s quickly gained 763 of them on Facebook. Not that surprising, since Natsume certainly is attractive, which is about all she is willing to share on her Facebook Page.
A whole host of National Speakers Association members have chosen to “Friend” this young lady. The list includes both past and likely future presidents of that prestigious organization – David Newman, George Walther, Gina Carr, Ian Percy, Joe Callaway, Liz Weber, Mark LeBlanc, Mark Sanborn, Nikki Harris, Ron Karr, Sam Horn, Scott McKain, Scott Friedman, Terry Brock and others.
Of course, there really is no such person as Natsume Mikamoto Untayao, as so often happens with all of these social networking sites. Consider this young lady on Twitter, “Twitter Hashtags are Mishmash”.
In fact, there’s no trace of any of the names, Natsume Mikamoto Untayao (Cielo Kiato), anywhere on the web – except of course, on her Facebook page.
Now all of this is not as surprising as you may think. After all, the President of the United States is “Friends” with Mark Zuckerberg. What you need to keep your eye on, though, is if Mark were ever put in charge of, oh say, Homeland Security. Then it might be a good idea to get out your northern Idaho maps and start looking for some land.
Yes, recently we’ve identified tons of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook sleazebags and dipsydoodles right here on this stage (er, blog).
And, we have a perfect record. Despite duly reporting all of these folks internally to those companies (and writing about them in our widely read blog – choke, choke) not a single one of our featured spammers has yet to be ousted from Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn.
Who Cares?
Worrisome? Yes, because as we’ve reported over and over, this is how you get not just spam, but those wicked computer viruses that infect your computer – and your friends’ computers, too.
You don’t need much help to find criticism on our blog of Mark Zuckerberg or warnings of the dire results of being friends with everyone, but here are two – “Facebook Virus – Sent to You by Your (Innocent) Friends” and “With Friends Like That…”
What Did the Speakers Say?
We asked almost all of Natsume’s speaker “friends” what was up with her. Not a single speaker knew her, of course. Most, like former NSA President Mark Sanborn, said that Natsume just “slipped through,” which is certainly reasonable.
A few more, like George Walther and Sam Horn, said that they approve most all friend requests, because it could be someone who has read one of their books, or attended one of their speeches. George and Sam’s responses are reasonable, too.
However, it does point out one of the few good things that Facebook has been doing recently. They’ve created business pages. That way, you can actually keep your “friends” as real friends and re-direct your “fans” to the “LIKE” button on your official business page. We’ll check with George and Sam and see if this helps them with their readers and fans.
Leave it to former NSA President (don’t you like the way we drop names in this blog?!!) Scott Friedman to present us with a pretty much unsolvable issue. Scott speaks frequently all over the world, but very often in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, the Philippines, Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Hong Kong. He’d be challenged to isolate the “fake” friends like Natsume from the real ones from those countries.
We’ll have to get back to you on that one, Scott.
If Everyone Else Jumped Off a Cliff?…..
For the rest of you – just because a lot of prestigious speakers are following someone, that doesn’t mean you should, too. And, never, never just approve everyone who follows you (and don’t let your daughter do it either), “Scare the Facebook Out of You.”
Oh, and by the way, all of our speaker friends “unFriended” Natsume after we warned them. There’s a story about a starfish around here, somewhere…….
So, Joe, back to where we started. What do I do? I try to make sure that when it comes to social media you are armed and thus, not dangerous.
{ 13 comments… read them below or add one }
Michael thanks for alerting me of this. Because of your note, we’ve cleared out a few other non-”friends” and will be directing people to our LeadOrLeave Business Page.
Thanks Liz,
Several of the speakers we contacted did have “Business Facebook” pages. That seems like a solution to having too many friends who aren’t really friends. It matters less because of the privacy settings. You don’t want too many people seeing the details of your daughter’s wedding or your dog’s 10th Birthday Party. Those are better kept in the family. Thanks again.
You make many excellent points in your article. Like George Walther and Sam Horn, I’m never quite sure why someone has requested we become “friends” but, historically, have given the request the benefit of the doubt. Thanks to your diligent sluething, I am now going to send all my friend request TO YOU to background, validate, substantiate and/or repudiate…. No, actually, I’m just going to have to start making better judgement calls to avoid the spammers and others who just aren’t the real deal.
I’d been worried about privacy and am so happy to know that you are “monitoring” my friends list and, I hope, all of my spam messages, too. I feel safer because of you. Thanks for the abundant contributions you make to your general readers, and speakers in particular. Poor, lonely Natsume.
Thanks, Mark and George,
You put your finger on something I forgot to explain in the blog post. Natsume (yes, George, poor, lonely Natsume…) wanted to be my friend on Facebook. Of course, one of the ways that we all should “vet” each friend request is to question what other friends they have. When I saw the number of NSA speakers, I thought, she must be gold. But, then again, there are literally millions of fake people out there on the three major social media sites. Our guard is up – so I passed up the chance to “friend” her. My guess is, she’ll recover.
Be assured I don’t monitor your “friends” George – and, as much as I monitor mine, I’ve too often accepted similar bozos.
So she’s not coming to visit? Darn. Guess I should have never sent her money for her airline ticket or for her Grandma’s operation in Ghana. Oh well, I do have a policy to unfriend anyone I don’t know who starts spamming me. Michael, thanks for bursting my bubble!
I think Scott Friedman would have remembered Natsume if he had met her in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand or the Philippines
Another great post Michael. I too have a business “Like” page where everyone is accepted. On my personal page, I probably “Ignore” more requests than I accept.
I do wish Facebook had a button that allowed me to recommend my business page when I ignore someone on my personal page, as I’m certain I’ve ignored many of my presentation attendees. There really isn’t an easy way to recommend your business page to someone you can tell is legit but just don’t know and don’t want to add to your personal page.
I’ve actually seen even more spamming attempts on LinkedIn (which you’ve written about). That’s actually easy to check before you accept someone.
Scott, meet Pat – Pat meet Scott,
Pat, you have pretty much figured Scott out. Scott, Pat is one of the people you OUGHT to connect with on Facebook. You both travel a lot, think deeply and have a great sense of humor. Thanks for your comments.
Hi Sam,
I know you know this, but I’m going to re-iterate it for the Facebook Unwashed. Whenever someone wants to be your friend, you can send them a personal message. Just click on their page and you will see that glorious little button that says “Message.” I’m looking at the button for Natsume right now (no snickers from the peanut gallery, Scott!).
You are 100% right. I would not give Natsume the time of day, but Burt Jones and Hillary Zubalovski are the types of real people who sometimes want to be my friend.
I have a standard message, which I will adjust to refer to your business page:
Hi Burt,
Thanks for the Friend Request on Facebook. I try to keep my personal Facebook account for just my friends and family. They’re a handful, believe me. However, I do welcome you to “LIKE” us over at our Business Facebook Page – “Sam Richter- Know More” – and perhaps to connect with my on LinkedIn. Thanks again, Sam.
I think most real folks will understand. Those who aren’t real – well, you never hear from them again, anyway.
Thanks Michael, for the prudent advice about using Social Media responsibly. I too get caught up in the rush to take advantage of all the brewhaha with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter and many times “lose sight of the ball” because quite frankly I’m not always sure what, or where the ball is anyway. I think we all have a lot to learn about, and even invest in, Social Media and I appreciate your guidance on something I’m not always too sure about. I’m just glad that someone can see the forest and the trees!
Hi John,
Trees? Forest? I usually can’t even find the footpath! I think there is far more danger than almost anyone is telling us about. The latitude given to these social media companies by government is shocking. But, the fealty paid to them by the masses is even more shocking. We are the product being sold – and almost no one cares.
Thanks Michael, you are the only one we know that really understands this stuff! We appreciate you staying on top of social media behaviors and keeping us current.
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