The 'Oh Poor Me' Post Scam for Viral Digital Presence

There's a new type of viral post that has been driving me crazy and I thought it might be a helpful lesson in building digital presence for many people looking to brand themselves. I refer to it as the “Oh Poor Me” post. These posts are an attempt to manipulate the algorithms within the big digital social presence players, like LinkedIn . In this newsletter, I'm going to explain what they are, how they work, and how people are using them to scam others as a ploy to go viral and build the wrong type of digital presence. Let's jump in!

What are the “Oh Poor Me” posts?

It’s a post with a captivating picture of the person posting it and tells the saga of how hard things are for them and how desperately they need you to share their post to help them. If you start paying attention, you’ll start seeing them more and more. Many of them are “oh poor me, I’ve been out of a typical employment situation for 2+ years,” or “oh poor me, I’m really struggling because of xyz.” These social media posts are painfully long because they don’t actually want you to read the whole thing, just skim a few key points. Here’s the basic layout of these posts:

• Part 1 - An introduction to me and the picture of me.
• Part 2 - How terrible things are for me.
• Part 3 - The tragedy of how these terrible things have disrupted my otherwise amazing/blessed/sunshine-and-rainbows life.
• Part 4 - All I need from you is a share of this post.
• Part 5 - If you’re a kind-hearted/caring/giving/compassionate person, you’ll share this to help me.
• Part 6 - Oh, I almost forgot to mention, I also have my own business.
• Part 7 - Look how strong I am to have my own business despite this tragedy in my life.
• Part 8 -But don’t forget, I really need your help because of this tragedy and all I need you to do is click the share button. You’ll do it because I know you are a decent human being.

What are people trying to gain from them?

Viral Digital Presence?

You may have noticed in my formula above that these people have their own business. They want to gain exposure and followers so that they can sell to you and everyone you share to later in the future. A recent one of these “poor me” posts I saw was someone who if you clicked into her profile was boasting about her 70,000 followers and how you need to pay her as a coach to gain direct access to these 70,000 people. She was using the “oh poor me” post to gain followers so that she could sell them. Her “or poor me” scam? How she desperately needed a new car and if you share, maybe a car manufacturer will see her need and gift her one. In her blog-length post, she actually said more than once that she can’t afford a car. So she’s telling you that she’s in desperate need of you to share her post, but really it’s bait in her scam to get you to follow her. If she successfully had 70,000 people following her to ‘sell’ to others, she’d be able to afford a car, even just a decently used one. But… most people just went “oh you poor thing, here let me like your post and share it to my network to help you!” Afterall, a share isn’t that hard to give to someone in need, right? Out of the kindness of your heart, you click that button and her post goes to even more people.

What makes the “Oh Poor Me” posts a scam?

These people are preying on the good intentions of others and the trust built by the platform. You’ll think you’re helping someone in need. A complete stranger who 1,000 other people have also helped, so it must be real, right? Don’t believe everything you read on the internet! Unfortunately, studies have been showing LinkedIn is the social media platform with the highest level of trust in what shows up in our feeds. When we trust the feed and see these “oh poor me” posts, we trust them, too. It takes time to research these posts and the people posting them to see how legitimate they are or are not. On a social media platform, we simply don’t do that. It’s quick to click the share button and move on with our day thinking we’ve done a good deed.

How do you spot these scams?

Even the “please share because i desperately need a job” posts are usually a scam. If you read the whole thing, it starts with “I’ve been out of work for 2 years so please share and help me find a job” but leads into “so I decided to start my own business when I couldn’t find a job and if you click my link, I’ll teach you how to work from home, too.” If they started with “work from home,” most of us would see the scam immediately.?

How do you spot them as a scam? Do they have too many likes already? Read the whole thing. Click the icon of the original poster to see their profile and what they ‘really’ do for a living. Those are some pretty easy ways to tell. Personally, I like to dig a little deeper, but as I mentioned when I started this newsletter edition, it’s a peeve for me. I might even look at how long they’ve owned the domain of their website that claims to be so new due to the lack of a job. They claim to have started this business out of desperation only a year ago, yet they’ve owned the domain for 5 years… riiiight.?

When you spot a scam, you can report the post, or simply do nothing. Don’t like, don’t comment, and don’t share. Be the breaker to protect others from falling victim.?

I want viral digital presence. Are you saying I can do this, too?

Sure, you could basically extrapolate what I've said here into a formula for going viral yourself, but is this really the way you want to be seen? If all you want are clicks, you can buy those. The way I look at this is simple: I want my digital presence to be a certain way (namely, I want to be seen as an expert capable of sharing my knowledge with others). I do NOT want a potential client, employer, or peer to see me as a whining person looking for a handout. So why on Earth would I want a post to be seen by hundreds of thousands of people that casts me in the light of someone not capable of taking care of things myself??

Please don’t think I’m making light or mocking the difficulties others are facing.

There is such a thing as a real need and a real hardship and I understand that better than most people. If you’ve ever met me in person, you’ve likely also met my service dog. And no, he isn’t a pet I threw a vest on to parade around in public. He’s a real service animal trained for a specific purpose. But here’s the thing - I DON’T TALK ABOUT IT. It isn’t anyone else’s business what I’ve been through or why I have him. The last thing I ever want is to be judged for the adversities I face on a daily basis. I’m not going to use that to try and go viral because I know that a cute picture of a service dog will get a lot of clicks. I would much rather someone follow me because of what I have to offer as an expert, not because I want to pretend that I need a new car.

Before you post that “oh poor me” story, please ask yourself:

Of the things we think, say, and do…

Is it the truth?