The Social Media Expert Illusion: How to Spot the Real Deal

 photo credit: U.S. Air Force illustration by Airman 1st Class Devin N. Boye (Flickr)

You have just come across the best lesson plan or eLearning module ever, but how can you tell if the author is legit?  I mean, it could just be some ones dog barking at the screen, with the advent of pseudo names on social media, anyone can have an online alter ego. 

The Challenge of Authenticity

George Shaw in his 2022 article published in the Health Care section of MDPI (Click here for article) took a look at tweets pertaining to diet, diabetes, exercise and obesity(DDEO).  He found that in an average year there were 1.7 million tweets that referred to DDEO.  17% of which did not have any correct or even factual information listed in the tweet, and only 29% of the remaining had any factual information associated with the tweet. 

Guide Posts to determine Authenticity

With the sheer volume of information on the internet and social media such as Reddit allowing for pseudo names for its users, how to we in the modern era determine who is real and who are trolls? 

here are a few things to look for when evaluating the authenticity of a social media presence;

1. Content Analysis: Does the content have relevance and depth.  is the content original? Is the content accurate in your estimation and is there evidence presented in the form of peer reviewed journals?  Is the content consistent? Is the social media presence using the proper tone and terminology for their field?  

2. Engagement and Community Interaction: Is the engagement thoughtful and builds community.  Does the influencer have a high status ranking (caution rank can be bought) Do others in the community validate the presences point of view.

3 Profile and Background Information: Does their profile convey their expertise? Are there external links to additional work they have done? How old is the account and are they active a lot in the community? 

4.Networking Analysis: Who do they follow and who is following them back?  Are they mentioned a lot?  Are they represented in a lot of tags? 

This is in no way an exhaustive list of things to look for when verifying a social media presence but merely some things to consider the next time you think maybe the person on the other side of the social media screen might be a dog barking at a computer.