Don't you know who I am?

I read this Facebook post last week.

Howard was having difficulty with a company fixing an order of his. This post made me want to write some musings I've had for a while about social media and it's influence.

The is a common image of famous people getting things their own way. If they don't get good service, everybody knows about it and the business may suffer bad consequences. It's not uncommon for them to get special treatment where ever they are. This is because these people hold the public's attention. Look at the interest that is netted by people such as the Kardashians and other reality TV stars and it's not hard to see that a word or action from them could have some impact on the a business or person targeted.

It's a bit of a cliche on how important someone thinks they are if they say "Don't you know who I am?" when interacting with someone else. You see it happen in film and T.V. and with little variation the person who says that is someone of little importance just trying to enforce their will. However, in today's world of social media and international reach you never know who a person can be. There are lots of bloggers out there that have wide reach, not to mention Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. There are channels that I subscribe to on YouTube that have as many as 9 Million subscribers. If you are an online retailer and you do something bad to one of these people, you might find business impacted as word spreads.

I think the biggest lesson people should learn from social media is that you never know if the person you are talking to has an audience of social media minions. If you are a business, it is in your best interest to treat every customer like a VIP. In social interactions, it is best to be polite. If people choose to abuse that and take offense and persecute others, that is their choice and condemnation.