Who Are You Really Listening To?

When I started looking for information on how to work from home and start my own business, there wasn’t any Facebook or Twitter. Back then, I had to go to message boards. You could ask a question, and people would reply back. The information was often from people with vastly different opinions. It could be hard to figure out what was “right” and what was “wrong.”

Sometimes the people giving the advice were only pushing their own agenda. If someone asked for a way to work from home, they could easily receive 30 or more replies from people pushing them to join their network marketing company or direct sales company, even if the person had said they were looking for information on telecommuting.

A lot of people were hurt or misled by the information they found on message boards. Even more people have the opportunity to get misinformed via Twitter and Facebook.

When you ask a question and people respond to you, you will get answers from people who are genuinely trying to help you. But that doesn’t mean they are qualified to dispense the advice. For example, let’s say you wanted to find work as a freelance proofreader. Well, the person who responds to you may seem like they have a ton of helpful advice, but they may only be telling you what they have heard. They may never have actually been employed in the field. They may have only opened up their Twitter account two days before you. That two days of extra experience isn’t really that helpful.

Before you take advice from someone – and definitely before you spend money on somene’s product or service, please think about the following:

Who is this person? Anyone can go online and start answering questions and pushing a product. Do some investigative work to find out who this person is and what their experience is.

What does Google have to say about them? If someone has been online for a year or more, they should have a nice sized Google footprint. If someone wants you to spend money on their product or service, Google their name. If nothing comes up, they probably haven’t been online as long as they say they have. If a bunch of complaints come up, be very cautious! Read through the first few pages of results and see what others think of this person.

Who’s actually following them? You may find someone on Twitter who claims to be a social media expert. They may even look the part  with 20,000 followers. But don’t be fooled! Look and see who’s actually following them. There are ways to “pump up” the number of your Twitter followers by creating fake Twitter accounts. Make sure actual people are following  the person in question.

What is the quality of their free information? Everyone offers some amount of “free information.” It may be in the form of their tweets, the posts on their blog, perhaps they offer a free ecourse via email or a small report or workbook for download. Before you pay good money for their help, look at their free information. What is the quality? If they don’t seem to know what they are talking about, if the information is hard to understand, or if they simply tell you to do something but can’t explain why you should do it, keep your money and look for help elsewhere.

Are they listening to you? Or are they telling you? When you ask this person a question, do they listen to you? Do they give you an answer that works best for your situation? Or do they offer you a cookie-cutter explanation and tell you to fit your life into their solution? If someone really wants to help you, they will be explaining the options that fit your needs!

How do you feel about them? Most importantly, how do you feel about this person? Do they make you feel comfortable? Are they someone you want to work with? Listen to your gut! Your instincts won’t lie!