If you came here looking for a screed against your favorite Social Media personality, the exits down the hall.

Instead, I wanted to clear the brush from a line of reasoning that we ignore in our race for “open conversations” and influence. What is the dark side of self-serving celebrity?

Despite the “philosophical” differences that people in our space have with each other, despite the weekend blog brawls and despite all of the back-stage maneuvering, at the end of the day all of us are trying to make a world better, even if that world begins and ends with us. Up until now, even the most frustrating netizens have couched this in values we all can respect — life, liberty and the pursuit of, you know, something.

What would the world look like if someone took the celebrity that we spoon out to our flavor of the week superstars and used it for something less palatable?

What does the world look like if we had Social Media super villains?

Let’s look at an example.

I bet when you woke up this morning you didn’t realize that you can create the news. We all can. Never forget that. If you have a reasonable following anywhere on the web and have a few of the right friends willing to go all-in with you, you can manufacture whatever rumor your little heart desires.

The real kicker is that lots of people will believe you.

Fine, great that’s not a problem if all you use this power for is to get a rise out of Valleywag, but what happens when someone gets the notion of applying it to something important — say, gaming Digg to spread a political rumor or using Twitter to help undermine a competitor’s corporate culture? Worse yet, what if this person actually has a bit of vision to back up the bluster and an agenda a little more complex than “lulz”.

At this point you might be saying, “Building that kind of influence is hard! That’s why Social Media Consultants and SEO professionals and, and . . .”

Right.

You don’t need to build your own influence if you don’t have the time, all you need to do is buy a few voices willing to say what you tell them to. It’s a practice that’s been around since the dawn of politics. Since a patsy is only a patsy until he gets paid, I’ll bet my Bloggers Boating Club card that this wouldn’t even be that difficult if the money was right.

Is this happening now? Do we live in a world of thoughtcrime and villainy?

To some extent.

The relationship between content producers and PR is rife with under the table deals, but as it stands money and unrefined influence still seems to be the chief currency. What happens when someone with interests beyond selling another eBook or being comped at a conference and pockets deep enough to matter decides to leverage social influence?

Where do we draw the line?

How do we know that are peers are doing the same?

What’s the escape hatch if the manipulation is subtle enough that we don’t see it coming, and clever enough that no one believes us if it does?

In a world of Social Media super villains, what do the Heroes look like?

(Images) (Forum)

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