This Influency stuff is big. It’s everywhere. It’s a little scary, maybe. But influence(y) we must, so …

This morning I came across an article about on-line dating. I’m Jewish. I’ve used JDate. And so while I’m not on the market, myself, when the powers-that-be controlling what pops up in my browser pointed me at a story purportedly about on-line dating amongst people of the tribe, I clicked through.

Adam Popescu’s story isn’t unique; we’ve all heard horror stories about on-line dating, people not being who they said they were, and worse. Back in the day, I experienced a bunch of that, myself. But assuming this Adam Popescu is the Adam Popescu who wrote the story—and I’m pretty sure it is, well, I’m scratching my head.

You see, Adam Popescu is a relatively young man. He writes about social media, and so you would think understands the subject a bit better than the article he’s just written for ReadWrite would suggest. But this morning, Adam Popescu, a social media journalist and self-professed expert, claims he’s sworn off on-line dating.

I don’t know Mr. Popescu, so I don’t care how he handles his personal affairs. And I’m not the arbiter of what’s right and wrong or good and bad about on-line dating.But I’m kind of astonished that this piece, by this guy, took this tone.

Because, friends (and you too, Adam): the on-line world takes a special skill set to navigate, and—surprise!—that skill set includes both on-line and off-line evaluation techniques.

Adam Popescu is surprised that he had an odd experience? Yikes. At least we know that he was telling the truth, right? I mean, ReadWrite wouldn’t let Popescu publish that story under their news-and-journalism banner when it was really just parody, would they?

Let’s forget Adam Popescu. This story is about how widespread marketing is, on-line, and how you need to control every element of your persona if you want to see your Influency go in the right direction.

Also, let’s not pick on any particular on-line dating sites, or even the genre as a whole. Sure, OKCupid is begging to be parodied. So OKWasted!

But we live in a world where there are an almost unfathomable number of ways to get confused, waylayed, and taken advantage of. Facebook feels like nothing short of the fall of society. The damage you can do to yourself on Chatroulette extends in all directions.And Google? Well, Google is misogynistic.

Your job is to find your way through the on-line marketing maze. Our job is to help you. Reach out and say hello, OK, Cupid?