Have you ever read something on social media or elsewhere online that sounded really persuasive…then, perhaps you “liked” it or even added a supportive comment…without really knowing for certain whether the post was accurate?

• Sadly, many of us – including me – have done exactly that.

Not to be political, this is just to cite one example: the President’s son, Eric, retweeted a post that featured comedian Tim Allen stating that the costs associated with President Obama’s website for the Affordable Care Act were higher than those to build the border wall advocated by President Trump.

First off, that’s not true: Bloomberg fixed the HealthCare.gov costs at $2.1 billion – estimates for the wall, according to President Trump, are in the $15-21 billion range.

But, secondly, Allen never said it. This isn’t to say that the “Home Improvement” star isn’t in favor of the border wall – it’s just that he never made the statement attributed to him.

However, like many of us have done, Eric Trump saw a quote he liked from a source he appreciated – and reposted the falsehood. I’m not attempting to suggest he knew it was untrue; most of us just assume the accuracy of a statement when we like, repost, or comment positively on a meme like that.

I’m currently reading the new book by the great author, Malcolm Gladwell. The thesis of the book is, basically, that even highly trained experts like CIA agents and Federal judges cannot effectively ascertain when someone is telling the truth. In other words, we all suffer a bit in the accuracy of our analysis of information.

All of this does indicate, though, that we need to do just a little homework before we proceed to spread information in today’s wired world.

A while back, I heard from an author who was simply gobsmacked: she’d subtitled her first book – one she had worked long and hard to write – with exactly the same title as my first business book. When it hit the market, many people said to her, “You do know Scott McKain’s book on this, right?” And, while book titles cannot be trademarked or copyrighted, it’s hard to stimulate a strong public response for an idea that appears to be derivative.

• In other words, she had done all the hard work to write the book – but evidently never took the time to do a simple Google search on the title.

Our company owns the Federally registered trademark on a term I first started writing and speaking about in the early 1908’s: “Ultimate Customer Experience. ®” We have legal intellectual property protection for all training, education, speaking, and knowledge-based efforts. It’s my brand…my mark…in the customer experience world.

Yet, we are constantly dealing with training companies, research firms, speakers, and workshop leaders who are trying to deliver programs on how to create an “Ultimate Customer Experience.” It appears that they can’t be bothered to do the homework of checking with Google or performing a Trademark search to see if someone else owns it before they launch their programs.

It’s akin to constructing a house on land that is someone else’s – then acting as if you’re upset that you can’t own the structure. Wouldn’t you at least check first before you started the building?

The point of all of this is just a simple reminder that I need – and perhaps you do, as well. It’s easier than ever to post, re-post, advertise, and share information than ever before. And, all in all, that’s a great aspect to the world we live in.

However, it also requires of us the added responsibility to be certain that we’re not inadvertently sharing – or even profiting – from content that isn’t true…or isn’t ours.

My great friend, the “Dean of NFL Officials,” Jim Tunney, always ends his weekly “Tunney Side of the Street” posts with a “Will you?” question. With appreciation and admiration for him, I’ll simply ask:

• Will you think about the truth – and consider the proper ownership– of what you share on social media and elsewhere in the future?