Entry tags:
Spamvertising
There's been a rash of marketing campaigns on social networks, so I thought I'd post a brief analysis of why I think these need to be quashed and where I draw the line between one that's okay and one that's spam.
1) In general, if there's a giveaway by a company of their own products, I'm okay with it.
1b) In general, if someone posts about a new product from a company they like, especially a small or indie company, I'm okay with it.
2) In general, if there's a giveaway by a company who's relying on giving away a cooler product than the ones they make to give marketing buzz, I'm not okay with it.
Face it, the only reasons companies want you to re-tweet or re-post items in #2 is to decrease your own odds of winning. The cooler what they're giving away is, the less likely you are to win anyway. They don't care if you ever use their product. That's not how success is measured. They only want numbers. Some people think the #moonfruit spamathon was "Twitter Promotion Done Right." Read my dissent here.
If you do #2, I will unfollow you on Facebook or Twitter or here -- with the caveat that if you delete that post, I'd be happy to add you back. If people like you and me don't push back, then the social networks will become all about the spam and not about the conversation.
I want my social networks to be social, and not about spam. I get that not every one of you will be into everything I am, and vice versa. That's fine. Just don't spam me.
Were I Twitter, I'd institute a new policy that marketing campaigns that used hashtags or followers for promotion would cost $1 per resulting tweet if there were more than 500 tweets.
It'd be interesting to see how competitors would use that against the campaign....
1) In general, if there's a giveaway by a company of their own products, I'm okay with it.
1b) In general, if someone posts about a new product from a company they like, especially a small or indie company, I'm okay with it.
2) In general, if there's a giveaway by a company who's relying on giving away a cooler product than the ones they make to give marketing buzz, I'm not okay with it.
Face it, the only reasons companies want you to re-tweet or re-post items in #2 is to decrease your own odds of winning. The cooler what they're giving away is, the less likely you are to win anyway. They don't care if you ever use their product. That's not how success is measured. They only want numbers. Some people think the #moonfruit spamathon was "Twitter Promotion Done Right." Read my dissent here.
If you do #2, I will unfollow you on Facebook or Twitter or here -- with the caveat that if you delete that post, I'd be happy to add you back. If people like you and me don't push back, then the social networks will become all about the spam and not about the conversation.
I want my social networks to be social, and not about spam. I get that not every one of you will be into everything I am, and vice versa. That's fine. Just don't spam me.
Were I Twitter, I'd institute a new policy that marketing campaigns that used hashtags or followers for promotion would cost $1 per resulting tweet if there were more than 500 tweets.
It'd be interesting to see how competitors would use that against the campaign....