Re: Of Course There Is a Social Media Backlash Coming

DMC — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 15:13:12 -0000

I was thinking about my comparison of Twitter to a giant chat room after I brought it up in our Geek Dads @Home podcast yesterday, and reading this puts me in mind of what (in my opinion) killed my interest in things like it in the past... marketers. It sounds weird since I *am* a marketer, but I also believe that there's a time and a place for everything. I wonder what the response would be from someone like Joel Comm (who, due entirely to his marketing, manage to get a freakin' fart app to number one in the iTunes app store) if you asked him if it's kosher to come into a chat room and start blasting marketing messages. I mean, think back to when the AOL chat rooms were super popular... if you were in a Daddy Day Care chat room and someone came in and did nothing but blast marketing messages to the room, that person would get no respect and with any luck, would be kicked out of the room. Today though, that kind of practice is "acceptable" (to some people) on Twitter. I know, I know, we decide who to follow and who not to follow, so it's supposedly an opt-in sort of situation... but if I follow someone who primarily does personal updates and then that person starts pushing marketing messages exclusively... that's annoying, to say the least. I guess I just feel like people should have a Twitter account for personal updates and another for their pure marketing efforts. A little overlap is fine... I've pushed my Big Book of Spam from @danielmclark a few times even though I've got a separate @bigbookofspam Twitter account. But I try not to be obnoxious about it.

To me, Twitter is a tool, like you said. It's not a gold mine or a source of income to me. It's good for brand building to an extent, but only to the extent that the people I interact with *already know me*. I don't need to market to my friends, I need to market to the masses. Blogs do that. Twitter doesn't.

Re: Of Course There Is a Social Media Backlash Coming

Sam Harrelson — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 14:31:21 -0000

Great points, Daniel.
In my opinion, it's all about nuance. Marketers interested or experimenting
with "social media" don't all seem to grasp the concept that these aren't
direct ROI channels but augments and ratholes into something very
transformative.

What's really getting on my nerves lately are the "personal brand" guys/gals
that are trying to build their molehills on top of their 5k followers. It
just seems so silly and transient to me, and I think the "followers" are
wising up to that sort of equity-mindset rather than real worth mindset.

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Re: Of Course There Is a Social Media Backlash Coming

Re: Of Course There Is a Social Media Backlash Coming