Of course I don’t. I find it completely ridiculous.
I do receive emails from vendors, suppliers, and marketers requesting a sponsored blog post, link, or guest post. There are times when money is offered and other times when they would prefer something free. However, I experienced something different last night while reading new emails.
Ready?
I hope this message finds you well.
I’d like to advertise on your site kylelacy.com for our WEBSITE. It wouldn’t be anything obtrusive; I’d like to get either a mention & link in a post leading to our site. If you help me out we’d be more than willing to compensate you with social media services such as 1000 Facebook fans or 1000 Twitter followers to maximize your marketing online.
Please let me know if you’d be interested or if you’d like more details.
I couldn’t believe it. Who am I kidding? Of course I could believe it! The issue with this email is not that vendor is offering payment with Twitter and Facebook fans. The issue isn’t that they are offering maximized marketing services by increasing friends and followers.
The issue – this company is still in business.
What would be the point of automatically receiving 2000 accounts connected to my name? I have no idea who they are… what’s the point? Social media is about storytelling and communication. We build community because individuals must have the ability to connect and have a conversation.
I’m not interested in shouting.
Instead of going with Company Terrible… try the follow tips instead.
1. Tell customer and personal stories on your blog. If you currently have a blog for your company be very sure that you are telling stories and not regurgitating industry information. How are you setting yourself apart from your competition? You are more likely to garner leads (in the long term) if you are telling stories with personality and flair. People will latch on and relate with stories about other customers.
2. Use Facebook Ads to Drive Leads. Facebook Ads could be one of the more important things you could do in social media in order to drive leads and business development.
Check out the following posts to help with the building of your Facebook ads:
- StayOnSearch – Top 5 Facebook Advertising Tips
- Mashable – 5 Tips for Facebook Marketing Success
- The Next Web – 5 Tips to Improve Your Facebook Ad Campaign
Bill Bean
Whew! For a minute I thought you'd gone to the dark side.
Harrison Painter
……because nothing sparks more marketing potential than a couple thousand fake accounts created by a tweet Farm in a third world country! LOL
mike_mcgrail
Amen Kyle, amen! This whole practice is nuts. Check out @backlinkzguru on Twitter, they sell you backlinks and give you 300 Twitter followers as a bonus! Good lord no! As you say, how are these people still in business?
Craig McGill
Mike, we all know it's a crock – and in the long-run harmful – but I'm sure we've all heard tales of execs demanding more followers, likes or YouTube views. That can be a hard battle for some people to fight and buying can feel like a short term win while fighting the long war. I'm not a fan of the policy – or even 'targetted' followers but I can see why some do it. But like you, I just don't think it's right.
…a Book of Blues.
You should have told them you could give them 2,0000 of your FB friends and Twitter followers if they promise to never contact you, again. And then charge them 500 YouTube post likes for wasting your time.
Then they could rank page one for "Rick Santorum" (anyone else read that?).
Whatever happen to good 'ole link brokering. 🙂
Laura-Lee Walker
Great post to educate the masses! 🙂
I think these people target entry-level social media users, and they must have some success if they are still in business. However, I think these are short term strategies. Companies like Google and Facebook will eventually find ways to nullify their impact.
tobexmastermind
"Social media is about storytelling and communication." I cannot agree more.