The article you just knew was coming to the mainstream marketing world arrived last week: The Buying And Selling Of Fake Followers. [1] Yes, there are multiple online sources for buying social media likes, fans and followers. And it’s cheaper than attracting them the old-fashioned way. You can all understand what’s wrong with that.
One of the key quotes is, ‘You get the same results buying Twitter followers as you do stuffing your bra. A line of superficial egg heads.’ I don’t understand the second point, but the first one is interesting in its imperfection. Let’s pray that the buying of social media metrics does not have the long-term staying power of bra stuffing, which has been with us since Sigmund Lindauer [2] (sorry to Otto Titzling fans). I’d hate to see ‘social media’ get added to that most deceivingly benign saying, “All is fair in love and war.”
In the early days of social media, proponents breathlessly exalted it as earned media, rather than paid media. So that’s over. You can’t do this sort of thing in traditional paid media. You can’t buy a GRP or a print exposure in audited media that isn’t a real GRP, although there is very definitely a range of quality in GRP, and this is the best and most important point of the article: just like in traditional media, social media should be all about quality and not just quantity.
You also cannot do this sort of thing with a media that is well understood, particularly by clients. Even social media specialists should be interested in having clients who are enlightened about social media’s strengths and weaknesses, and the fact that in many ways, it’s like traditional media.
It takes bravery to jump off a bandwagon that’s still moving fast. And it’s easier for someone like me who has a long timeline in the marketing communications. I’m really impressed when people who are expected to be fanatical supporters take the plunge, like Leo Burnett’s Thomas Kenney, who wrote a nice piece for Marketing back in October. [3]
I’ve tried to be thoughtful on social media (ALL ATWITTER ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA) for a while now. It’s so much better to hear this kind of enlightenment from someone in the marketing communications business who was born after John Lennon left the planet. And while we’re tying up a theme here (and understand in advance that I’m in no way making any kind of personal comparison here), life-engaged people, even some with very long timelines, still know what they’re doing:
Sir Paul McCartney and friends, live, Dec 12, 2012. Even if you’re not a Nirvana fan, watch to the end.
- The Buying And Selling Of Fake Followers, Marketing Magazine (Daily PM), Dec 5, 2012.
- awarded first patent for the mass-produced brassiere in 1913.
- Column: It’s Time to Re-Evaluate Facebook, Marketing Magazine, Oct 18, 2012.
