Showing posts with label Social media marketing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Social media marketing. Show all posts
Tuesday, 9 September 2014
About Face/s - Instagram Revelations
Sunday, 12 January 2014
I Know What I 'Like', Or Do I?
They are employees of what are euphemistically termed 'click farms'; a sort of agricultural production line of fake 'Likes' that pepper Twitter, Facebook and other social media.
In the good old days we had automated bots that did this job and social media companies such as Google waged a war to counter the automated trend. To a certain extent they won the battle, but the fake brigade still smelt money and re-focused their operations on human keyboard-tappers instead.
While the capital of Bangladesh, Dhaka, is a recognised hub for click farms so are other places such as Cairo and Indonesia. It is no coincidence that these centres are located in countries where workers get paid a pittance.
The Guardian reports:
"For the workers, though, it is miserable work, sitting at screens in dingy rooms facing a blank wall, with windows covered by bars, and sometimes working through the night. For that, they could have to generate 1,000 likes or follow 1,000 people on Twitter to earn a single US dollar."
Another dubious example is Shareyt, whose owner Sharaf al-Nomani, told the same newspaper that: "around 30% or 40% of the clicks will come from Bangladesh". The Guardian equated this statistic to 25,000 people in Dhaka repetitively punching their computer keyboards, hour after hour, to enhance the visibility of a client's product or service.
The Guardian reports:
"For the workers, though, it is miserable work, sitting at screens in dingy rooms facing a blank wall, with windows covered by bars, and sometimes working through the night. For that, they could have to generate 1,000 likes or follow 1,000 people on Twitter to earn a single US dollar."
Another dubious example is Shareyt, whose owner Sharaf al-Nomani, told the same newspaper that: "around 30% or 40% of the clicks will come from Bangladesh". The Guardian equated this statistic to 25,000 people in Dhaka repetitively punching their computer keyboards, hour after hour, to enhance the visibility of a client's product or service.
But these sweatshop conditions doesn't seem to deter well known clients; some of which may surprise you.
For example, the USA State Department recently had its knuckles rapped for spending US$630,000 to boost its Facebook fan following. Most of these new fans came from Cairo, which given the current political sensitivities has an aura of the absurd.
For example, the USA State Department recently had its knuckles rapped for spending US$630,000 to boost its Facebook fan following. Most of these new fans came from Cairo, which given the current political sensitivities has an aura of the absurd.
There is nothing covert about click farm companies and the 'Likes' they generate are quite genuine, in the sense that a human being created the action. Take a company such as WeSellLikes.com. Its domain name choice is clearly not attempting to mask its activities. If I was so inclined I could buy 10,000 'real worldwide likes' for less than $US100.
Practical yes, ethical...barely. So why do businesses indulge in such activities?.
The greatest motivation is fear. Fear that their enterprise will look pathetic with its 200 genuine Facebook Likes compared to Competitor X down the road who has 10,000. A common belief is that customer perception of their brand might be adversely affected by such a discrepancy in numbers.
While there may be an element of truth in this assumption (according to research 31% will check out reviews, ratings, likes and followers before buying), buying 1 million twitter followers from an Indonesian web entrepreneur for $US600 for your farmhouse cheese brand, isn't necessarily going to solve your online marketing woes.
Customers are becoming increasingly aware of the ruse and the more savvy they become, the less effective these click farms buy-ins will be.
But one business often begets another. Click Auditors are the new breed, with London's Status People being one such service provider. They assist companies to block out the fakes for as little as $US5.50 per month.
The real trouble for a business begins when you start to believe your own marketing hype and strategically plan based on false social media analysis. I would like to say that such folly does not exist but regrettably it does.
Of course this being a genuine blog post I would welcome genuine 'Likes' and 'Followers' - although it is highly doubtful that Mr Sharaf al-Nomani, will do so personally.
Reference:
The real trouble for a business begins when you start to believe your own marketing hype and strategically plan based on false social media analysis. I would like to say that such folly does not exist but regrettably it does.
Of course this being a genuine blog post I would welcome genuine 'Likes' and 'Followers' - although it is highly doubtful that Mr Sharaf al-Nomani, will do so personally.
Reference:
- How low-paid workers at 'click farms' create appearance of online popularity - The Guardian
- 4 Ways Click Farms Screw Your Business - Inc
- Click farms are the new sweatshops - The Washington Post
- Selling social media clicks becomes big business - San Jose Mercury News
- 1000 fake followers for US$10 - NZ Herald
- State Department bureau spent $630,000 on Facebook 'likes' - Washington Examiner
Wednesday, 3 July 2013
Friday, 1 February 2013
Stop The Spread Of Vacationitis
The Hilton and The Onion; hardly a marriage made in heaven one would think, but based on this innovative campaign one would be wrong.
Onion's creative arm, Onion Labs have partnered with the hotel company to produce a web site that encourages a worker to diagnose their ills and recommends vacations as a 'prescription'.
The Urgent Vacation Centre also features the 14 symptoms of Vacationitis and a plea to stop the spread of this malignant disease.
Onion's creative arm, Onion Labs have partnered with the hotel company to produce a web site that encourages a worker to diagnose their ills and recommends vacations as a 'prescription'.
The Urgent Vacation Centre also features the 14 symptoms of Vacationitis and a plea to stop the spread of this malignant disease.
I can particularly emphasise with the malady 'Acute Retinal Monitoritis' ! The viewer has the ability to download a large or small version of each symptom for their office cubicle or share same through social media.
Yellow Post-It Fever doesn't look too pleasant either.
According to the New York Times, more than a third of the business of Hilton Hotels and Resorts is generated by leisure travelers. The new campaign is directed at them, said Andrew Flack, vice president for global brand marketing.
“We are particularly targeting working professionals. It’s becoming harder and harder to switch off work, harder for people to think about and plan vacations. This time of year is popular for people to plan vacation travel. When they come through Christmas, they think ahead for the year, think about where they might go.”
It all goes to prove that when it comes to advertising a little humour goes a long way; in this case hopefully a long way away from a cluttered desk and a frenetic office.
Wednesday, 1 February 2012
How Agencies Rate Their Clients Social Media Tactics
Agencies have rated the effectiveness of their clients' social marketing tactics and according to an article by Marketing Sherpa, posting content on company-branded or -managed blogs is deemed either very or somewhat effective by 85% of agencies. This is particularly so when that content is purposely fed into other social media outlets.
Related articles
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| Unusual marketing tactics - Betfair sponsored Bromley Town and the footballers 'adopted' QR Codes |
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