Marketing Trolls

bobman1235

WOw, this is just scary. Read this here

Hey guys,

I interviewed for a guerilla marketing business in San Francisco that targeted web forums.

I was told that if I accepted the job, I was to have at LEAST 50 identities on as many forums as I could muster (they wanted 100 eventually), with a goal of 5 posts an hour. The posts had to be well thought out, and the idea was that I was to establish multiple identities with a history on the forums, so that when the timing was right a well written but subtly placed marketing post could be finessed in. And regular visitors would recognize the post as coming from a long time poster.

They had 12 people working there full time, and were hiring 10 more. You do the math. No wait, I'll do it for you: that's 880 posts a day (if minimum was met). However he said the better ones could do around 8 or 10 an hour. And they had different "verticals" so there was the sports guy, and the games guy, the hentai, excuse me I mean anime guy, etc.

But the most critical point was this: develop and integrate the identity. No random "HEY EB GAMES IS AWESOME BUY THIS" stuff.

Kinda spooky.

dkg999

This has been happening for a long time! Go to any of the forums for publically traded companies on Yahoo, and it becomes very apparent that either the company has tasked an employee with making company friendly posts or that they have hired an outside firm. It's actually more in the PR realm than the marketing area, depending on the specific companies goals. On the other side of the coin are companies that do web-spidering collection of information to alert these type of firms to when and where their specific interest is being discussed. It's the new marketing and PR world!

My comments above are not an endorsement of this type of activity. Having been in the direct marketing industry for the past 24 years, I am still struggling with where the bounds of good practice are on some of these new avenues. Ultimately as consumers we will vote with our dollars on whether these types of tactics work or not.

Early B.

No big deal. Word-of-mouth endorsements are still the best form of marketing. Gotta generate a "buzz" for products no matter what they are, and forums are great for doing that. At times I have even suspected some folks on this forum of being paid marketing agents.

BTW -- the corporate use of audio forums is how SVS became popular and many other audio companies that we have come to love. Hell, what could be worse (or better) than a company setting up its own forum to promote its products and the suckers who keep it going don't get paid at all! :eek:

madmax

That sucks! We don't need that here for sure. We already talk each other into buying everything out there.
madmax

Edit: BTW EarlyB, did I tell you how great those TungSols were?

Dennis Gardner

I still think the best thing about this forum is that the sponsors don't really market their stuff here. It is mostly an enthusiasts site. The internet will always have its marketing schemes but it still boils down to the quality/value of the item marketed and the simple fact that it is on the internet will seek out the frauds and expose the issue.

If is wasn't for the internet, Bose would have even more market share. Notice how little marketing they actually do on the internet, most of their ads are to mind numbed TV and radio viewers/listeners that will buy anything at near any price. The internet actually exposes the truth about their quality/value and sets the record straight.

audiobliss

Dennis Gardner wrote:

I still think the best thing about this forum is that the sponsors don't really market their stuff here. It is mostly an enthusiasts site.

+1 on that!

Early B.

madmax wrote:

Edit: BTW EarlyB, did I tell you how great those TungSols were?

Dammit, Max, you did it again. Just when I thought I was over the TungSols, you parade those 6550's right in front of me. Must resist.... Uurrrggghh!

Early B.

Dennis Gardner wrote:

I still think the best thing about this forum is that the sponsors don't really market their stuff here.

They don't need to. We gladly do that for them. Collectively speaking, how times a month have we encouraged consumers to buy Polk or upgrade their existing Polks? Translates into more money in Polk's pocket. That's cool, but from Polk's perspective, this forum ain't a community service project. If it don't make dollars, it don't make sense.

aaharvel

SVS must love us :rolleyes:

Airplay355

The difference is that we aren't promoting crap. If we were trying to get people to buy Bose, or a Sony subwoofer it might be alittle different. But Polk and SVS? How many people are unhappy with their polk or SVS purchase?

aaharvel

Airplay355 wrote:

The difference is that we aren't promoting crap. How many people are unhappy with their polk or SVS purchase?

Me.

I'm throwing my **** out at dawn. I miss my Emerson dual cassette boombox.

VR3

I wasnt unhappy.

Polk just wasnt my cup of tea. But I dont mind tossing their name into a list of recomendatiosn. It may be someones elses cup.

Im Def Techs free ****. Obviously.

aaharvel

Definitive is good stuff imo

VR3

Definitive is excellent stuff...

The embrace the HT market a bit much though, but their passive BP line is freaking spectular - even if it has been on the market 9-10 freaking years.