Stop Shouting At Me!
Someone recently friended me on Digg, and has been shouting at me ever since. I didn’t know the guy, but I thought, “Hey, why not? I’ll friend him...he seems to have dug some similar stuff as me.” Next thing I know, the guy has made it his life’s mission to shout me to death. He’s passed along wonderfully insightful comments such as, “Very Impressed by these” and “Very Unique Art Work.” Perhaps the best part is that he friended me twice with two separate profiles...twice the spam? Awesome. That guy got blocked within days.
Classic.
Social media is a new generation of advertising and marketing, designed to enable conversations and build meaningful community. What we have here is an individual who is using new media, in an old way.
The old way: Want someone’s attention? Shove it down their throat.
The new way: Want someone’s attention? Earn their trust through meaningful participation.
Anyhow, I just found that to be a good example of the confusion of digital marketing and reminded me a bit of that cell phone analogy I mentioned the other day.
The shift from the “old” way of marketing to the “new” way is not like the shift from radio ads to TV ads--same idea just a different medium. Social media is built on an entirely different foundation and we can no longer operate within the same guidelines.
I’m thinking about creating a support group for those who have suffered at the ignorant hands of social media spammers, would anyone be interested? I invite you to release your baggage and find healing…
The old way: Want someone’s attention? Shove it down their throat.
The new way: Want someone’s attention? Earn their trust through meaningful participation.
I would disagree here, I think that the right way (not old, or new) to get someone’s attention on the internet is by adding value. I hate to plug Viget on your own blog, but your company has gained my attention by adding value, both in design as well as content on the four departmental blogs.
If your focus is to get someone’s attention, give them something, this is the basis of Wired’s recently published Free! Why $0.00 is the future of business article.
I think with any new medium folks have to figure out what the cultural rights and wrongs are. Those will get defined and this kind of thing will get less and less. For example, it was defined that the community thought all caps meant shouting.
@Joshua: You can plug our blog as much as you’d like =) Are you disagreeing with my comment? Or are you disagreeing with the “wrong” way of doing things? Or neither?
@Justin: Great point. There are all sorts of unwritten cultural faux pas out there. I’m glad you think it will dwindle as time goes on, I hope it will as well.
I wonder if this guy (the Digg shouter) is just unaware of the cultural rules, or if doesn’t care, or they just haven’t been established (they are certainly established in my mind). Is the average abuser just trying their hardest to participate and not sure how? Or are they true lamers who will never get it? Maybe somewhere in between...?
@josh I was a bit vaugue, but I was altering the “the new way” idea. I think it’s always been the correct or right way to gain someones attention by adding value, which I think is more than just participating, and again isn’t the new way to do things, but the way that was always there, being consistent, and being amazing.
When I think of the companies I love, the brands that I care about, they are doing things that interest me by default. They might send me an email once in a while, but generally I’m going to them for information on something new their doing (see the following: Apple, 37signals, Volkswagon, etc)
@Joshua: Gotchya. I love all your links, and I think you raise a good point that this has always been the right way. And I also agree that with those brands that I like, I am often going to them because I trust them to add value. I mean, there are some companies out there that have such powerful brands, they probably don’t need to do much (Apple) in the way of “participation” (although, I think that will change).
I’ll just play devil’s advocate regarding the outreach/advertisement component of the conversation (this is probably going to turn into another blog post...sorry about the length).
While I agree that the product itself has to add value; I don’t think it has always been the case that the the medium through which a product/service was communicated truly added value. When I say “meaningful participation” I’m saying that in order to engage in social media effectively; it needs to be more about others and less about yourself/product.
In the old way, a great product still advertised itself via traditional mediums that served one purpose: tell people about us and our stuff. You could make the argument that because the product itself adds value, the advertisement adds value as well because it engenders awareness & eventual consumption. But, in order for the value to be added from that advertisement; something must happen on the other end. The ad itself adds no value without a product/service.
With social media and digital marketing entering the picture; advertisement has to change. It’s not about telling people about us and our stuff anymore. It’s about meaningfully participating in conversations in the interest of “adding value.” In my opinion, the difference here is that the value added can be the participation itself, not just the product (although that is certainly still part of it)...be it answering questions; giving great feedback (like your comments); offering insight.
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