Google+ and Facebook and every other social network suffers from spam. I just bumped into an example that shows how clever these fine folks are becoming.
Someone tweets. Spammer favourites. You look to see who it is. You get a “Buy Twitter followers” link. Sweet!
Wait. That is not the end of the story.
The link (only open in Incognito, just to be safe) takes you to http://followersdelivery.com/shop/real-twitter-followers/?affiliates=3 (I’m leaving the affiliate id there, why not give the spammer credit :)).
Where you are promised, this is precious: Real Twitter Followers
Oh that’s not the cutest part. The cutest part is this: “Express Delivery!”
I’m not making this up. Current rate $79 for 5,000 real twitter followers.
Two closing thoughts…
It is very clever that “Ms. Cannon” is choosing not just to tweet a whole bunch of “BUY FOLLOWERS” links, that would trip Twitter’s spam filters. She is favoriting posts (causing people like me to find her!), she is retweeting other people’s posts. Also a nice way to get attention. Kudos Ms. Cannon.
This is a fantastic demonstration of the stupidity of Marketers. We want more followers, Likes, +1s, Circles, because we believe that is proof of our marketing power. That in turn fuels businesses like these who are only delighted to deliver your “social proof,” for $79. If we cared about what mattered, Amplification Rate, Applause Rate, Conversation Rate, Economic Value (http://zqi.me/rocksocial), we will end up creating real social relationships that show real social proof.
Am I optimistic that will happen? Only a little bit. Because most Marketers want easy outcomes. No one is incentivised to think of long term value. Because the CMO just asks: “How many Likes do we have on Facebook?”
Ms. Cannon you are going to be rich!
#incentives #realsuccess #socialproof
By: Avinash Kaushik, Author, Digital Marketing Evangelist – Google, Co-founder – Market Motive