Proving your post... I'm not sure I believe Guy Kawasaki is on Twitter for 16 hours per day. Just as Hillary, Barack, and John have their paid staffers twittering for them, I wonder at what point an entity with Guy's following just has an intern pitch for him/her.
Twitter, where we follow as friends, seems trustworthy, but everything really is a pitch. Same with every other social networking sites.
We all have things we're pushing. I'm admittedly guilty of pushing my employer, iofy.com and my own blog, solyoung.com (see! I can't help it).
What I often wonder is whether we'll get in to a ratcheted down situation like Vernor Vinge's book Rainbow's End, where trust certificates are issued at the personal level. This seems likely since social networks are increasingly breeding pushing friends...
How about an open standard on trustworthiness?
Matt McGee
· 1 year ago
Chris, if I may drop a link, check out this TIME article from just about a year ago:
Proctor & Gamble has been paying regular people to spread good word-of-mouth about their products. I think it's fascinating. And no, I'm not being paid to tell you about the TIME article. ;-)
Dr.Mani
· 1 year ago
Chris, this recent blog post shares my perspective on this (or rather, my changing perspective)
In William Gibson's "Pattern Recognition" there was a character who did this for a living. That came out in 2004, adn as I read it I thought to myself that it wouldn't be too long before that started happening. As with many things, Gibson was right.
And no, I don't work for him.
chrisbrogan
· 1 year ago
See the funny side effect of all this? We probably WILL get to a point that any time we rave about something, we disclaim. Odd, eh?
Daz Cox
· 1 year ago
have you noticed how many 'comments' are really just detours to someone else's work?
Imagine if Matt had taken a few hours to research and write a piece on 'alternatives to multi-national products', perhaps he could make the case that cloth diapers and the related industry could reduce pollution http://www.borntolove.com/toxictea.html and create a "green" domestic job market.
Wouldn't it be great if we, the consumers, talked about how cool it is to buy local products and services rather than what the latest multi-national corp product is. Is being green as important as looking cool with the latest corporate product or you getting a few more dollars?
chrisbrogan
· 1 year ago
@Daz - interesting side road. Some of what I talked about with reputation actually applies to the local-vs-big/national conversation, because at some point, when cost isn't exactly the deciding factor, we might start looking at the difference between Brand A's social and environmental impact vs. Brand B. If you could buy soap for approximately the same price but the first soap was made locally, all natural, blah blah blah, and the second soap was churned out by a factory, if price and convenience were equal, wouldn't it be the obvious choice to buy the local?
But then, what if the local soap was made by someone with a reputation for a shoddy product? We'd have to learn to trust the local person just as much as we trust the big brand to be reliable (do we? I think we do).
Interesting.
Nabilah Said
· 1 year ago
Interesting post. I guess trust just has to be earned, and that takes time. It's more than just a case of saying "Trust me", it's about all your other actions taken as a whole that inspires trust (In fact, someone who says "Trust me" should usually be viewed with suspicion).
I wouldn't say that pitching is bad per se, like you said, it's a bit hard to avoid sometimes. But it's not right if you're using the relationship you have with someone solely to pitch something without him being made aware of it. That's called taking advantage of people. And as in the real world, that's never nice.
Rick Wolff
· 1 year ago
One thing I noticed as I followed the bunch of you (Twitter, mostly) to SxSW is the mutual exchange of plugola. These early adopters signal the end of "hey, I like to consume this product made by this big entity, and you will too" and the beginning of "hey, I'm a little guy, yet I made this product, and you will like to consume it". Media as an industry particularly lends itself to this. But don't pretend for a minute that plugola is a trait you can shed just because you're embracing new media. As a result, the casual consumer will have to wade through more plugola than ever before, and the medium will be the message for some time to come. SxSW did nothing but verify this suspicion for me.
Tom Kephart
· 1 year ago
I love that your post ends with a plug for Skitch :) Which, by the way, may be the reason I needed to buy a Mac again after ten years. Thanks.
Seriously, though, it is a question of reputation, online as well as offline. In the end, all we have is that reputation - for honesty, reliability, compassion, whatever. Almost everyone knows the difference between the reliability of the news from The National Enquirer versus The New York Times. We know which of the people in our personal "real life" circle of friends and acquaintances are honest and dependable.
That knowledge does translate to the online world. Which is why bloggers who decide to get involved with the Pay Per Posts of the world will create questions about their overall honesty, regardless of whether they're actually getting paid to write about something or not.
GeekMommy
· 1 year ago
Part of what made me walk away from sales way-back-when was that I really couldn't bring myself to sell things I didn't believe in.
When I do believe in something, I get passionate about it... and it's easy to sell something you're passionate about.
But it's no big surprise to find out that there are people paid to shill... Whether it's the "I used product X to lose 100 lbs!" in a magazine, or the "product X changed my life" on a blog - it's not going to surprise anyone.
But anyone taking the word of just one source w/out doing their own research is an easy target for that sort of thing.
I advocate products and companies I have positive experiences with - but likewise, I don't hesitate to speak out when I have a negative experience. The trick to spotting a shill is that they tend not to do the latter.
Laura "Pistachio" Fitton
· 1 year ago
Isn't it a little odd though, that we still want to draw such a big line between "celebrities" and "regular people" where it comes to product endorsements? We get all introspective about "ordinary people" having a paid involvement with a brand, but we completely expect that anything Tiger Woods is wearing is from a sponsor. This perception needs to shift.
Celebrities are valuable to brands because they aggregate trust and attention. There have always been "ordinary people" who do this, but social media permits increasing levels of "non-celebrity aggregation of trust and attention." (How's that for slick coinage?) People should make their best efforts to disclose. But the audience is not always going to notice/hear that disclosure for various reasons.
Ex: I've made it clear a number of times that Qik made it possible for me to use/demonstrate their application, but how can I append that information to every single Qik video I send?
The trust and value of relationship may even matter more than the disclosure. Whether or not a financial relationship exists, is the information you get from that person genuinely helpful in your own life? Be a discerning friend/consumer/audience and you'll be less susceptible to profound shills.
Susan Getgood
· 1 year ago
Since I make my living helping people promote their products and services, I had to develop a personal policy for this early on.
When I am compensated in some fashion, whether it is for client work or simply some sort of freebie from a non-client, or if I was explicitly pitched on something, I disclose. Every time. And in the case of pitching clients on my own blogs or via social networks like Twitter, I do it sparingly.
On the other hand, if I am writing purely of my own volition, for example the weekly sci fi column I write on my personal blog, I don't put the "negative disclaimer," ie that no one provided services or free DVDs for the review.
chrisbrogan
· 1 year ago
Wow. Great policies and ideas from everyone. Thanks so much for your points of view.
Asad
· 1 year ago
Just to let you know your link at the bottom of this post to your newsletter isnt working because of an extra s. Thanks for the great read.
All Comments
Twitter, where we follow as friends, seems trustworthy, but everything really is a pitch. Same with every other social networking sites.
We all have things we're pushing. I'm admittedly guilty of pushing my employer, iofy.com and my own blog, solyoung.com (see! I can't help it).
What I often wonder is whether we'll get in to a ratcheted down situation like Vernor Vinge's book Rainbow's End, where trust certificates are issued at the personal level. This seems likely since social networks are increasingly breeding pushing friends...
How about an open standard on trustworthiness?
http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,917...
Proctor & Gamble has been paying regular people to spread good word-of-mouth about their products. I think it's fascinating. And no, I'm not being paid to tell you about the TIME article. ;-)
(or rather, my changing perspective)
http://moneypowerwisdom.com/changing-dynamics-o...
Thoughts?
All success
Dr.Mani
And no, I don't work for him.
Imagine if Matt had taken a few hours to research and write a piece on 'alternatives to multi-national products', perhaps he could make the case that cloth diapers and the related industry could reduce pollution http://www.borntolove.com/toxictea.html
and create a "green" domestic job market.
Wouldn't it be great if we, the consumers, talked about how cool it is to buy local products and services rather than what the latest multi-national corp product is. Is being green as important as looking cool with the latest corporate product or you getting a few more dollars?
But then, what if the local soap was made by someone with a reputation for a shoddy product? We'd have to learn to trust the local person just as much as we trust the big brand to be reliable (do we? I think we do).
Interesting.
I wouldn't say that pitching is bad per se, like you said, it's a bit hard to avoid sometimes. But it's not right if you're using the relationship you have with someone solely to pitch something without him being made aware of it. That's called taking advantage of people. And as in the real world, that's never nice.
Seriously, though, it is a question of reputation, online as well as offline. In the end, all we have is that reputation - for honesty, reliability, compassion, whatever. Almost everyone knows the difference between the reliability of the news from The National Enquirer versus The New York Times. We know which of the people in our personal "real life" circle of friends and acquaintances are honest and dependable.
That knowledge does translate to the online world. Which is why bloggers who decide to get involved with the Pay Per Posts of the world will create questions about their overall honesty, regardless of whether they're actually getting paid to write about something or not.
When I do believe in something, I get passionate about it... and it's easy to sell something you're passionate about.
But it's no big surprise to find out that there are people paid to shill... Whether it's the "I used product X to lose 100 lbs!" in a magazine, or the "product X changed my life" on a blog - it's not going to surprise anyone.
But anyone taking the word of just one source w/out doing their own research is an easy target for that sort of thing.
I advocate products and companies I have positive experiences with - but likewise, I don't hesitate to speak out when I have a negative experience. The trick to spotting a shill is that they tend not to do the latter.
Celebrities are valuable to brands because they aggregate trust and attention. There have always been "ordinary people" who do this, but social media permits increasing levels of "non-celebrity aggregation of trust and attention." (How's that for slick coinage?) People should make their best efforts to disclose. But the audience is not always going to notice/hear that disclosure for various reasons.
Ex: I've made it clear a number of times that Qik made it possible for me to use/demonstrate their application, but how can I append that information to every single Qik video I send?
The trust and value of relationship may even matter more than the disclosure. Whether or not a financial relationship exists, is the information you get from that person genuinely helpful in your own life? Be a discerning friend/consumer/audience and you'll be less susceptible to profound shills.
When I am compensated in some fashion, whether it is for client work or simply some sort of freebie from a non-client, or if I was explicitly pitched on something, I disclose. Every time. And in the case of pitching clients on my own blogs or via social networks like Twitter, I do it sparingly.
On the other hand, if I am writing purely of my own volition, for example the weekly sci fi column I write on my personal blog, I don't put the "negative disclaimer," ie that no one provided services or free DVDs for the review.