I hate to say it, but Social Media (and Twitter in particular) has a big problem… and that big problem is marketers.
I know, I know, marketers made Social Media – and setting aside weather or not that is true, let’s focus on the facts.
- Nearly any relatively popular topic is quickly overrun with marketers trying to get their message into your stream.
- The line between spam and marketing is non-exisitent in Social Media.
- Any analytical analysis of a topic is becoming more and more difficult as the topic gets filled with marketing.
- Traditional marketing approaches work in Social Media… get your message/link in front of enough eyeballs and some percentage will click.
Case in point. I own a Social Media solutions company – justSignal – and we have a Signal set up to track everything people say is “great” (via a variety of term searches and exclusions using our proprietary filtering mechanism) on Twitter. We’ve just released our SignalLinks Analytic in beta (you can learn more about SignalLinks here). So today I decided to look at SignalLinks for our everything great on Twitter Signal.
The results were disappointing to put it mildly. There is no authentic user voice in this data… only marketing and/or spam (you find the line there).
Here are the most mentioned links over the last 30 days:
|
Mentions |
URL |
Domain |
|
33511 |
http://www.tweeterspeed.com/ |
www.tweeterspeed.com |
|
12098 |
http://www.twtfast.info/ |
www.twtfast.info |
|
6818 |
http://tinify.net/5 |
tinify.net |
|
5641 |
http://twtexpress.info/ |
twtexpress.info |
|
5394 |
http://www.twitpwr.com/abuse.php |
www.twitpwr.com |
|
5032 |
http://twittfollow.com |
twittfollow.com |
|
3572 |
http://www.tweeterleaders.info |
www.tweeterleaders.info |
|
2904 |
http://followquick.info/ |
followquick.info |
|
2484 |
http://www.prankdial.com/fclicks/fclick.php?3 |
www.prankdial.com |
|
2212 |
http://WWW.TWEETERSPEEDY.COM |
WWW.TWEETERSPEEDY.COM |
|
2085 |
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=304863000&mt=8 |
phobos.apple.com |
|
1632 |
www.twtmax.com |
|
|
1136 |
http://followersquick.info |
followersquick.info |
|
582 |
http://pollpigeon.com/what-did-you-think-of-adam-lamberts-ama-performance/t/79281/ |
pollpigeon.com |
|
349 |
http://pollpigeon.com/did-you-see-new-moonhow-did-you-like-it/t/79376/ |
pollpigeon.com |
|
346 |
http://4url.cc/1MM |
4url.cc |
|
306 |
http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=305659257&mt=8 |
itunes.apple.com |
|
298 |
http://pollpigeon.com/do-you-like-emily-osment/t/75437/ |
pollpigeon.com |
|
248 |
http://boxcar.io |
boxcar.io |
|
160 |
http://www.nutritionaladvantageia.com/signup/ |
www.nutritionaladvantageia.com |
Let me make one thing perfectly clear – I belive that Social Media provides the best opportunity for opt-in targeted marketing. But when the Signal is so clogged with marketing and/or spam that adds zero value the only effect will be user apathy.
From a development/partner point of view, some of Twitter’s actions to “curate” seem rather annoying – but from an end user’s point of view they are doing exactly what they need to do. After all, at some point Twitter will launch their business model, and the two best bets are:
a) Targeted opt-in Ads
b) Analytics
Both of those revenue paths are put in serious jeopardy if users become apathetic because their Signal if full of marketing noise.
Brilliant line: “…Signal is so clogged with marketing and/or spam that adds zero value the only effect will be user apathy.” And, that will only serve to devalue SMROI and push all of us small business owners back into a position where we have to spend large amounts of money to build and audience and garner attention for our product or service. I hope we don't screw up this “free lunch.And, as anyone can see, I'm no Social Media Purist. My avatar shows my brand *gasp.* But, I try to add value and remain in the context of a discussion so as not to water down the effectiveness of Social Media. I care about the success of social media because I understand value and freedom.This whole topic is heating up more than ever as brands try to get their footing in social media. (And, I don't happen to think brands in social media is a bad thing. Nor, can it be stopped.) But, just as in anything, we all (individuals and entities) need to be accountable for our actions… including adding value to the conversation and the collective online society. Be a good netizen and “snetizen?”Brian.. you may find the following discussion of value. (not my site…but I did write a comment which I hope you'll look for and read) …. “Why Social Media Purists Won't Last” http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/2009/11/23/w…We need to figure out what will help the situation. Marketers are not going away. And, unfortunately, it will not take many to really taint any signal on free airwaves. Enjoy your holidays.
Brilliant line: “…Signal is so clogged with marketing and/or spam that adds zero value the only effect will be user apathy.” And, that will only serve to devalue SMROI and push all of us small business owners back into a position where we have to spend large amounts of money to build and audience and garner attention for our product or service. I hope we don't screw up this “free lunch.And, as anyone can see, I'm no Social Media Purist. My avatar shows my brand *gasp.* But, I try to add value and remain in the context of a discussion so as not to water down the effectiveness of Social Media. I care about the success of social media because I understand value and freedom.This whole topic is heating up more than ever as brands try to get their footing in social media. (And, I don't happen to think brands in social media is a bad thing. Nor, can it be stopped.) But, just as in anything, we all (individuals and entities) need to be accountable for our actions… including adding value to the conversation and the collective online society. Be a good netizen and “snetizen?”Brian.. you may find the following discussion of value. (not my site…but I did write a comment which I hope you'll look for and read) …. “Why Social Media Purists Won't Last” http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/2009/11/23/w…We need to figure out what will help the situation. Marketers are not going away. And, unfortunately, it will not take many to really taint any signal on free airwaves. Enjoy your holidays.