We already know that there’s quite a bit of social media traffic that’s shameless self promotion. But what about that distilled form of social media that’s promotion for people who provide social media services? Who’s guarding the henhouse?
If you’ve ever been tasked to profile a customer, write an application note or even develop a case study; you already know how hard it is to find practicioners who are willing to give you the time of day…let alone write a whole article about it.
But today, there are thousands of people willing to write about just about any topic from web development to media planning, and these people do so under the guise of marketing. One simple web search, and the world is at your fingertips.
As I’ve found in building this site, there are hundreds of web developers, with WordPress expertise, willing to share just enough of their knowledge to confuse most people and send them calling for help.
If these same individuals were in the navigation business, they’d be handing out blindfolds and kindly spinning everyone around in circles.
Make them sick…then make them well.
And it’s just marketing. Companies have done this for years with their marketing materials, advertising campaigns and the like.
The only challenge is that the world of syndicated RSS feeds and Twitter is an echo chamber for self promotion traffic.
And this can be problematic. When those who are creating the traffic are selling services to take advantage of that traffic. The fox guarding the proverbial henhouse.
I’ll believe it when I meet a vegetarian fox.