Warning: Stepping on soapbox.
Here’s the problem. There’s all of these websites with “experts” posting their “expert opinion” and people read this stuff like it’s the gospel.
Yes, there are some very credible websites that publish great content, but even some of those end up publishing (let me be nice here) questionable material.
You’d love an example right? Great! I’d love to give you one.
Someone I would consider to be an “influencer” sent out a RT highlighting an article titled, “Top 5 Most Indispensible Tools for Marketers.”
Out of curiosity I clicked the link and it took me to a respectable site, Social Media Today. After reading the intro I made my way to item number one on the list and was a bit shocked to read,
#1: Blast Follow
Blast follow? As in… the blast follow that many consider to be Twitter following spam? Sure enough, that’ was exactly one of the tools being highlighted. This practice is bad. Don’t do it, that is, unless you just want to appear to be “popular.”
In all fairness I continued reading thinking the writer might redeem himself. Here’s item number 2 on the list,
#2: Tweepi
The writer continues by saying,
“The overall strategy for using Blast Follow and Tweepi is to blast follow 100-200 people today and give them a week or so to follow back. If they don’t reciprocate, clean them out with Tweepi. Then repeat.”
At this point my blood pressure was either rising due to what I was reading or from the falafel I’d just eaten… I’d say it was due to the article.
What’s worse is that I think if you asked a lot of marketers about a social media tools list almost all would highlight something that has to do with “search / listening.” Those two words weren’t even mentioned in the article.
By all means, read various sites and learn about the tools at hand, but please use your own judgment and don’t share everything as if you just pulled it straight from the good book. At the very least, this should be a prime example that not everything you read is on point.
Lastly, click over to the post and notice how many people (quite a few at the time of this writing) think it’s good advice. That, my friends, is the problem.
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About the Author
Marketing & PR pro. Social media user, cyclist, inline speed skater, volunteer, blogger, public speaker. Founded Fashables. Work at Ketchum. And I’m goofy.