Fine Print

Todd Defren posts about a practice that is just plain wrong: commenting on people’s blogs under a false name, with the intention of driving “traffic” back to a client’s own blog or website. I put the word traffic in “” because it can’t really be called that. It can be called a stream of pi**ed off people being deceived into visiting a brand, the reputation of which they will associate with these sleazy, cheap tactics.

Not smart.

So, the “SEO” guys get called out, and lo and behold, come back with this recommendation: “Instead of the blog spam, we could have our employees post anonymously on blogs about needing a service similar to your offering … and then return a day later, posing as a customer who’s been happy with your services.”

Shudder.

Three words that a social media campaign does not make: spam, anonymously and posing.

~ John Carson, Senior Digital Media Specialist, GCI Canada