Friday, May 15th, 2009
Shill:
a person who publicizes or praises something or someone for reasons of self-interest, personal profit, or friendship or loyalty.
– from Dictionary.com
Singapore’s “first ever” Tweetup (#sgtweetup) happened tonight at Geek Terminal, and I say “first ever” because Claudia and Kelvin already had a Tweet Tuesday sometime back, and even though it wasn’t branded as a tweetup, make no mistake, it was.
Even before reaching the event, I got updates via Twitter about models appearing for some Supermodelme tv thing and alarm bells already went off: Is this a social media event or an event gathering social media people with a hidden agenda? Evidently, it was the second, and from the tweets, people didn’t like it.
Also, on the way there, I saw the following tweets with no relevance to the event (but using the #sgtweetup hashtag) from the event venue and one of the organisers. Hashtag hijack?
Hashtag Hijack
Within ten minutes of entering the premises, I had these “models” handing me their namecards, followed by the real world equivalent of “kthxbai” as they moved on in search of the next person to hand out their namecard to.
Let me borrow a picture from Ingrid’s post to illustrate what happened:
Model Namecards
And if you check out their profiles on Twitter, you’ll find that the models have no pictures, no tweets or one tweet, almost as if they were handed their Twitter accounts just prior to the event to capitalise on it.
Model Twitter
Model Twitter
Let me just say that such “shady” event organising really makes social media take a step backwards. In a world where we’re all asking for more transparency and more authenticity, there is no room for hidden agendas to “taint” the impression of such events. As I said on Twitter, it’s not about the models, it’s that having a hidden agenda of using a tweetup to push and broadcast a commercial entity is repulsive.
I’ve written about trust issues in the local blogosphere nine months ago, and it’s almost painful to see it come full circle.
Just as a closing point, I’ve been feeling for awhile that local social media events need to change. It’s all fine and good that anyone and everyone can organise a tweetup or impromptu meeting, but I think we need to focus on building up events with credibility, where people know what they’re getting into, and can make informed decisions. Events where you appear and have a curveball thrown at you…. not so much.
What do you think about the “first ever” tweetup? Is there a space for social media shilling at events? Are there too many events?
Edit: Because word is going around about the organiser @CarlGriffith not knowing about the models and that the event venue sprung it last minute, I don’t know what went on but 8 hours before the event, Andrew Peters, listed as an administrator for the event, posts the following on Facebook:
Surprise
Now maybe the models weren’t the surprise, or the admins didn’t communicate to each other, I don’t know. But it reads that way to me. I didn’t actually say Carl personally was at fault, the issue is that as a whole the shill leaves a bad impression.
[Full disclosure: I am on the team for Social Media Breakfast | Singapore and obviously being a local social media event organiser and social media enthusiast, I do have a vested interest in how the public perceives and reacts to social media events.]
Tags: #sgtweetup, personal profit, publicises, self-interest, shill, social, social media event, tweet tuesday, tweetup
Posted in Poor Practices, Singapore, case studies, community, social media | 19 Comments »
Friday, April 17th, 2009
Shill Alert
Awhile back I was talking to a friend who I went to school with, and she was telling me about a social media training session by an “expert” who was teaching them how to use social media to monitor their brand. This apparently covered the usual Google Alerts, as well as some of the more popular forums here in Singapore. So I asked the obvious question: “When’re you going to start participating?”
“Oh. We have to pay more for training for engagement.”
Say what?
I’m definitely not against having training for engagement. It’s way too easy to do the wrong thing when commenting on a blog, using Twitter, using Facebook or just replying on a forum. Not to mention there isn’t a one-size-fits-all solution for participation, and it’ll have to be customised to fit your company’s needs, which will differ from industry to industry, and even within industries, between companies.
Here’s the thing though. If I were an agency or a self-proclaimed “expert” (a term I really don’t like), I’d love it if a company contacts me and doesn’t include a request for engagement in the “training package”. Great for greed, great for money.
It’s like going to an agency and asking for something “viral” just because it’s the latest buzzword, but not having an inkling what it’s actually about, and when the agency comes back to you with an idea which is far from viral, you won’t know any better and have to take their word for it. Do you really want to take that kind of risk with your money these days?
So I think as a client, do yourself a favour and do some research on what your agency should be offering you and what you should be asking for. And if you don’t know enough and don’t have the time to know about, at least bring someone on board in your company who can tell you when your agency or “expert” is obviously shilling you.
Tags: agency, brand monitoring, buzzword, clients, engagement training, facebook, forums, google alerts, inline engagement, monitoring your brand, one size fits all, participating on forums, participation online, risk, shill, Singapore, social media expert, social media monitoring, twitter, viral
Posted in Poor Practices, Singapore, social media, social media business | 7 Comments »
Wednesday, May 7th, 2008
Without doubt the podcast of the month for April goes to For Immediate Release which I usually have problems keeping up with (it’s released twice a week, one hour each), but the content for April was excellent and I found myself listening to it first among my podcasts.
- #336 highlights: Using Twitter/Friendfeed differently for business, conducting proper blogger outreach
- #337 highlights: Facebook tools that can really help you
- Live call in show #5 highlights: How should companies reach out in social media without offending the people in it? Great analogy of standing at a party table and interjecting about insurance while they’re talking about something else.
- #338 highlights: Kami Hyuse Seaworld case study and talk of the virtual internet
- #339 highlights: Dan York & Sallie Goetsch take over. Lots of Twitter news and I have a comment left via Twitter!
I have to say, hands down, if you’re doing anything in the digital/social media space, you need to be listening to this podcast.
Other notable listens this month:
- Inside PR #106 - Live episode with a great question “Who owns the social media space?”
- Managing the Gray – Manic Mummies episode, great case study on GM and how to do sponsorship in social media.
- Marketing Over Coffee – “Captcha and Turk“, lots of stuff on startups as well as a whole slew of Wordpress plugins I never knew about.
- Shill #6 meandered a little this month, but still a worthwhile discussion about whether there’s any value in re-posting news.
- Six Pixels Of Separation #98 (interview with Collin Douma), #99 (very interesting, almost counter-intuitive information regarding online reviews) and #100 (long conversation between Mitch, Brian Eisenberg and Avinash Kaushik).
Did you listen to any of these podcasts? Are you listening to different podcasts? I’m always on the lookout for great social media related podcasts, recommendations always welcome.
Tags: avinash kaushik, blogger outreach, brian eisenberg, collin douma, facebook, for immediate release, friendfeed, inside pr, managing the gray, marketing over coffee, podcast of the month, podcasts worth listening to, reaching out in social media, shill, six pixels of separation, social media podcasts, twitter
Posted in Podcasts, social media | No Comments »
Friday, April 11th, 2008
This is late so I’m going to jump straight into it. My choice for the March podcast of the month goes to Six Pixels of Separation for the interview with Seth Godin in #93. I also listened to #94 – #97, and #97 is the episode where Mitch talks about Social Media Breakfast: Singapore, so you might want to check that out as well.
Other podcasts that I really think you should check out:
I really enjoyed listening to CC Chapman on Managing The Gray where he responded to Intellagirl’s challenge on how to get non-social media people into social media, as well as his coverage of SXSW.
With that said I also enjoyed Shill’s thoughts on SXSW coverage happening literally everywhere else, and how that feels from people not at the event. I really felt their point of view because I was one of those people getting bombarded non-stop on Twitter about SXSW. Probably something everyone will have to figure out for the next event.
Joseph Jaffe also weighed in on the SXSW coverage and Intellagirl’s challenge in Jaffe Juice #107 as well as facing outward from the fishbowl. An observation which I think is spot on.
Marketing Over Coffee was also good this month with an episode on what to do with your house list, two parts on the state of search and talking about the power of free.
Two new podcasts I picked up are For Immediate Release which comes out so frequently I can barely keep up but some good, thought provoking content in there, as well as Inside PR, whose discussion on ethics in PR to be very enlightening in #103 and #104
As always I am open to any and all suggestions for new podcasts to listen do. Just drop me a comment! While you’re at it, why not check out the podcast of the month for February and January as well?
Tags: cc chapman, facing inward fishbowl, facing outward fishbowl, fishbowl, for immediate release, great podcasts, house list, inside pr, intellagirl challenge, jaffe juice, joseph jaffe, managing the gray, march podcast of the month, marketing over coffee, marketing podcasts, mitch joel, podcasts worth listening to, power of free, pr ethics, pr podcasts, seth godin, shill, six pixels of separation, social media, social media breakfast singapore, social media podcasts, state of search, sxsw, sxsw coverage, twitter
Posted in Podcasts | 4 Comments »
