I just downloaded a resource today called “Space Invader” – subheading: ‘It’s Your Time to Take Your Slice of the Myspace pie!’ Have you heard of it? The writer endorses an approach to marketing in social sites with the intention of making big money. He outlines a number of ways to do this, citing that Myspace ‘officials’ tried to get this book banned.

Survey Intention

Firstly, I don’t want to come across like I’m being critical of the book and/or approach. No doubt, these techniques are already being practiced on places like Myspace, Facebook and Twitter. What I’d like to do is to throw some of the approaches out here in this hub and see what people think...sort of a survey I guess. The question being, do you think some of the techniques employed are ethical?

Black Hat...Extreme!

This approach to marketing is apparently labelled as extreme ‘black hat’ and the reader is warned that s/he may get her/his account closed down unless they stick to exactly what is outlined (the book is copyrighted from 2007 – 2009, so I would guess it’s been around for a while). With that being said, the possibility of earning between $100 and $200 per day is touted as being a very real possibility.

So after the intro and warnings about accounts being suspended, the reader is given a brief history of social networking sites and a definition. So now into the ‘juicy’ part that probably most marketers want to hear, and why they are driven to find the latest ‘approach’ to making money online; how to make the aforementioned amount of money, without really having to pay anything.

Account Overkill

Okay so first you’re going to need 10, 20, 30 accounts – or more if you have time – 200/500. Why? Well essentially, the more accounts, the more potential client groups you can market to.

So the reader then realises the first task...getting an email account set up. Now this no big deal if you’ve already set up gmail or hotmail accounts. However, it would appear that you’re going to need heaps and this of course will take a lot of time and ‘fake’ names. So here perhaps for some is the first ethical dilemma, which is going to lead into the next step.

Will You Be My Friend/Fan/Follower?

In order to get a marketing message out in the hopes of selling something, it’s going to have to go out to heaps of people – 5% of 10 000 people buying a $10 book is 5K, which is not too bad. But here’s where it gets interesting...you’re going to need lots and lots of ‘friends’ – whom you are going to have to spend some time developing a ‘trusting relationship’ with – in order to fulfil this side of the equation. So how do you get lots of friends?

Bots, Purchase Friends, Whore Trains and Be a Young Pretty Thing

Okay so using these approaches will apparently assist you in getting lots of friends so that you can sell them things...

· Bots – computer programs automating previous manual things – save time by automatically sending invitations to all the members of a group

· Purchase friends for $7 from various sites offering the service

· Be a part of ‘chain letters’, which is then passed around resource networks, and

· Pretend to be a young pretty woman, say 18 – 24, get a pretty and/or sexy picture off the web (royalty free of course) and make up a profile. Apparently young pretty women are getting the majority of attention over us poor males.

So if you want to attract heaps of friends, then you’re going to have to: come up with 500 realistic sounding young women profiles, buy some friends, get in on chain letters and use bots.

Ethics of Marketing In This Way

Now I got into social groups with the intention of trying to gain some traffic for some of my products. I started with Twitter and I noticed that there are heaps of people doing similar. However, I only realised today – a bit slow – that more than likely, the profiles of a lot of the young things with their ‘bots’ bared and breasts hanging out – one had hers shoved out on a table...mind you no face...just breasts – are made up.

Now I got into Myspace to learn about it, as these social network sites can be good for business. My clients may want me to set this up for them...or I might recommend it myself to them. However, today, I became a little more disillusioned about these so-called ‘social’ sites which are supposed to be about ‘connecting’ with others, sharing a bit about yourself, building possible long-term friendships and maybe helping someone out from time to time.

Yes, my own intention was initially commercial but I am also aware that good marketing is about developing genuine relationships with potential clients. Someone has a problem, you have a solution, and you provide the answer/product. The question I have to ask, is it genuine marketing when you’re selling under a ‘fake’ profile? Does it matter?

Scenario

‘Fake’ person develops a relationship with unsuspecting ‘friend’ (of course s/he may be fake too mind you), friend shares a problem that he has, ‘fake’ person recommends a product and makes some money. Friend finds product helpful and wants to thank the ‘fake’ person in person...

So what do you think? Please only respond if you are a ‘real’ person.

Thanks

 See the Complete Guide to Twitter Marketing here: http://marketingcentre.org/twittermarketing/

(PS, not 'black hat').