Boneheaded Moves of the Future
Here’s a thought that I first raised in response to Mike Manuel’s "Lipstick on a Pig" post, in which he wondered aloud about the "tag it and they will come" aspect of Social Media…
What if a large corporation put out a Social Media News Release, complete with a "Digg This" button, and then the (misguided) CEO mandated that EVERY employee digg it? Imagine if IBM CEO Sam Palmisano did that. Their news would shoot to #1 on Digg in about 14 milliseconds.
Would that be bad?
I think, clearly, it would be seen as manipulative (at least) and a big-time warning to all Social Media mavens that this all-comers-welcome mentality also lends itself to abuse, down the road.
The good news, as I noted in my comment at Media Guerilla, is that Palmisano would be roundly panned by the ‘Net community for such a bone-headed move, which would put a chill on such maneuvers.
I am predicting that just such a bone-headed move will happen, before the year is out.
Tags: public+relations, pr, marketing, pr+2.0, digg, social+media, mike+manuel, media+guerilla
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I’ve been wondering what’s stopped companies interested in ratings on Digg, Technorati and other social media tools from abusing the system. It would be pretty easy.
I know it will happen. But I think the system will adapt to somehow ignore or circumvent companies that conduct such acts.
Todd,
You raise a very valid point: The potential for credibility problems with anything “social,” and the possibility for manipulation.
While some — even most — will be caught, not all will.
That’s why I’ll only reference Wikipedia if I have to. It’s not easy to trust.
While this collective knowledge stuff can be good, I’d rather trust an expert source than the collective.
– Mike
Is that a picture of the agency’s mascot?
Are you implying that this hasn’t happened already?
Hasn’t this already happened?