Third Team MediaShould You Use Channel Seeding for Social Proof?
In an age where online netizens have the “attention span of a goldfish” (which is just a myth as noted by Derek Halpern), I am curious if other brand evangelists or social media managers would agree on this – channel seeding for social proof.
Seed followers, likes, views, +1’s. Gain trust in return. Show the needed proof that you are not just some fly-by-night snake oil merchant who’s just out to make some quick cash. How? Through social proof.
I was recently invited to a product demo from ClickingLabs, a company here in Cebu headed by JP Bisson. Diana Quartin, one of the co-founders and the design lead of the company forwarded an invitation for the demo. She was one of my classmates at the Certified ScrumMaster training and I was also curious to know how they used Scrum and agile development to create the two sites that they were launching – QuickSEOResults.com and BuyRealMarketing.com.
Should you use channel seeding? Is it okay to seed Twitter followers, Youtube views, Facebook likes? What do you think of web services offering this? You might be familiar of other contractors giving these services. There are lots of tools and sites out there that can help you with the numbers. It’s a numbers game, they say.
Personally, I am still weighing other options aside from seeding to give value to clients. I pride myself in using only organic means to gain followers. But if you have no social proof then it definitely means that you suck – promotion, content, website, messaging. There’s just something there that didn’t work. In my opinion, it should be remedied. The long-term goal is not to fool people with proof but to fix those problems and gain long-term benefits. The “numbers game” is just a short-term fix. I will be giving this a try because it makes sense for some clients – they definitely need the initial numbers.
Are you putting efforts into “proofing” your social channels? What do you think?
5 Comments
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sookietex
Ultimately yes it is a numbers game. i use a combination of going on instinct [as you put it “organic means”] and social media aggregators to determine what makes for the best symbiotic relationship for my netiquette needs. So far it has been beneficial for myself and my twitter getglue facebook pinterest and other friends 😀
Fleire Castro of Third Team Media
As I am navigating through the power of Empire Avenue, I have gained an insight on why numbers matter. It’s still as organic as can be. 🙂 Glad to hear your thoughts @sookietex!
frank schwarz
I’m not sure if this can make an impact as the Big “G” sees this and then changes ranking rules. I know the only seo trick they have not hit (yet) is value based information and websites that offer their readers and clients true value.
Even the “white hat” options on trying to game the system are failing at mega rates. Stop trying to circumvent the real business plan of building a solid foundation and the followers, friends, tweets and such will follow.
Thanks buddy for an great article. Hope the back is back!
Frank
Fleire Castro of Third Team Media
Hi Frank. I agree with you — “Even the “white hat” options on trying to game the system are failing at mega rates. Stop trying to circumvent the real business plan of building a solid foundation”. That is what one should aim for. Thanks for dropping by!
Ppip
I like the way you think. Eventually, the “numbers game” people are going to drown out the ones that stick to organic and authentic means of getting followers and leads. I guess it just a matter of balancing them out. We don’t want it to end up like the how SEO is driving hits now, not great content.