Comments on: Play on Natural Turf

By: Rosella Maestri

Rosella Maestri — Thu, 22 Apr 2010 00:32:09 +0000

Yo I have been reading your blog for the past week and it is good info, how many members do you receive?

By: Emily Horner

Emily Horner — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 03:10:23 +0000

I think the increasing amount of astroturf is going to become what separates Word of Mouth from Word of Some Guy. I’m not going to trust Amazon reviews or testimonials from strangers. If I can’t tell whether you’re a real person, I’m going to depend on the people I know to be real people. They don’t have to be people I know in real life; every community on the internet generates its own experts and mavens, and they’re the ones we go to for information.

You can’t fake genuine expertise. But am I too pessimistic in thinking that the new wave of fauxtimonials is going to be corporations trying to buy off the experts?

By: News that Found Me (Thanks Twitter) | CRM Magazine Blog

News that Found Me (Thanks Twitter) | CRM Magazine Blog — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 18:49:13 +0000

[...] heard of astroturfing? It ain’t pretty. Our good friend Marshall Lager blogs about the nasty practice of using false testimonials to give the impression of customer satis…. A cosmetic surgery company, Lifestyle Lift was recently slapped with fraud charges for its [...]

By: Anand Chopra

Anand Chopra — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 16:02:56 +0000

Marshall – well written and kudos to you for taking a stand, will do my best to spread the word. I know we’d all be interested in hearing about how/if the company follows up with you.

Dennis brings up a great point – what happens if companies like these become adept at social media applications? There’s already widespread misuse of Twitter that doesn’t seem to have a solution (people posing as others). At what point does the public reach a point of frustration and distrust with social media apps if there are no controls put in place?? I’m struggling with this because while I believe free speech should not be controlled, when does the lack of control turn a useful medium into one you cannot trust?

Anand Chopra

By: DenisPombriant

DenisPombriant — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:16:50 +0000

Marshall — Great insights as always. This is an example of how CRM can be used for evil purposes. I shudder to think about what will be possible when characters like this learn how to use social medial really well. Party on.

By: Marshall Lager

Marshall Lager — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 12:39:46 +0000

Exactly. The power of social media is still in the hands of the public, where it belongs. When businesses enter the social sphere, they gain the benefit of direct access to their customer base, but accept the responsibility of playing by the new rules: honesty and accountability. Thanks for helping me clarify that.

By: Esteban Kolsky

Esteban Kolsky — Thu, 30 Jul 2009 01:20:26 +0000

You bring a very interesting issue (hopefully that was the part you wanted to bring up) in my opinion.

This is not about fraud, which will unfortunately continue to exist, or lying. This is about reverting the power to the people. How many times you heard the saying “you can’t fight city hall”? Or people who give up instead of claiming their rights because they don’t think they can win.

In my view, this monumental paradigm shift we are undergoing as a society is about having people control the relationship, reversing the thousands or years that has been otherwise. As organizations got bigger and bigger, they tend to exercise their bully muscle more and more. This new model of Glasnost, of giving the communes and communities a voice is bound to change that in a short time.

I think that the “revolution” in Iran was the tip of the iceberg and if we take to your call-to-action at the end (“tell everyone you know”) we can begin to control the situation more, and demand change from the organizations.

As I said, was that your point?