Skeptical About Fake Social Marketing

Fake Social Marketing = the kind of contrived, half-hearted attention you try to garner by having a Fanpage or Twitter follower... but it serves no purpose other then as a huge mega-phone.

You are just saying nothing to people who don't care.

Real Social Marketing = when you have people that *actually* care... and that you have an interactive conversation with those people, and actually listen and react to what is said.

I am skeptical of the value of "Fake Social Marketing".  I think it has 'some' value, actually... at least you are making some effort, even if it is not social.  Fake Social Marketing is more like a "Blog" than an actual social site.  I think most companies take this approach because "Real Social" is harder and more risky.  These kinds of companies might use tools (such as those available by my own company: http://karmaback.com ) to rapidly grow fans & followers, then spam them with messages but ignore any responses.  That was NEVER the intent of how to use Karmaback..... I am a much stronger believer in "real social".

Real Social Marketing is when companies use Karmaback to REWARD their existing fans/followers with a sweepstakes or discount/coupon... and a side-effect of the Reward is that you get a few more fans/followers... (it's not necessarily the primary goal).  Meanwhile, Karmaback's PostOnTime tool is used to help coordinate when messages get said/planned messages... but someone STILL should be interacting with the comments/responses after the post has been made.  Incidentally, the posts themselves should be useful/helpful/informative/or conversation starting... A great example would be asking your Fans/Followers if you should have a certain feature or not.

So, consider this when you are planning your Social Marketing campaign... Focus on the "real social".  Don't just blindly post... read and respond.  And don't bribe, but reward.