Blog Marketing Techniques & Social Media Experiments
by pinkagendist
I’ve been trying to do more consistent research on the phenomena because the more time that passes, the easier it becomes to spot the marketing patterns and techniques behind the blogs. I’ve been able to identify various categories.
Freshly Pressed Stalkers: They leave comments on almost all FP posts and sometimes even links to their own blogs. I can’t see that working successfully unless the message is related to the posts in question and that’s rarely the case. It comes off as a bit desperate and at least to my sensibilities, off-putting.
Reciprobloggers: Terribly common! These follow everyone indiscriminately. When I got followed by The Lord is My Saviour and Conservatives for Jesus- I understood they couldn’t have possibly read anything I had written. This method works if one wants a fake audience. You can be like Kim Jong Il in North Korea and have huge crowds telling you you’re wonderful even though they’ve only skimmed through what you wrote and made three notes so they leave a succinct and generic reply. Some people do this very openly.
FauxReciprobloggers: Similar to the above but more crass. They follow you and almost immediately unfollow you. The problem is they don’t keep records so if you have the same person following you three times in the same week, you can guess what’s happening. They sometimes leave a comment as soon as they follow you, but that’ll be the last time you hear from them until they’re following you once more.
Happy Go Likeys: Everyone gets these. They type a category into their reader and go crazy. Like, click, like, click, like click. Like, click, like, click. This does work, but not for long. After a few weeks of blogging we start recognizing them and notice they’ve never commented on anything and sometimes they like 2000 word posts a millisecond after you’ve hit publish. There may or may not (but probably will) be a little boy with glasses in the likes below. There’s also a persistent pink dolphin, but there are many more!
ConChallengers: These blogs have more offers than William Hill. This con-job is of a very traditional variety. They lure you in with the promise of exposure and they win two-fold. You’re writing for them and promoting them to your own followers. It’s a variation of a pyramid scheme. They can keep this going forever. Write about this, send me pictures of that. Would you like to see your post in this space? The winner will be profiled on this blog. It’s a bit like writing for free for the HuffPo, entirely unsatisfying and the exposure is nowhere near what they promised. Don’t fall for it.
This is my basic list so far, but there’s more to come. I tried an experiment quite recently. I started a Facebook account for an inanimate object. My house. My house has never replied to a single message, nor made a single friend request. It also doesn’t speak. It does however accept friend-requests. In just a little while, my house has over 350 ‘friends’, none of which I know, have ever been here or will most probably ever come here; Which just goes to show that followers for follower’s sake is a tremendous waste of time!
My house doesn’t have any friends, including me. It long ago ruined our friendship by making outrageous financial demands on me.
My house has many more friends than me. Which is slightly insulting but entirely understandable.
It does seem like a very nice house even if it’s a bit snobby for not talking to it’s many admirers. I much prefer to chat with you than your house.
I take every compliment I can get
I know bloggers in every one of these categories…
There’s no escaping them!
I especially love the “likers” You get a like before your damn post is even finished loading..lol:-)
You are spot on! It’s not often I see a Freshly pressed post I like enough to comment, but I also hate commenting for fear of being typecast as one. Certain names are there immediately all the time. But some good friends have been Fp’d lately so my comments are there from when they posted so that is ok.
I’d noticed I got some faith bloggers following me too recently, I am positive they will be met with nothing but disapproval inf they actually read my blog.
I did a Facebook profile for my cat being silly one day, but a house wins hands down, and it has 320 more followers than my cat, who does come out with the occasional humerous quip.
Your cat and my house should become Facebook friends
Maybe they’ll hit it off and have little Facebook pages together.
We need to see if they have anything in common, what are your houses likes?
My cat likes bird watching, fine dining and rom-coms
My house has nothing against bird watching. It does have two spaces allocated for fine dining, but I’m not sure about rom-coms
Hmmm, that could be the deal breaker for her.
this is fantastic. it’s about time you wrote a piece on this. you are after all a blogging prodigy. i would also add ‘like blasters’ — i know one blogger who ‘likes’ everywhere and never reads a goddermned thing. i don’t get the point… xoox, sm
Happy Go Likeys
genius!
The little boy with glasses…! Yes! Who then writes on his blog about marketing techniques and honesty – see, I read it! I actually wrote a post called ‘My House’..here’s the link…nope, Won’t do that!! hate those ones too ..a comment just being a link, after absolutely loving, adoring, fainting over my blog in ectasy…as we pirates say, dead fish go with the flow..time to flap about a bit!
How does a pirate get on the internet?
I’ll bend the rules if there is a chance of looting and pillaging somewhere…
But I do like your house!
It’s not bad. Not sure about taking it out to a show, though.
It is a very posh house. It could be like people wanting to be pictured with celebrities. If it gets into the press, people will think that the celebrity is a friend of theirs. Even if they just stood in the same bank queue by chance.
I saw Princess Diana in traffic once, so I guess that makes me her confidante
Well, I comment here in part to make links so I get more search hits. So ban me. I was in a bank queue with that Alex Salmond once. I have not “Liked”, as you have mentioned that before.
Yesterday I acquired a follower, went to his blog, and found preaching about the Power of the Devil and how almost everyone is going to Hell. Poor bugger. “Adopting James”- bit creepy that he has the child’s name before he has been approved for adoption.
I would friend your house, cos having more fbfnds is a sign of social success and attractiveness.
Adopting James was one of my first followers, and I didn’t understand why.
You’ve got your share of attractiveness. Those studio pictures you posted the other day were fantastic. Very 30′s. Don’t be greedy, woman!
Why not? Oh, go and say that there, “Oh Clare you look gorgeous” comments were what I was angling for.
‘Adopting James’ is one of my followers too, never seen a like or a comment and after a quick look I have never been back to that blog either.
Hate the ‘Happy Go Likeys’ grrrr… and ‘Fresh Pressed Stalkers’ are the reason I don’t even look there any more. The shameless self promotion infuriates me.
When I was new to WordPress I got excited when I got my first followers. When I looked at who they were though, I thought “Why the heck are they following ME?” I was so naive then (less than a year ago).
Your house has more “friends” than I have Twitter followers.
Maybe he wants to adopt you too?!?
How nice! But I’m a little old for that, and I have parents already.
Heavens! Just to let you know how backward I am in all things WEB — I Googled Sotogrande Villa and came up with a Pepto-Bismal pink thing that was definitely not your house… And then I got wise and tried FB and I got a treat — pics of your place. So lovely. You and your beloved have got style.
It’s me!!!!!!!!!! Just me!!!!!!!!!! MY STYLE!!!!!!!!!!!!
I’m kidding… I only did the interiors. The ‘skyline’ and all was Mike. I’m going to look for his sketches tomorrow and the very first one we agreed on!
I goggled Sotogrande EXCLUSIVE villas. I got what I was looking for. Maybe you keyed in the pink word somewhere?
I think I keyed in atrociously pink – or maybe the mighty macbook did it for me
LOL! You have a Hal too then?
Are you calling me atrociously pink?
You are gloriously pink! But, wherever I stumbled on Google (not your beautiful home) made me avert my eyes.
I am now so tempted to send your house a friend request on Facebook. I’m afraid my own house would start to feel insecure though.
Cool post. I really did come across with at least one of each category so far. Keep it up (:
I am a reciprocal liker, but only if I like your site and what you’re saying. Those who never comment on my posts are generally dropped after a month or two. I figure I give them a chance that way.
” little boy with glasses ”
Do you mean me? Because I’m always a liker after reading all those I follow. You are the only global political blogger I follow because I generally agree with you.
LOL. You, little boy? That’s seriously wishful thinking!!! You look my age- on a good day
It’s the actual little boy sat at a school desk. He’s from Romania.
That was a typo, I meant IT’S the actual little boy, not I’m
Have a look at this: http://en.gravatar.com/mihaicristiandaniel
He’s very probably amongst your likes
He’s one of mine. I ignore everyone who doesn’t comment, though.
” little boy with glasses ”
Do you mean me? Because I’m always a liker after reading all those I follow. You are the only global political blogger I follow because I generally agree with you. While your other topics are well written and expressed well. I just don’t comment often, and until I got bored a fortnight ago, rarely posted due to lack of events, DIDO shift work and time with wife and kids..
But if you don’t mean me:
The follow – unfollow routine annoys me, I tend to follow those that are permanent followers of me, then a few here and there where I have seen numerous comments from them so I check their blog, read a few posts and decide if I can put up with their posts or not.
The conchallenge is a fine line for me. The actual decent challe like nanowrimo or write a story about this picture and send us a link to your blog has many bloggers posting regular. Not that I participate, I prefer reading blogs.
The others don’t seem to apply to me. My likers are regulars (same 20-30 people) while a few randoms drop by.
I keep up to date via email notifications and WordPress notifications via phone. So its been over a year since I’ve navigated FP. It’s a pain to navigate via phone. Actually so is commenting. Look at all those mistakes…*sigh*
Ps, how old do I have to be to not fall under little boy with glasses?
Well… He doesn’t like me, maybe its the Aussie humor… Or all my posts are rated pg.
And sorry about the double post.
He’ll get there… just be patient. He trawls certain categories like ‘writing’ or ‘literature’ or ‘blogging’.
Sorry
, you don’t qualify as a little boy any more. Maybe 10 years ago, but that ship has sailed, my friend.
I prefer the reading too and only comment if I think it’s productive. Sometimes there’s no need for commentary at all.
Agreed, there is only so many “great post’ “I totally agree” or “:)” you can do before they get annoying….
I’m so naive I didn’t realize some of this was going on until you pointed it out. I think I can name a ConChallenger…..
LOL- I think you can!
Off topic, but I have a question: do you think that the PUA techniques that men use to pickup women would work for gay men? There’s a gay man I know who is super awkward on dates. He needs game.
You know what I’m referring to? Like The Mystery Method.
That sort of thing works with the club crowd. How old is he?
23 years old. He’s young. That’s some of it. He just gets dorky around someone he’s attracted to and says and does awkward things.
23!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That’s the golden age. PUA will absolutely work in that age group. I never studied the method but I did look through it. I realized I already kind of did all those things naturally, without thinking about it all.
In the gay world it goes: body, sex appeal, confidence, face (In that order). Everything else only matters much later
I have another gay friend who is in his 60s, but he looks good for his age, keeps himself in shape. He hasn’t had a partner in years. He says it’s because his hobby of doll collecting turns off men. Is this something gay men don’t like? We live in a small Texas town that is religious and of course, isn’t gay friendly so it’s hard for him to find someone. I would like to help him. He’s classy. Uses a stylist to dress, is well read, has a wicked sense of humor, is very caring. I think someone would like him.
Maybe I should email you? I don’t want to fill your blog with off topic stuff.
Off topic is fine here! Give me more details… Ageing for gay men is VERY tough. As a group most of us are ageist. When I told my friends I was going to go out with Mike, most disapproved.
He is a hair stylist, used to do celebrity hair, and he’s good. He doesn’t look his age. He isn’t internet savvy, and kind of nervous about gay match sites. He thinks they are going to put some spyware on his computer. LOL
I think he should put up a profile on one of them. We live a couple hours away from a major city, that he used to live in. He knows the city.
There isn’t anywhere he can go here to meet anybody. We have two hick bars and church on every block. People put crosses in their yards with the words, ‘He is Risen.’
He sounds mainstream rather than gays that live in a gay bubble. I think he should go for the mainstream sites like match.com
Does he know what he actually wants? I have a friend, not much older than me who decided that the ideal relationship for him would be to have a houseboy. If the time ever comes and I’m older and alone, I think I’d probably go down the same path.
How in the world does an intelligent person like you manage in a place where people have crosses in their yards?
That’s a great question: does he know what he wants? I think we should sit down and talk about it. He is more mainstream.
Let’s just say I didn’t choose to live here, and it was an adjustment. I’m used to living in larger cities that are more liberal, not religious. I lived in San Francisco for years. That’s my kind of city.
Your house has more facebook friends than I do.