Grand Experiment

I have long believed in something I have dubbed 'Accidental Marketing'. I'm not especially fond of the usual tactics such as using every possible site to leave links or ads masquerading as social messages - done in moderation it's fine, but too many are jumping on the 'social networking' bandwagon and effectively sending out what amounts to spam, pure and simple.

That has always been my attitude and finally I see others speaking out against the prevalent use of social sites for business promotion. In moderation and subtly done it's fine but blatant use for nothing more than pushing your business agenda is tasteless in my opinion, reeks of desperation and worse, violates Terms of Use if you read the fine print.

On one sales venue there was (and may be still is as I write) a discussion of the merits of using such methods. One seller (respected by many as an 'expert') who offers advice on effective selling put up a blog entry advocating the use of social networks and while many fell over themselves to kiss his feet (so to speak) others took him to task for encouraging spamming. Thank you! It's my understanding he amended his advice but too late for the many who read the original post and flooded sites with 'ads'. It was even mentioned in the ensuing discussion that one site has flagged the selling venue as a whole as a source of spam - effectively closing it to all sellers for use, legitimate or otherwise. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot.

I prefer a more subtle tactful method which, while not reaping immediate rewards, I believe works well in the long run. Time will tell as I start my Great Experiment........