Wake Up Marketers! Spamming is not Blogging!

| October 23, 2009 | 15 Comments

spamming_should_stop

So is there really a difference between blogging and spamming? Those of you who are familiar with the ‘internet’ jargons might understand each term separately and might also be able to differ between the two. Yes, I deliberately used the word ‘might’ because a lot of people still can’t figure out if they are really different from each other.

I had been thinking to write about this since a few months, but was just stuck up with a messed up routine. I’m gaining back my momentum and hence you will see more of me writing posts on PakMediaBlog  rather than just editing them. Coming back to today’s topic of blogging and spamming, we’ll try to split them apart and discuss what has been happening.

Spamming is referred to as the unwanted messages that advertisers send in order to get the audience’s attention, and we get hit by them on a daily basis through spam SMS and emails. If you google up on the definition of spam / spamming, Wikipedia comes up with the following definitions:

1. A collection of unsolicited bulk electronic messages; Any undesired electronic content automatically-generated for commercial purposes

2. Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages

I hope by now we understand clearly what spamming means. Now moving on to the definition of Blogging. As far as my knowledge is concerned, blogging started off as a digital log (diary) in the late 90s and people used blogs as to write their own opinions about whatever they feel like. Over time blogs began to gain popularity and is now a people controlled media of various opinions and voices. Now lets see what definition does google shows up for blogging:

1. Blog is short for weblog. A weblog is a journal (or newsletter) that is frequently updated and intended for general public consumption. Blogs generally represent the personality of the author or the Web site. (www.bytowninternet.com/glossary)

2. Short for Web log, a blog is a Web page that serves as a publicly accessible personal journal for an individual. Typically updated daily, blogs often reflect the personality of the author.

Are we able to spot the difference between what a blog is and what spamming is all about? Can anyone, in anyway possible go wrong in understanding their meanings? If I ask you now that, is there a difference between spamming or blogging, what would your answer be? You’ll probably curse me and tell me, ‘what kind of a question is this?’

There was a specific reason I chose to write about this topic today, and that was the confusion that I had been noticing in the marketers of Pakistan with regard to these jargons. If you are not one of those who is confused about these terms, then I request you to not get offended by my statement. I am not stereo-typing against you, but its just the fact that the few brands who have started to use the online social media and blogging as a tool to market their ad campaigns is resulting in spamming. Spamming in the form that they want to post their ad campaign updates on every Pakistani blog as an ‘authentic post’ and if they can’t succeed in doing so, they would rather start someone to comment below the posts of every Pakistani blog possible about a package that they have or the offer they want you to try out. Is this what you call blogging?

If you haven’t seen it happening, check out the image below about the Wateen campaign that got termed as the Wateen ‘Spampaign’ that got ripped apart by the blogging community. If you wish to read more about the Wateen Spampaign, please click here:

wateen-spam

Can you imagine a reputable company doing this? A total rip of that was worth it, and I loved the blogging community for doing this. If you think this was stupid, check out the following international stories about fake social media tactics that got caught:

  1. Sony gets ripped for a bogus PSP blog
  2. Coke Lies, Misleads With Fake ‘Zero’ Blog

Funny right? Its not only the Pakistani marketers, but it has been happening world wide. Recent examples of Pakistani marketers trying to spam and flood the Pakistani blogging scenario include all the Telecoms. And what they are doing is plain stupid, I am sorry to say this, but that is a fact. Blogging is about opinions, and not ‘package’ posting? But the bloggers are being sent press releases of ’4 paisa’ offer to ‘Saari Raat’ offer, and majority of the bloggers who dont have any content and are new to the blogging scenario, just paste the packages as it is on their blogs as content!! Now tell me is that blogging or spamming? If you see the same “Saari Raat Baat” offer on 20 Pakistani Blogs, with the same words and the same content, won’t it piss you off? Please wake up ‘so-called’ marketers and try to go a step ahead rather than just sitting on large salaries and saving your jobs, do something out of the box for God’s sake!

I loved what Shel Israel wrote on his blog ‘Global Neighborhoods’ :

Fake Blog Alert: McDonalds, shame, shame

When we see fake corporate blogs we’ll point them out to you. Why are these bad? A good blog demonstrates passion and authority. Fake blogs have neither. In fact, they demonstrate that no one is passionate enough about the product inside the company so they had to hire an ad agency to do a fake blog to try to get bloggers to link up. Oh, and we won’t even cover the lack of authority in such an effort.

It seriously is a depiction of a non-serious attitude by the company, which is not professional and shows how certain brands are being made. There should be cyber laws controlling spamming as in other countries, because we all know this is not going to stop. I don’t know about you guys, but this is just plain annoying when such grown up people, make ‘childish’ attempts to lure the audiences towards them…

Tags: annoying, authentic, blog, blogging, blogs, broadcast media, childish, coke, content, cyber, cyber laws, daily basis, definition, difference, digital delivery systems, electronic content, electronic messages, fake blog, God, google, internet jargons, Israel, Marketing, messaging systems, Mobilink, offer, package posting, pak media, pakistan, pakistani, pakmediablog, posts, public consumption, social media, sony, spam, spamming, spampaign, stupid, Telenor, today, topic, Ufone, unwanted messages, warid, Wateen, web, Wikipedia, Zong

Category: Brands, Companies, Marketing, Media

About the Author (Author Profile)

Founder of PakMediaBlog and Enterakt.com and an Internet Entrepreneur. Twitter ID: saroshwaiz , Personal Blog: www.saroshwaiz.com

  • http://www.hibamoeen.blogspot.com Hiba Moeen

    Puisque la personne qui parle le français est absent, je suis une prise de position aujourd’hui. . . Maintenant, j’ai appris à connaître ce que le spamming est et être nouveau pour les blogs je comprends comment il peut être mal utilisé. . .
    Il est temps que les gens devraient laisser ces bizarroïdes savons que nos blogs ne sont pas de la merde et nous ne sommes pas sous forme de main-d’oeuvre bon marché, ne devrait donc pas être exploitée dans tout way.There ya une limite à quelques choses qui ne devraient pas être franchie. . .

  • http://babarkj.blogspot.com Babar Javed

    look man, the blogs an opinion backed up by no ulterior motives except maybe to be heard and agreed with.
    Spammers are always backed by some commercial body trying to influence buying behavior or interest in an emerging trend. The PSP example is esp famous.
    But Obama hired Bloggers in his campaign to respond on forums that went against him so what would you call that?

  • http://babarkj.blogspot.com Babar Javed

    you guys might want to check out the comments on BoltaConsumer.com

    and judge whether its by actual customers or competitors

  • http://www.saroshwaiz.com Sarosh Waiz

    lol .. Hiba .. stop the french .. adds up to spamming :P ..

  • http://www.saroshwaiz.com Sarosh Waiz

    I know Obama’s campaign was set up. Definitely. But the point that I want to raise here is that … would you like spammers creating nuisance? Okay suppose for a second you’re okay with spamming ..

    But how would you compare a small shop or website trying to spam its communication message since it does not have other resources to advertise… with the big telecom companies trying to do the same? Isn’t it just plain irritating if you get 4 paisa and 8 paisa messages even at a place where you go to read content and opinions ..

  • http://www.saroshwaiz.com Sarosh Waiz

    exactly.. boltaconsumer is famous .. I know how it is being used.. so don’t make me open my mouth =P .. haha

  • http://www.hibamoeen.blogspot.com Hiba Moeen

    ooops ok . . . I was just feeling angry in French :)

    Well according to your arguments blogging seems scary in way if one is not being able to completely own his or her blog because of this situation . . . I was once enthusiastic about my own blog that no one comes to :) now this is one discouragement . . .

  • Faisal Kahn

    a very angry post han!!! but relevant one though.

    Blogging is being mistaken by our marketing community mainly, there is a little bit I’ve tried to discuss in my previous post.http://pakmediablog.net/media/understanding-the-new-influencers/

    But yeah this post has covered alot.

    I am not against commercial blogging but yeah the way it is done which we call is flogging= fake blogging, is really annoying.
    The main idea is to diffuse the information of being amongst the people and do it in a way that doesnt harm them.

    The blogs or the forums that are formulated by the marketers abroad, which are going good too, is because they communicate the way the community is but not the way our marketing msgs are carried out.
    We cant just come out of the blue and post an article for our upcoming campaign(which we did in the past and failed) and consider that blogging but there should be a consistent presence of the brand otherwise apart from the commercial blogging, the people online need something worth discussing and spreading and if the brand doesnt give them that, they’re unstoppable to rip the brand’s idea off.

    I believe the spamming part is just saving their budgets off but i think that if the brand’s don’t hire but yeah can contact the influential ones and ask them to test their products and write about it can be a good way of diffusing the message. The real influencer of this ecosystem does know how to tackle the people out there but not the brand managers or the interactive media managers sitting in their offices by making a detailed ppt.

    The whole Wateen campaign could be carried out in a better way if they’ve identified the bloggers in the country and ve asked them to try the service and write whatever they feel like. This might’ve given them better exposure.

    HAPPY Commenting!!!

  • http://zainad.blogspot.com Zaira Rahman

    Good information. And great that you openly spoke about this. Such spams are actually really irritating and advertisers who do practice such things should understand that this is such a nuisance and nothing more.

  • http://www.saroshwaiz.com Sarosh Waiz

    @ Faisal: Thanks for such a long comment. I had been a little busy lately because of which couldn’t get back on this. Exactly my point .. its fair to use blogging as a communication tool .. but the way it is done .. is wrong.. its a totally different communication medium .. with totally different requirements and etiquette s ..

    @ Zaira: Thank you Zaira.. exactly my point!!

    @ Reem: Thanks for your comments Reem, but I couldn’t get the point of this. PMB was started off by myself .. and Zaira .. and then we got the priviledge to have amazing people on board such as you mentioned here and more.. Just to clarify .. PMB does not make money at this point in time and hence we dont have a pay plan in place at the moment. The idea was to connect the industry .. more like Marketing 360.

    And by the way.. I just checked the Codeweek website and its started off a couple of months ago as per my insights tool .. if they have grown capable enough to pay that soon .. either their business model is different or they are working on a totally different vision with investment at hand.

    And the writers in PakMediaBlog don’t get paid to write for brands. Its more of a discussion forum to discuss marketing, media and advertising strategies. Brands can hate us as well for writing bad about them .. :P .. Hope that clarifies the confusion :) ..

    Regards,

    SW

  • http://babarkj.blogspot.com Babar Javed

    @ Sarosh: You sound like a Corporate Communications Specialist
    @Zohaib: I dont think I have clearance to say this, but I dont think PMB intentionally places Scientology ads on its site, even if it does, no one takes it seriously given TC’s messed up interview 2 years ago. (The one parodied in SuperHero Movie)

    And no, we dont get paid. As you can see, writing an opinion which can often lead to negative publicity for a big company like WorldCall, Tracker, ClearMen, Dawn Sunday Ads and MaxCom wouldnt help us befriend the big players so you can see all the work is in the best interests of connecting the industry as stated by Sarosh.
    The great thing about it is, theres no bias and we dont neglect any story that needs attention drawn to it.

  • http://www.kids-in-mind.com MooMal

    you rock sir!

  • Tyrone

    Hi,

    @Faisal your idea of brands contacting the bloggers and asking them to review or try their product will give nightmares to our marketers who want all the gain without the pain.

    Is it the fault of our culture or business schools that we get such risk averse marketers who play it safe?

    Let me use an example a while back for a client an auto dealer we (the agency) suggested that he offer test drives or even forget that just have his cars drive around the city to create buzz.

    I thought it would be a pretty good way to get visibility right? (You may not agree)The client’s reply was “You want me to put my product on the road in the hands of customers or just on the road? That’s my money your talking about I can’t risk it!”

    The same mentality if you tell brand managers to test drive their products with bloggers they will first off worry about negative reviews etc.

    They want to use the power of new media but without the risk, not realising they risk more through the trite methods Sarosh describes and others!

    Tyrone

  • http://zainad.blogspot.com Zaira Rahman

    Sarosh: I came back here after some time but seems like you are answering similar queries that we did when the blog started rolling… we don’t pay man! Good you are vocal about this!

    We write what we think is right. We don’t write for money!

  • http://webmhealth.com Sunny Giorgianni

    Aloha, I like your site! I will be back again.

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