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The Internet is now a utility in many of our lives. We go home from work and browse the web just as easily as we would turn on a light-switch or pick up a phone to call the ones we love. It’s an immediate action for Generation Why. More and more of the media we consume is piped through that computer screen we gape at. Reality is experienced in 1024 x 768 px. In doing so, we increasingly trust the media that technology feeds us. It’s that trust that ’sneaky sellers’ on social networks could abuse.

Can you imagine, for a second, the sales power that a trusted, well-connected individual in a social network could wield? Yes, for this to be a reality, certain factors must be in place. One, the seller must hold a honoured role in a social network distinguished by years of service or earned by doing good deeds. Two, unscrupluous marketeers are on-board to pimp their products and services. Three, in almost the same way as a pyramid scheme, the ’seller’ must be linked to individuals innocent of the plan, who unwittingly take up the marketing torch and spread it to their friends. This is not traditional word-of-mouth selling, this is ‘cash-in-pocket I’m going to take advantage of my friend lists’ selling. Abusing trust, plain and simple.

So, you are thinking, ‘isn’t this a societal problem from the real world just transposed into the world of social networking?’ Yes and no. As with many things in life, there are degrees of grey. Yes, pushing products to your contacts without disclaiming financial interests is a human decision. Sneaky backroom deals have nothing to do with technology. Technology is an enabler. It helps us achieve goals that exceed the best that manual labour can muster. It offers automation and instantaneous speed of communication. Where black-hat selling through social networks differs from real-life, is the mass media distribution of the selling message. In world where hundreds of contacts tune into our online collateral, we have the eyes and ears of these consumers. They trust us enough to read our messages, look up our del.ico.us bookmarks or throw sheep at us on Facebook.

Look back for a second to the Nokia N770 buying frenzy that engulfed the Irish microblogging sphere months ago. I’m not suggesting for a second that this trend was kicked off by a ’sneaky seller’ but it demonstrates the viral nature of recommending products in an online comms system between dispersed contacts. Yes, some of these people know each other in passing, but it’s online relationship they have for the most part. Twitter was the online tool of choice in this example. People passed on the news about the N770’s price drop and commentated on the inventory online. Implicit in this discourse was the trust between these contacts.

Economics plays a big part in our online lives. Our connected world is becoming more and more monetised - look at image hosting, web hosting or lightweight online apps. Many of the ‘free’ services we avail of online are actually complimentary. We use them at a price - our attention to the flashing ad or paid-for link in the corner of eye. This is not necessarily a bad thing. We’re aware that we are paying for these services by viewing ads. That’s very different to being gently massaged into buying products or services by a preying ’sneaky seller’.

Conferences, think-ins and private consultancies are all very valid venues for marketeers to showcase their products to enthusiasts and the leading lights of the media. Marketeers are driven by the unending mission to sell. Out of these attendees, how many are getting paid to write and promo products without disclaiming? How many are preying on their friend lists for folks to indoctrinate?

I’m a big proponent of using technology to engage with thoughtful mouthpieces from far and wide, but we need to be increasingly guarded in who we listen and believe in. I suggest that you stop for a second and question that amongst the noisy chatter of your contacts who’s trying to influence your buying habits? Who’s trying to sell you something you don’t already want and why?

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 28th, 2007 at 5:25 pm and is filed under Culture, Irish, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.